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Of all the ways to measure the success of Amazon’s Prime Day event—its yearly mid-July onslaught of limited-time, members-only deals and markdowns, which just concluded its 10th record-setting iteration—the most remarkable may be the copycats. What was once a blah stretch on the retail calendar is now a promotional shopping carnival. Just before Prime Day this year, archrival Walmart (which retaliated with its own annual mid-July promotion the same year Prime Day launched) offered early access to special summer sales to members of its Walmart+ program, halving its annual fee for the occasion. Target Circle Week offered exclusive bargains to members of its similar program. Newer rival Temu chimed in with extreme markdowns for a Temu Week promotion, and the TikTok Shop countered with Deals For You Days.
Basically, thanks to Prime Day and its ilk, there’s now an inescapable occasion for shopping this time of year, and that occasion is shopping itself. Instead of glomming onto a holiday like Fourth of July or a season like back to school, Prime Day marks only itself. There are no costumes, special meals, ritual events, observations of faith, or cultural bonding. No need to make a pie or hug a relative. You don’t even have to get out of bed. You just buy stuff off the Internet. It’s like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, without the parade.
And it’s hard to deny that this has worked because there are plenty of other measures of Prime Day’s success. The most basic is the raw revenue numbers. The first Prime Day, in July 2015, brought in an estimated $900 million. In 2019, the event was extended to 48 hours, and last year’s sales were pegged at $12.7 billion. While overall retail spending was flat last month, Prime Day set a new record, cracking $14.2 billion in sales, according to Adobe Analytics. And, of course, that doesn’t count sales figures from the rival promo events.
Other, less celebratory measures of Prime Day’s influence growth are the shopping event’s severe impact on packaging waste, carbon emissions, and other environmental factors—and according to a recent Senate committee report, a spike in Amazon warehouse worker injuries resulting from the Prime frenzy. Such negative impacts of overconsumption are no secret, but it’s noteworthy that such concerns don’t seem to have slowed Prime Day’s rise in the least.
Finally, in addition to turning every summer into a Hot Deal Summer, which now transcends Amazon itself, the evidence suggests Prime Day has succeeded in fulfilling its original mission. While the date was plucked out of thin air, the event always had a specific function, which was promoting Amazon Prime. This membership bundle, which includes free shipping, access to Amazon’s streaming service, and various other extras, had about 40 million members when Prime Day launched, explicitly encouraging new sign-ups to get in on the bargains. Though its price has risen from about $80 a year at launch to about $140 today, it now has an estimated 180 million members.
This has almost certainly helped fuel Amazon’s profits overall. According to a recent report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which analyzes Prime membership, the average Prime member spends about $1,200 a year on Amazon, while nonmembers spend about $600. No doubt, the sense of access to special bargains and free shipping helps that number, for example, by spurring more impulse buys and pulling shoppers into Amazon’s wider web of offerings (or “ecosystem of consumption,” as one report put it). Of course, the summer Prime Day event isn’t the only factor. Amazon has added additional Prime Days in October; and of course, competes aggressively for a share of sales on Cyber Monday, the now-established online shopping partner to Black Friday. But the July sale has become a kind of brand flagship for Prime, and for Amazon in general.
Grousing about the commercialization of everything is always a popular pastime in a capitalist society, and Prime Day is hardly the only example. We’ve long accepted that Christmas, in addition to its spiritual and social significance, is also a linchpin of the economy. Throughout the year, holidays and seasons that celebrate romance, cultural or sexual identity, patriotism, and family connection have become entwined with and amplified by commerce. But what’s really remarkable about Prime Day is that it doesn’t commercialize some other cultural touchstone. It is, in fact, just a commercial.
