Amazon Prime (Warehouse Clean-Out) Day

If we cut through all the chatter about promotions, deals, and discounts related to the spectacle that was Prime Day 2018, one question remains: which products did U.S. consumers actually buy during the ecommerce giant’s day and a half long summer sales event? 

While Amazon released no actual rankings of their own, they reported that this year’s event was their ‘biggest’ ever for Amazon devices, with the Echo and Fire TV devices selling in droves. They also trumpeted the success of products like the Instant Pot, 23andMe DNA Test Kit, and LifeStraw. 1010data’s best-seller list included below, sourced from the purchase activity of millions of online U.S. shoppers, sheds added light on which products generated the most sales on Prime Day 2018. 

From this list, a few themes that emerge:

Steep discounts count. The average discount across the top 20 best sellers averaged 43%. The steal of the day appears to have been Bose’s QuietComfort 25 Headphones (ranked 20^th among the top sellers), which was offered at a 58% discount.

Tech is king. Prime Day Deals were wide ranging, but tech products, as in years past, carried the day thanks to American consumers’ insatiable appetite for the latest and greatest. 

Amazon is downplaying its actual success. Amazon’s own products, benefiting from discounting and nearly non-stop free promotion across the Amazon platform, accounted for 11 of the top 20 best sellers. Amazon’s Prime Day strategy appears, in part, to be to use the event to clear out inventory and grab market share.

Alexa benefits from the spotlight (and no competition). Smart Home technology, in particular products associated with Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant, were in high demand. Amazon used the event to expand the footprint of its device universe and broaden the reach of Alexa into consumers’ homes while lengthening their lead over rival smart home platforms, namely from Apple and Google, which Amazon doesn’t sell. 13 out of the top 20 Prime Day best sellers are part of the Alexa ecosystem. What’s more, Alexa related devices (including Amazon’s devices as well as compatible devices from other manufacturers) accounted for 9% of Amazon’s sales on Prime Day. It seems as though the only thing the 7 in 1 Instant Pot is lacking is Alexa integration. Well there’s always next year.