Amazon Prime Day beats Black Friday globally, Beauty is major category for UK

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 14, 2017

This year’s Amazon Prime Day was the biggest global shopping event in Amazon history, with global sales increasing by 60% over the previous year and surpassing sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

According to the e-tail giant, more new members joined Prime on July 11 than on any single day before, as they sought to enjoy the thousands of deals reserved exclusively for Prime members.

Tens of millions of Prime members globally made a purchase on July 11 2017, more than 50% higher than the prior year.

In the UK, electronics and home gadgets were the most popular categories with the Amazon Echo becoming the bestselling item. The smart speaker is designed to control several smart devices, provide weather, traffic and other real time information, as well as playing music and setting alarms.

Beauty was also a top category, led by sales of make-up with 66,000 items sold on Prime Day, skincare with 62,000 products and haircare with 36,000. Customers also purchased 25,000 pieces of nail care.

Another highlight was fitness, as Prime members purchased 31,000 exercise and fitness products and over 13,000 sports shoes, reflecting the rising fitness wave and Britons’ love for activewear.

Shoppers also bought children’s toys, gaming consoles, headphones, kitchen items, plants and toothbrushes.

No specific details were released with regards to Amazon’s fashion offering – a category the retailer has been trying to boost in recent periods with significant investment in creating its own brands and opening a photo studio in London.

Interestingly, Amazon pushed its same-day delivery even further this year with the fastest Amazon Prime Now delivery on the day arriving just 14 minutes and 8 second after purchase.

“Prime Day... was our biggest day of the year so far and by 9pm customers had already ordered more items than Prime Day last year,” said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon.