Amazon’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime Day 2017 broke the e-commerce company’s single-day sales record for the second year in a row. Amazon said overall sales grew 60 percent from a year earlier. Amazon also reported that more than 50 percent more Prime members made a purchase on Prime Day this year than the previous year.
Amazon’s Prime Day is an exclusive sale for Prime members. Amazon created the sales holiday in 2015 to mark its 20th anniversary. Amazon’s Prime Day is a straightforward move by the company to both push more memberships and increase sales.
Prime Day began at 9 p.m. ET on Monday and wrapped up on Tuesday at 2:59 a.m. ET. The sale appeared to go more smoothly than in previous years. Amazon noted that many small businesses and entrepreneurs were able to sell more goods through the Prime Day sale. Prime Day expanded into China, India, and Mexico this year.
The company reported that more new members joined Prime on Prime Day 2017 than on any other day in Amazon history. A Prime membership costs $99 a year and provides perks such as free two-day shipping on many items as well as music and video streaming. Prime now includes an estimated 85 million US customers, up from 63 million last June.
The best-selling product on Prime Day 2017 was the Echo Dot smart speaker, home speakers powered by Amazon’s Alexa intelligent voice system. The original Echo was discounted 50 percent to $89.99, while the Dot dropped by $15, bringing it to $34.99. The Amazon Fire TV Edition of the Element 55-inch 4K Ultra HD smart LED TV was reported to be “the best-selling TV deal in Amazon history.”
Amazon also reported record sales of Fire tablets and Kindle devices. Outside of Amazon-owned devices, the most popular items sold in the U.S. were the Instant Pot pressure cooker, the TP-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug, the Sony Playstation 4, and 23andMe DNA tests.
Amazon has yet to disclose specific sales figures from Prime Day. Prime Day global sales are estimated at $2.5 billion to $2.9 billion, including sales from third-party vendors. Amazon typically gives additional data on Prime Day after the release of its quarterly results.
