Topline
The first day of Prime Day was the biggest day of sales in company history, Amazon announced on Thursday, helping to boost shares to their highest level in close to 10 months.
Key Facts
Throughout the two-day shopping event, customers purchased more than 375 million items and saved $2.5 billion with their prime deals during the event, according to Amazon’s press release.
Prime day, which debuted in 2015, featured sales on items from all of their departments with home, fashion and beauty among the top categories.
Independent Amazon sellers sold more than Amazon’s retail products, the company said.
There were more deals on small business products, such as Caraway, True Classic, and TUSHY, than any previous year, and according to Adobe Analytics, customers spent $6.4 billion on the first day of the event alone.
Other major retailers such as Best Buy, Kohl’s, Target and Walmart had sales on the same day to compete with Amazon’s prices.
Amazon shares rose more than 2% to about $134 by 2:30 p.m. ET, adding to gains that have pushed the stock to its highest level in more than 10 months; total sales this year are expected to go up by 6.1% to $12.7 billion, according to Reuters.
Key Background
Despite lingering fears of a potential recession, consumer spending has been largely resilient, with retail sales in May unexpectedly rising 0.3%. The June Consumer Price Index clocked in at 3%—above the Federal Reserve’s long-time target of 2% but much lower than 9% one year earlier. Nevertheless, wages have not risen to match. Real average hourly earnings increased 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis last month. Amazon’s increase in sales could indicate that consumers are willing to buy more now that inflation is easing.
Tangent
During the Prime day sale, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Amazon for refusing to bargain with its Staten Island warehouse workers after Amazon attempted to overturn the results of a unionization vote. Meanwhile in the U.K., 900 Amazon warehouse workers went on strike on Prime Day to protest low wages.
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