Watch out Black Friday. Prime Day is gaining on you.
According to SimilarWeb, a digital market intelligence firm, Amazon’s Prime Day sales extravaganza on July 12 is expected to the fourth biggest online shopping day in the U.S retail calendar, in terms of website traffic.
(The other three are Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday and Black Friday, of course.)
Last year’s inaugural Prime Day was held in honor of the e-tailer’s 20th year in business. Despite criticism from consumers over lackluster “deals,” Amazon said it sold more units on that day than its biggest Black Friday to date.
This year’s second Prime Day, meanwhile, will feature twice as many small businesses selling their goods, Amazon said. According to the company, Prime members purchased more than 14 million items from sellers and small businesses during the 2015 Prime Day, and 30 percent of the Lightning Deals during this year’s event will be from third-party sellers.
Related: Amazon Primed For Prime Day Round 2
While that news may sound promising for Amazon small-business sellers, others are skeptical that it truly works out in their favor as they race to cut margins in order to participate. Noted Jenn Markey, marketing VP for pricing research company 360pi: “All signs suggest that Amazon’s Prime Day ambition is not to be the No. 1 retailer, but rather the No. 1 retail channel. Amazon marketplace seller deals dominated last year’s Prime Day event and nearly twice as many small-business sellers will be participating globally this year than in 2015. Amazon is strategically positioning marketplace sellers to bear the risks, costs and discounts associated with Prime Day, while taking the lion’s share of glory for themselves.”
Although Amazon is truly taking “Christmas in July” to new heights, retailers may be heartened to know last year’s event paid off for other chains as well. According to SimilarWeb, Macy’s experienced an 81 mobile traffic increase and 58 percent desktop traffic increase, while Walmart saw 64 percent and 62 percent traffic increases in mobile and desktop, respectively.
Source: SimilarWeb
SimilarWeb said Amazon secured 93.1 million combined mobile and desktop visits to its site from the U.S alone on Prime Day 2015, representing a one-day traffic jump of 63 percent on mobile and 45 percent on desktop. Other “leading retailers,” meanwhile, saw a high of 179 million combined mobile and desktop visits on Prime Day 2015. To compare, Black Friday saw 274 million visits, Cyber Monday 261 million, and Thanksgiving 243 million.
Source: SimilarWeb
Amazon is also pushing its Prime Now one-hour delivery service, hoping to secure new members with a promotion running July 6-12. Members who place their first-ever Prime Now order using the 10PRIMENOW promo code will receive $10 off that order, as well a code for an additional $10 to shop on Prime Now later in the month.
