‘Still early in the event’: Amazon defends 41% Prime Day sales drop report

Amazon reeled in $7 billion in sales on its first day of Prime Day, reportedly down 41% compared to last year’s sales, Momentum Commerce (MC) announced.

Amazon’s Prime Day extended the length of its sales offerings this year from the normal two-day event to a full four days, now running from July 8 to July 11.

Amazon challenges findings that Prime Day sales dropped

Adobe Analytics predicted Amazon consumers would spend $23.8 billion throughout the four-day event, $9.6 billion more than last year’s event, according to Forbes.

The tech giant continues to project a growth in sales during Prime Day, and Jessica Martin, an Amazon spokesperson, told Forbes that the MC data is “highly inaccurate” and does not have full access to Amazon’s data analytics.

MC is a multi-marketplace strategy and services company that provides data and research to several large companies in the U.S., including Amazon.

“We’re pleased with customers’ response to Prime Day so far, and it is still early in the four-day event,” Martin told Forbes.

Additionally, MC noted a “record high” in engagement on Amazon and mentioned it was “most likely explained by consumers adopting more of a ‘wait and see’ mentality.”

Amazon announced that new deals will appear as often as every five minutes during select periods, which may have prompted consumers to establish a revised approach ahead of this year’s sales.

“Shoppers strategically time their purchases across the extended event window to capitalize on new deals being released each day,” Andrew Waber, market research director at MC, told Forbes on Tuesday.

MC initially predicted a 14% growth projection for Prime Day sales in June, before the company announced the extended sale, and now only predicts 9.1% growth compared to last year.

Despite the report from MC, Adobe Analytics claimed that all online sales were up by more than 10% in comparison to the first day of Prime Day in 2024.

Thirty million products contribute to the MC data on Amazon sales, which revealed a 477% increase in sales compared to non-sales event days over the last month.

Prime Day effect on other retailers

Other online retail competitors like Walmart, Wayfair’s “Four Days of Sales,” and Target’s “Circle Week” have also provided sales similar to Prime Day that run concurrently with Amazon’s four-day event.

Similar to Amazon, Walmart has added two additional days to its promotional period, in line with Amazon’s revised schedule for this year.

MC noted in its data that other retailers have seen growth in their sales during Prime Day, which could be attributed to a “halo effect” from Amazon.

“We believe Prime Day is increasingly becoming a proverbial ‘rising tide that lifts all boats,’” Waber said.

Follow Jason Sutich on X. Send news tips here.