Amazon says more than 300 million items sold during ‘biggest’ Prime Day event

Amazon shoppers bought more than 300 million items during this year’s Prime Day sale, up from roughly 250 million in 2021, making it the biggest Prime Day event in Amazon’s history, the company announced Thursday.

The company, which didn’t disclose total sales from the two-day event, said Prime members worldwide purchased more than 100,000 items per minute during the discount bonanza. The top-selling categories in the U.S. were consumer electronics, home goods and Amazon-branded devices.

The event, which ran Tuesday and Wednesday, comes at a time when consumers’ wallets are being squeezed by soaring inflation. This year, shoppers appeared to reach for necessities over indulgences, with products such as Frito-Lay snack packs landing among the top purchased items, according to Numerator, which tracked Prime Day spending.

Roughly 58% of orders were placed for items under $20, Numerator data showed, based on a survey of Prime Day purchases from 21,306 households.

Still, the prospect of higher prices didn’t seem to dampen consumer enthusiasm around Prime Day and other discount events run by competing retailers such as Best Buy and Target. Total online retail sales in the U.S. during Amazon’s Prime Day event surpassed $11.9 billion. That’s 8.5% higher than overall e-commerce transactions generated during last year’s event, according to Adobe Analytics data.

Amazon also called out the use of Amazon Live, its livestreaming service. Prime Day livestreams had more than 100 million views, the company said, though it did not disclose how that compares with last year’s event. Thousands of users hosted livestreams during this year’s event, Amazon said.

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