Amazon may have stumbled on its sales day due to labour strikes and tech issues, but it provided a prime opportunity for other retailers to boost their own sales, especially for tech and sports.
Data from commerce marketer Criteo, online UK retailers saw a 13% lift in sales across top-performing product categories during Amazon Prime Day, demonstrating the ‘halo effect’ the sales have for the industry as a whole.
Computing/high tech products performed particularly well, with sales increasing by 22% during the period as shoppers were drawn by cleverly-timed discounts by retailers. This was accompanied by a 17% increase in browsing.
Football may not have come home but sporting fever certainly captured the nation, with sporting goods seeing a 17% jump in conversation rates.
John Gillan, Managing Director for the UK and Northern Europe, Criteo: “Now in its fourth year, Amazon Prime Day is continuing to produce a halo effect for the wider retail community here in the UK. According to Criteo’s aggregated data from this week, online sales from non-Amazon retailers saw a significant increase over the course of the 36-hour promotional period. Office goods and high tech products saw the biggest gains as sales soared by almost a quarter (22%).
“Other key industries also saw an upturn in sales coincide with Prime Day shopping. The health and beauty, home improvement and sporting goods sectors all experienced a 13% uplift on average. While US retailers see an even bigger impact, these figures are a clear demonstration of the positive influence that the annual-Amazon sale has on UK shopping behaviour.
“A technical glitch saw Amazon’s servers crash under the volume of shoppers and is likely to have caused some bargain hunters to look elsewhere for deals. But regardless of the cause, it’s clear that yet again this year non-Amazon retailers actually benefit from Amazon Prime Day. My advice to those retailers now is to continue to deliver an exceptional shopping experience across all channels.
“This experience must be personalised to each and every shopper, reflecting the individual’s unique path to purchase. I know from experience that many retailers struggle to deliver this bespoke approach but they have the opportunity to compete with the Amazons of the world through artificial intelligence and deep learning technology which can deliver genuine insight in to the shoppers’ journey.”
