To download the Prime Day 2024 CPG Deep Dive Report, fill out the form below.
By Jordan Sagisi, Mars UnitedSM Commerce
As many ecommerce industry watchers expected, Prime Day 2024 was Amazon’s most successful ever, as acknowledged by the ecommerce giant soon after the annual two-day mega-sales event ended last week. According to Adobe Analytics (Amazon doesn’t disclose sales figures), total ecommerce spending across Prime Day reached a record $14.2 billion, an 11% increase year over year.
Amazon’s official recap highlighted how shoppers took advantage of deals on its own tech devices, engaged with Rufus, its new AI-powered shopping assistant, and visited the Amazon Inspire shoppable content feed.
But what caught our eyes leading up to and during Prime Day was the full force of Amazon’s media ecosystem driving shoppers to purchase products across its properties. Whether Amazon was guiding shoppers to Amazon.com, Amazon Fresh, or Whole Foods Market, we observed a noteworthy effort to drive immediate purchase via videos, social media ads, Fire TV (another owned platform) or other engagement channel.
These efforts speak to the increased competition Amazon now faces this time of year, with Target hosting Circle Week, Walmart staging a massive July sale, and newcomers such as TikTok Shop running events, too. I, like many others, screenshotted prices before Prime Day and — at least in the personal care category — ended up making purchases from the retailer that had the most effective deals.
A Prime Day for CPG, too
Another noteworthy aspect of Prime Day 2024 was the rising prominence of lower-priced, everyday consumer packaged goods, as indicated by data from our Marilyn Ecommerce Insights Suite as well as other industry sources. Numerator data found that the vast majority (84%) of shopper baskets totaled $100 or less, and that the top items based on purchase volume were the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Premier Protein shakes, Liquid I.V. packets, Glad trash bags, and COSRX snail mucin serum.
What’s notable about this list is that four of the five items are in CPG categories, more evidence that Prime Day shoppers are seeking deals on everyday household items, too, and even holding off on making purchases on Amazon in the month prior so they can take advantage of the discount pricing to restock. In addition, even Amazon continued to push grocery items during the event with sales on corn, strawberries, and ice cream in their Fresh and Whole Foods channels.
According to Marilyn data, there were roughly 2.4 million sponsored products and 7.8 million items on promotion over the course of the event. Those figures reflect a 3.3% decline in sponsored items and a small 0.6% increase in products on promotion compared with 2023. The average discount, however, rose from 17% to 20%.
Beauty & Personal Care, Health & Household, and Grocery & Gourmet Food were among the 28% of Amazon categories that saw an increase in sponsored items this year. All three were also among the 43% of categories experiencing a rise in items on promotion.
In particular, Grocery & Gourmet Food witnessed heavy growth in activity, with sponsored items increasing 18.3% and items on promotion 8%, as discounts across top brands in the category jumped 52.5%.
Marilyn data finds that Glad trash bags, Amazon Basics toilet paper, and Amazon Basics paper towels were among the top items in the household supply category. In Snacks & Sweets, variety packs of Frito-Lay products dominated, while Califa oat milk and Nestle Coffee mate creamers led the way in dairy. Lastly, in personal care, brands winning in terms of sales share were household staples like CeraVe and Dove.
The Final Word
What does this mean? Is Prime Day becoming less of a big-ticket sales event? Is July the new marketing Super Bowl for household goods? To us Martians, it seemed like all the product categories in which we were personally interested had some type of sale. And like last year’s event, shoppers appeared to be seeking value on essential items versus those big-ticket purchases.
Amazon continues to heavily drive this annual ecommerce event, and as it matures, we’ve seen more competitors join the fray. If that’s the case, how long can Amazon continue to maintain its dominant share of ecommerce during the event, which eMarketer estimates has declined for three straight years and is now down to 59% (or about $8.4 billion of Adobe’s aforementioned estimate)?
Regardless, the evolution of Prime Day into an event involving all product categories, and the emergence of so many competing promotions on the calendar, have made mid-July an ideal time for shoppers to find money-saving deals and a great time for consumer brands to engage with them.
To download the Prime Day 2024 CPG Deep Dive Report, fill out the form below.
About the Author
Senior Director of Amazon Commerce Jordan Sagisi helps brands create winning strategies and activations across the Amazon media ecosystem. He has more than 15 years of experience in the digital media industry, leading agency teams in delivering both brand-building and commerce-driving objectives for CPG clients.
