Prime Day 2021 was another two-day event with consumers flocking to get some great discounts on a wide range of products. We saw the number of brands participating in Amazon promotions sky-rocket on June 21 or better known to some as Day One of the two day, not-to-be-missed summer sale. 

Using data from our proprietary technology platform, Commerce Intelligence, we were able to uncover what categories consumers were shopping in, when they were shopping, and take a look at the strategy of how brands and products were being marketed. 

There were 21,900 deals available on Day One.  

This is a whopping 42% increase from the number of sales that we saw across Amazon the day before. This shows the staying power of Prime Day and that consumers still wait to cash in on those big ticket items. 

Amazon still wins with Lightning Deals. 

Amazon typically offers a few different deal types: “deal of the day,” designed to highlight a few choice products, “best deal”, to showcase some of the best values available and “lightning deals,” to signal the speed in which the consumer must react to be able to snatch up this deal. Despite the overall percentage discount being similar across “best deals” and “lightning deals,” 36% and 37% respectively, lightning deals sold out much more than their counterpart, signaling that Amazon still wins the scarcity game. 

Home related categories were the categories to watch 

Not all categories are created equal. Some of the usual heavy hitter categories drove the volume of deals available: home, apparel, kitchen, toy and home improvement. The categories to watch are really the ones that are most related to staying at home. Whether this is a COVID related trend that’s here to stay or just a sign that Amazon has everything your home needs is anyone’s bet. The most interesting categories for us to watch were home, kitchen and home improvement who all had an average discount of about 26%.

3P sales are still a big push 

We saw about 24% of deals being sold by Amazon rather than a third party. This means that with 76% of deals, whether consumers knew it or not, they were actually buying from a seller that was not Amazon. 

Promotional Strategies 

Some products actually had even better deals leading up to Prime Day. For example, this Razer laptop was actually $50 cheaper on June 10 than what we saw on Prime Day. Another trend we saw was brands promoting their own products on a discounted competitor’s product page, even though they themselves weren’t discounting their products. 

Biggest Overall Discounts 

While category data proves that new categories are creating a lot of attention, with 4 of the 10 biggest deals in the TV category, it shows that consumers still look Prime Day for some of the biggest purchases for their home. The products where you could snag the biggest deal were:

1.     Sony 77-inch MASTER BRAVIA OLE 4K Ultra HD Smart TV – 33% discount for a total discount of $1,500 

2.     Sony 85-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV – 31% discount for a total discount of $800

3.     Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming Laptop 2020 Intel Core i7-10750H – 30% discount for a total discount of $700

4.     Little Tikes Real Wood Adventures Grizzly Grotto Exclusive Wooden Swing Set – 41% discount for a total discount of $699 

5.     Sony X950H 75-inch TV: 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV with HDR and Alexa Compatibility – 23% discount for a total discount of $602 

6.     Paxcess Rpobotic Pool Cleaner – 46% discount for a total of discount of $599

7.     LAUNCH X431 V+ PRO 4.0 2021 ELITE Ver. Bi-Directional Scan Tool,31+ Reset Service OE-Level All System Diagnostic Scanner, Key Program, ECU Online Coding, Guided Function, AutoAuth for FCA SGW, Free Update – 36% discount for a total discount of $540

8.     Sony A80J 77 Inch TV: BRAVIA XR OLED 4K Ultra HD Smart TV – 13% discount for a total discount of $502 

9.     Lorex 4K Ultra HD 4TB 16-Channel IP Indoor / Outdoor Security Camera System | Network Video Recorder (NVR) With 9 Active Deterrence 4K (8MP) Cameras – 31% discount for a total discount of $440

10.  LAUNCH X431 V PRO 4.0 2021 Elite Ver.Bi-Directional All Module Scan Tool for Technician,31+ Relearn Reset Service, Key Program,Coding, Active Test, Guided Function, AutoAuth, TPMS Tool Gift, Free Update – 37% discount for a total discount of $421 

Prime Day is still going strong and we are likely to continue to see more sales that could change the overall biggest discounts, but it’s clear that consumers showed up quickly to snag deals early and that they are continuing to focus on items for their home, despite an easing of Covid-related restrictions in the US.