UK sales on the first day of Amazon’s discounting extravaganza have increased slightly from last year, according to new data.
The online giant’s UK site took £581m yesterday, just 1.3% higher than the first day of Prime Day last year, according to data from Adobe Analytics.
The analytics firm forecasts that sales across the two-day event will hit £1.2bn, which is almost double (92%) normal spending levels.
However, the impact of Prime Day in the UK is much lower than in Amazon’s domestic market of the US, where sales jump 200%.
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Despite the small sales increase, this would make it the biggest Prime Day to date.
Adobe discovered a surge in shoppers opting for buy now pay later (BNPL), with 20% growth in the customers using the payment method. Some 13% of all orders placed yesterday were made through BNPL platforms, accounting for £89.5m of sales.
Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandy said: “With inflation and interest rates continuing to put pressure on consumer spending, big discounting events like Prime Day are increasingly seen as an opportunity to get extra value by consumers.
“We expect 2023 to be a record year for Prime Day spending and also to see increased use of Buy Now Pay Later to spread the cost of purchases over the longer term.”
Despite the forecast growth, data from GWS found that Amazon UK has lost more than a million daily mobile app users since the start of the year.
The business intelligence firm revealed this week that the number of Amazon’s daily shoppers has declined from 9.3 million in January to 8.3 million, as newer rivals such as Shein and Temu notch up rapid growth.
GlobalData flagged that Amazon needed to offer deeper discounts to maintain growth during Prime Day this year due to the “many retailers already advertising a plethora of discounts”.
Iceland is one retailer that has pounced on Prime Day and has launched its own Discount Dash event to take on Amazon.
The supermarket is offering discounts of 33% on average on 42 products that “families need the most” on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.
It is also offering up to 50% off selected household products, including a family pool, Bluetooth karaoke machine and a blender.
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