40% Of Consumers Expected To Shop Amazon's Prime Day
With Amazon’s summertime Prime Day on the horizon, a new consumer survey from Numerator found that 40% of U.S. households are expected to shop what has become a benchmark in the seasonal promotional calendar.
The results were part of Numerator’s The Opportunity and Impact of Digital Sales Events, which analyzes six key online retail events in the United States from Amazon, Walmart, and Target. In 2023, July sales events overlapped for all three retailers and lifted omnichannel traffic by 11% overall, compared to the average week.
Amazon, which will hold its next Prime Day on July 16 and 17, benefited the most from its July Prime Day event, while Target and Walmart saw better traffic and sales with their October Circle Week and Holiday Kickoff events, respectively, Numerator said.
Key Findings Include:
- In July 2023, 40% of consumers shopped at least one online sales event, with nearly all of these consumers shopping on Prime Day 2023. These July event shoppers were 11% more likely than the average shopper to be Gen X or Millennial and 23% more likely to have children aged 0–5.
- Pre-event awareness drives event success – especially for Prime Day. 100% of Amazon Prime Day 2023 shoppers said they were aware that the event was happening, doubling Amazon’s average household penetration of 21% to 40.1% on Prime Day (a 91% lift). In comparison, 88% of Target Circle Week shoppers were aware of the event (+26% lift in penetration for Target.com), and 56% of Walmart+ Week shoppers were aware (+6% for Walmart.com).
- Consumers are split on their feelings regarding retail sales events throughout the year. 35% of respondents said there are too many events, 33% said they wish there were more events, and 32% said the number of events is just right.
The survey also found more than half of Prime Day 2024 shoppers will likely be comparing prices on other retailers – but still buying on Amazon. On Prime Day 2023, 54% of shoppers said they compared prices at other retailers before purchasing. However, despite price comparisons, most shoppers bought at Amazon — 78% of July retail event shoppers purchased on Amazon only, 6.7% purchased on Amazon and Walmart.com, 5.5% purchased on Amazon and Target.com, 5.7% purchased only on Walmart.com, and 3.5% purchased only on Target.com.
Additionally, the majority of Prime Day 2024 shoppers will be looking for low prices and item variety. While the top cited reason for shopping at a retailer's sales event is price (75% of shoppers), 57% want a wide variety of items on sale, 44% want fast shipping, 39% like the online shopping experience, and 37% want an easy return process.
Walmart and Target’s July 2024 events are unlikely to top their October sale events, Numerator said. In October 2023, Amazon saw 12% less household penetration during its Prime Big Deal Days event compared to its July Prime Day event. In contrast, Walmart saw a 15% increase and Target saw a 21% increase in its October events compared to their respective July events.
Survey respondents also said that Walmart is top of mind when it comes to holiday sales events. Nearly three-quarters of consumers said they think of Walmart for holiday sale events (+25 percentage points vs. non-holiday sales events), and 58% think of Target for holiday sale events (+19 points). Comparatively, 70% of people think of Amazon for holiday sales events (-9 points).
October events play an important role in building retailer loyalty. Compared to non-sales event shoppers, Target.com shoppers are 2.6 times more loyal to Target.com if they shopped the 2023 October Circle Week. Walmart.com’s shoppers are 2.5 times more loyal if they shopped the retailer’s 2023 Holiday Kickoff event, and Amazon’s shoppers are 1.6x more loyal if they shopped the retailer’s Prime Big Deal Days in October.
