This year, Amazon's (NASDAQ: AMZN) annual Prime Day sale was actually held on two consecutive days, June 12 through 13. Amazon says the two-day sales bonanza was the largest Prime event the company has ever recorded.
Amazon says that it sold more than 300 million items during 2022's Prime Day, compared to last year's 250 million. Shoppers on the site saved more than $1.7 billion thanks to deals they scored on Prime Day, according to the company.
"Prime Day is a celebration of our Prime members, who look forward to this event every year, and we're thrilled to have delivered incredible savings to them once again," CEO of Amazon Worldwide Stores Doug Herrington is quoted in the company's press release. "This special event is made possible because of the support of our employees, vendors, and sellers, and I want to give a big thank you to all of them for making this a Prime Day to remember."
Amazon reports that the site processed more than 100,000 item purchases per minute worldwide over the course of the event, with an average of 60,000 sales per minute coming from the U.S. alone. Shopping peaked globally on June 12 between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m, pacific time, and in the U.S. between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on the 13.
The company declined to provide a figure for its total sales for the event.
Big winners on Prime Day were Amazon Devices, other consumer electronics, and home goods. Luxury beauty brands Laneige and NuFace both had best-selling items, alongside diapers and wipes from Pampers (NYSE: PG) and The Honest Company (NASDAQ: HNST). The Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Watch Series 7 was another top seller, as were Fire TVs, Echos, and Blink devices.
Rachel Ray items, Le Creuset, and Hamilton Beach each saw high sales, and VTech and LeapFrog toys also landed on the top sales list. In clothing, Levi's came out ahead, while pet products from multiple brands, Nutro, Temptations, and Greenies, were all top sellers.
Other top sellers seen in the U.S., specifically, include Crest Teeth Whitening brushes (NYSE: CL), Oral-B brushes, children's clothes from Simple Joys by Carter's, Shark cleaning devices, Beats by Dre, and toys like LEGO sets, Manga-Tiles, and Playmobil. Outdoor products was another popular category in the U.S., with top sellers coming from Coleman, Marmot, and ExOfficio.
Apparently, Americans also bought themselves 1.2 million pairs of sunglasses and one million swimsuits.
There had been some concern that Prime Day this year would be hurt by record-high inflation, but consumers seem to have focused on buying necessities rather than opting out of the event altogether, according to data gathered by Numerator. Numerator also reports that 58% of Prime Day orders were for items worth less than $20.
Every year, Amazon competitors like Target (NYSE: TGT) and BestBuy (NYSE: BBY) run sales at the same time as Prime Day in an effort to bank on shopper enthusiasm. Across all online sales, the U.S. spent $11.9 billion on Prime Day 2022. According to Adobe Analytics, this year's total online sales surpassed last year's by 8.5%.