For the 10th annual Prime Day (July 16 and 17, 2024), Amazon celebrated its biggest shopping event yet. The retail giant reported record-breaking numbers for Prime membership signups over the three weeks prior and millions more members shopping during Prime Day compared to 2023. The company noted that Prime members could shop deals from Amazon’s brand partners, independent sellers, and Amazon-branded products and services such as Audible and grocery delivery.
To track how other retailers competed with Amazon this Prime Day, we reviewed 113 retail and brand websites across numerous categories. We found that:
- Over half of the 113 retailers and brands we reviewed participated in some way. Of these 113 companies, 67% ran some form of promotion, while 13% held a sitewide sale — up from 9% in 2023. Many retailers we reviewed ran additional deals on their websites’ sales sections or offered discounts on select product categories or brands. Just 4% offered a gift with purchase, including brands like Estee Lauder and Nespresso, and only 6% of brands offered free shipping as part of a promotion — not including the 8% of retailers in our review that always offer the perk.
- Brands want to cash in on “members only” deals. Several retailers optimized their member and loyalty programs: Among the brands we reviewed, 14% offered exclusive deals or free shipping to members or cardholders. Some retailers, such as Lowe’s and Sephora, offered double loyalty points.
- Sales continue to extend beyond the official two-day Prime Day period. Many of the brands we reviewed are running longer-period sales on their sites. Macy’s All-Star Week, the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale, and numerous “Black Friday in July” events are just a few examples. Some retailers are hosting different deals per product category every day for a week.
If you’re interested in our Prime Day key findings from previous years, you can review our analysis from 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Now that one of the biggest retail events of the year has concluded, stay tuned for Forrester’s end-of-year holiday season planning and advice for retailers and brands. Connect with us and other Forrester analysts to learn more about holiday strategies and tactics as we dive into the second half of 2024.
(coauthored with Senior Research Associate Delilah Gonzalez)
