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During the Prime Day 2022 sale, Amazon shoppers bought more than 300 million items making it the biggest Prime Day event in Amazon’s history. That’s up from roughly 250 million in 2021. The top selling categories in the U.S. were consumer electronics, home goods and Amazon-branded devices.  

Amazon didn’t disclose exact sales figures from the two-day Prime event, but thanks to Numerator, a company dedicated to consumer insights and data, we have a great deal of information to sift through. 

I don’t think anybody really knew exactly what to expect from Prime Day 2022. Would the ongoing inflation and talk of a potential recession scare consumers away from a buying free-for-all? Or, would the traditionally significant price reductions catalyze a buying populace feeling the pressure of the pandemic?

Maybe we could all enjoy a little retail therapy. 

Amazon Prime Day 2022 (officially) ran from July 12 – 13, and as I mentioned above, came at a time when consumers were feeling the pain of a sustained inflationary period compounded by the long pandemic exercise in abstinence. 

I say “officially” because increasingly over the last few years, Prime Day has been expanding to offer sales throughout the month. 

Perhaps as a hedge against that inflation, in 2022, shoppers seemed to have chosen necessities over indulgence. Although with products such as Frito-Lay snacks finishing high up at number 6 in the list of big sellers, I’m still a little torn over whether to score the Frito-Lay win for “necessities” or “indulgence.”

Key Takeaways From Prime Day 2022

• Amazon said that 2022 was its biggest Prime Day event ever, with more than 300 million items purchased throughout the two-day period. 
• The average order size during Prime Day 2022 was $52.26, an increase from $44.75 in 2021. 
• During Prime Day 2022 the average household spent roughly $144.56 with approximately two-thirds (62%) of households placing two (or more) separate orders.
• The rising inflation we’re all feeling didn’t seem to slow down the Amazon marketplace juggernaut. It seems that consumers can be cautious and spend a lot of money at the same time. 

Shoppers appear to be squeezing their wallets a little bit. Approximately 58% of online orders were for items under $20. Still, the prospect of higher prices didn’t completely sour shoppers from larger-ticket items with total online retail sales (in the U.S.) totaling over $11.9 billion.

Amazon’s Native Brands Did Well on Prime Day

There’s been a lot of news centered around Amazon’s own native brands lately with the Wall Street Journal going so far as to hint that executives at the online-selling giant discussed “exiting the business entirely to address regulatory pressure.”

However, when it comes to offering aggressive pricing, Amazon’s marketplace position gives it the ability to aggressively carve away at their sales pricing structure. After all, Amazon sells so many products, they don’t need to make money on every single one! Because of that, it’s really not surprising that Amazon’s own brands did so well during Prime Day 2022. Fire TV Sticks, Echo Dots, Blink Cameras & Doorbells, Amazon Gift Card Reloads and Ring Video Doorbells all finished at the top of their respective categories. 

It’s clear that Amazon’s Smart Home Devices are really establishing a solid foothold of brand awareness and consumer confidence. 68% of Amazon shoppers say their Amazon’s Smart Home purchases were Amazon-branded. Just behind that were Consumer Electronics at 41%, and Household Essentials at 37%. 

Three categories monopolized sales in 2022 with 83% spread evenly across Household Essentials (29%), Health & Beauty (28%), and Consumer Electronics (27%). Keeping with the trend towards thrifty purchases, most Prime Day items (58%) sold for under $20. Sales of over $100 resulted in only 5% of the total. 

A Million Dollar (A Day) Home Team Victory

Amazon has their “native brands,” and so does CANOPY Management. This Prime Day, one of Canopy Management’s own agency partners enjoyed two successive million dollar days of sales during the two-day Prime event. In fact, without giving away any juicy details, over half of CANOPY’s partners celebrated increases in triple figures with 50% of that total soaring to year-over-year Amazon Prime Day increases of over 300%. 

Maybe it’s time FOR YOU to join the CANOPY team. How about taking your hands off the e-commerce wheel a little bit and spending more time with your family, friends, or that long-neglected fishing rod or mountain bike? CANOPY Management is a “full service” marketing agency for Amazon sellers, and our team consists of former Amazonians, multi-million dollar sellers, and award-winning experts. 

Are you an Amazon seller looking to level up your PPC strategy? How about listing optimization or DSP advertising? Whatever you need to take your digital marketing to the next level and grow your Amazon business, you’ll find it Under the CANOPY!

A Rising Prime-Day Tide

Thrasio has been all over the news in the last year, but for the wrong reasons. Accompanied by many other well-known tech-based companies such as Tesla, Microsoft, and Netflix, Thrasio announced layoffs and cutbacks as they adjusted to a maturing Amazon marketplace. Still, a rising (Prime Day) tide lifts a lot of boats. In 2022, that’s very much the case as Thrasio announced that Prime Day 2022 was its best Amazon Prime Day ever, with an over 100% sales increase year over year. 

Consumer Spending Trends

According to the data compiled by Numerator, of those shoppers who participated both this year and last, 35% spent more on Prime Day 2022 with 65% spending the same or less. That leads me to believe that it’s sheer numbers of (newer) sellers driving the big increases. 

As remarked upon above, 83% of Prime Day shoppers admitted that inflation impacted their behavior this year, with 34% saying that they waited for Prime Day to purchase a specific item until the price REALLY came down, and 28% passing on good deals because they weren’t strictly a necessity. 22% of Amazon shoppers actually left the Amazon marketplace in search of better deals. 

44% of Prime Day shoppers ONLY considered Amazon for their purchases, with 56% taking their dollars elsewhere. Amazon’s reputation for low prices was a big e-commerce lever. Almost two thirds said that they didn’t even compare prices before making their purchase on Amazon’s marketplace. 

Livestreaming Played a Role in Amazon’s Success

Amazon says that “Amazon Live takes the fun and interactive nature of live video and joins it with online shopping.” Over Prime Day 2022, Amazon reports that it had more than 100 million livestream views, with thousands of Amazon sellers taking advantage of the platform. 

With livestream selling, a host demonstrates a product in a live online video either through a social media platform, or direct video calls with groups of customers. 

In addition to prospective customers being able to “shop” (watch the feed) from wherever they want, they can interact with the personalities in real time, and seek the answers to any questions they might have. Then, they can make their purchase directly from the livestream platform. 

Don’t like the idea of balancing awkwardly one one leg in a tiny changing room? Snapchat users can now try on clothing and accessories virtually with technology that responds to your own specific physical dimensions. 

Next Steps for Amazon Sellers 

CANOPY Management’s Brian R Johnson is one of the top minds in e-commerce. He’s an important part of the CANOPY team as a thought leader in the Amazon-selling space for both our team internally, as well as for our partners. 

For Amazon brands looking to capitalize on this spike in sales over Prime Day 2022 he feels that NOW is the time to take action. 

Here’s a checklist how he recommends that Amazon sellers get started:

• Make sure you’re running product targeting ads on competitors.
• Tighten up your ad spend on unprofitable and breakeven campaigns.
• Reduce your excess FBA inventory until it’s needed in the 4th quarter.
• Take the time to run 4-week split tests on main images or titles.
• Develop a marketing and advertising strategy for the “Return to School” audiences in mid-to-late August 2022.

Avoiding the Prime Day PPC Hangover 

You know that if we’re talking about selling on Amazon, Pay-per-Click (PPC) advertising can’t be too far away. As I’ve written before, Amazon PPC used to simply be “one” way to help launch an Amazon product, now it’s almost become a requirement. 

As a primary CANOPY Management PPC strategist, Brian R Johnson weighs in on a question that many of you are probably wondering about . . . 

Why are bids so high immediately following Amazon Prime Day? 

Brian feels that it’s really just a response to the seasonal behavior of Amazon sellers. Conversion rates tend to drop sharply just before and just after Prime Week. That’s when many inexperienced sellers try to sustain their Amazon sales by becoming aggressive with their PPC bids immediately following a significant sales event. That in turn causes everyone’s bids to rise to their max settings.

CANOPY’s Brian R Johnson’s Recipe for (Post-Prime) PPC Success 

Here are two strategies that Brian suggests that Amazon sellers implement to move their Amazon advertising campaigns in the right direction: 

• Control excessive ad spend by setting max bids across the board.
• Stay aggressive ONLY on targets you know to be profitable under normal conditions.

OR

• Remain aggressive on terms you’re intentionally trying to rank for.
• If you had a great Prime Day, run product targeting ads on competitors that your product has at least one of the following advantages (benefit, feature, price, rating, buy box).
• Pause any non-essential ads for 2-4 weeks.

Brian says that it’ll calm down in a few weeks.

How CANOPY Management Can Help

CANOPY Management is a “full service” marketing agency for Amazon sellers, and our team consists of former Amazonians, multi-million dollar sellers, and award-winning experts. When you consider the ways in which CANOPY Management is able to help you grow your Amazon business, you’ll know why.

• Strategic Growth Planning
• Listing Copywriting Optimization
• Listing Photography
• Product Videography
• Advertising Management
• Customer Service
• Demand Side Platform (Amazon DSP)
• Amazon Posts
• Full Service Management
• Amazon Review Aggregation

Are you looking to expand your income stream, or transition away from your primary career? It’s a new year and with the growth of eCommerce, now is a great time to reap some benefits yourself!