How Amazon's Prime Day became larger than Amazon
Bottom Line: While we're in the middle of Amazon's Prime Day, there's another phenomenon that's playing out across the country that's starting to resemble a 2nd "Black Friday". We all love a good deal and that's what Amazon promises during its Prime Day events. Now in its fourth year it's no longer just about Amazon.
In response to Amazon's Prime Day a myriad of retailers have decided to offer up their own deals to attempt to capitalize on Amazon's retailing event over the past couple of years and the effect has been the 2nd coming (or technically first) of Black Fridayish deal shopping. In fact, excluding Amazon, online sales increased by 35% during Amazon's Prime Day. Amazon's still the biggest winner by far but there has become a halo effect that other retailers have been looking to capitalize on with the added attention to online shopping during Amazon's annual event.
According to online researcher Captify – Amazon wasn't even necessarily the biggest overall relative winner of the additional traffic this year. Best Buy is... Best Buy's overall traffic was up 712% in advance of Amazon's Prime Day over the prior week. That compares to 544% for Amazon itself. Amazon's biggest competitor, Wal-Mart saw a 143% increase last week.
This has become a classic case of if you can't beat them – join them. If you're looking for a good deal, today's a good day to look for them. Most retailers are playing along and it's possible that the deals will be the best you'll generally find until the actual Black Friday.