Retail

Large retailers see more than 50% bump in online sales on Prime Day

Key Points
  • Retailers in recent years have piled on with their own sales events to coincide with Prime Day.
  • According to Adobe Analytics, retailers with more than $1 billion in revenue saw a 54 percent increase in sales on Prime Day, compared with an average Tuesday.
  • Retailers with less than $5 million in revenue saw online sales drop 18 percent on Prime Day.
A FedEx employee delivers packages in Miami. 
Lynne Sladky | AP

The riches of Prime Day extended to retailers beyond Amazon.

According to Adobe Analytics, retailers with more than $1 billion in revenue saw a 54 percent increase in sales compared with an average Tuesday, a seeming affirmation of efforts many retailers have made to boost their digital business over the past year.

The service did not say whether that increase includes Amazon. Adobe measures online transactions for 80 of the largest 100 U.S. web retailers.

Although Prime Day was an event created by Amazon to celebrate its 20th anniversary several years ago, the marathon deals have become an annual event for the internet giant and other retailers have piled on with their own sales events. The volume of shoppers hunting for bargains on Prime Day now rivals that of more traditional shopping events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Target said Wednesday morning that Tuesday proved to be "the highest single day of traffic and sales" on its website so far this year.

The good news for those larger retailers may extend into the second half of the year, Adobe said, in a report Wednesday. Last year, retailers that grew 10 percent in the first half of the year saw more than the double the sales of the average retailer during Thanksgiving weekend, the report said. This pattern should continue the group predicted. 

Still, larger retailers' sales came at a sacrifice. Retailers with less than $5 million in revenue saw online sales drop 18 percent on Prime Day, suggesting an increasing importance of scale in the retail industry.

Adobe also said it expects the back-to-school shopping season to generate $57.79 billion in revenue online.