Amazon Prime Day topped $4 billion, analyst estimates

Sales were up 33 per cent from a year ago

SEATTLE— Shoppers spent $4.2 billion (U.S.) during Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Day sale, up 33 per cent from a year ago, according to estimates from Wedbush Securities Inc. analyst Michael Pachter.

The online retailer doesn’t disclose revenue from the 36-hour event that began Monday. Pachter based his estimate on information the company did release, including that it shipped more than100 million products and that small and mid-sized businesses sold more than $1 billion worth of goods in the first 24 hours.

Amazon’s web store features its own merchandise as well as products from more than two million independent merchants who pay Amazon commissions and fees for storage, delivery and selling on the platform.

Pachter’s estimate tops a pre-event prediction of $3.4 billion from Coresight Research and reinforces early projections that Amazon overcame technical glitches that thwarted some shoppers at the start of the sale.

The fastest-growing categories were pet products, sporting goods, groceries and beauty, showing that the event isn’t limited to doorbuster deals on televisions and electronics, according to Feedvisor, which sells product-pricing software used by Amazon merchants.

Amazon’s independent vendors also had a good day. Merchants selling on the platform saw sales increase 28 per cent during the first 30 hours of Prime Day compared with last year’s event, which only ran for 30 hours, according to Skubana, an e-commerce software company that aggregated data from hundreds of customers selling on Amazon.