Big MULO Moments: Amazon Day 2024 Recap & Insights

Amazon Prime Day has passed. In the MULO (multi-location) retail and restaurant worlds, analysts and the media use certain major moments to” temperature-check” consumer spending behavior, marketing tactics, and economic trends.

• Super Bowl
• Christmas
• Back-to-School (which we’ll soon be covering)
• Valentine’s Day
• Mother’s and Father’s Days
• Wedding season (which seems to be year-round these days)
• Summer vacation and associated travel behaviors (“Summer in July” and blitz sales are commonplace during the months before the holiday frenzy begins.)
• Halloween
• And, of course, retailer-created “fauxlidays and momentjacking” (times in consumer and business life that aren’t calendar dates) like Amazon Prime Day

Although they are not technically a MULO brand, Amazon is the big gorilla of retail behaviors, and we would be derelict if we didn’t weigh in on what we saw this year and what it says about our shopping and dining preferences.

Target has attempted to “scoop” Amazon with its Circle Week, which is conveniently scheduled a week before the start of Amazon Prime Days (which were on the 16th and 17th of 2024). Although no sales or trend data is currently available, we know that other mega-retailers like Target and Walmart leverage that shopping time to attract consumers and even get into price wars.

Adobe Analytics reports that total sales for Amazon’s two-day event were $14B, up 11 percent over last year.

According to the same data source, the average order size was approximately $58.

Laura Taylor is the Retail Media Investment Lead at Goodway Group, a digital marketing agency that analyzes campaigns and consumer behaviors year-round. She points out some creative advertising techniques that Amazon (and its associated affiliates) used to boost 2024 sales. 

Influencers and Affiliates Ruled

“Not hearing about Prime Day this year likely meant you were somewhere that didn’t have a WiFi connection, as the retailer had Amazon Associates in nearly every corner of our daily browsing. Covering off on social media feeds with influencers turned “curators,” such as Sarah Grier Brumfield, who shares her Amazon storefront -affectionately named “The Grier Guide”- which is a shoppable Pinterest-esque board tailored to the vibe of her Insta followers.  

When searching for the latest news of the day, you can’t miss CNN Underscored prominently featured on their homepages, which link out into their own Amazon Prime microsite. The news publisher self-proclaims itself as an Amazon expert, sharing ‘The Best 210 Prime Day 2024 Deals to Shop’ along with many affiliate link-outs to featured products to claim credit for the purchase.

The coverage continues in some other unlikely places, including TMZ.com which amplified the celebrity partnership with Megan Thee Stallion that led to the shopping event theme song, “It’s Prime Day”  (spotted on streaming channels), with the promotion of the Hot Girl Merch (Day 1) and Beauty Deals (Day 2) all with their own affiliate links providing attribution credit back to TMZ for the promotion.”

People Planned Travel and Bought Garbage Bags

Taylor points out that Costco has long offered their customers all-inclusive packages and discounted deals for transportation and accommodations. So why not Amazon?

But while some shoppers are planning an exotic journey to a beach or heading out to visit old friends and family, others are focusing on practical home purchases. Here is one of the “hot-off-the-presses” reports about what consumers bought.

It seems to confirm that shoppers are concerned about the economy and are also looking for ways to save on everyday items.

Where Did the Ad Spend Go?

We asked Michelle Urwin, VP of Marketing at Skai for her insights.

“Based on our preliminary data for the two-day event, it’s looking like Prime Day 2024 set a new record for ad spend yet again. For the previous three years, ad spending for the Prime Day event has been 4x to 5x the daily average of the previous 30 days. Our data indicates ad spending was higher than in previous years: 6.2X the daily average of the previous 30 days for Day 1 and 4.8X for Day 2, for a two-day average of 5.5X.

CPC and clicks (when compared to the prior 30-day average) were about the same as we saw in 2023. The biggest changes have been in the product category-specific ad spend. Last year, the top 3 categories were Computers & Consumer Electronics, Home & Garden, and Beauty & Personal Care.

Based on preliminary data, this year’s ad spend for Home & Garden outpaced everything else, while Food & Groceries moved from the #7 category to the #5 spot. If we extrapolate this ad spend to purchases, we can postulate that lingering macroeconomic factors (e.g., stubborn inflation) have consumers focused on practical purchases and bargains for everyday necessities instead of more indulgent big-ticket items.”

Other Brands Jumped on the Sale Wagon

Sherry Smith, Executive Managing Director, Americas at Criteo (a commerce media company), said Criteo analyzed 116M transactions across desktops, smartphones, and tablets from 1.3K+ retailers and e-commerce sites. Within the first 24 hours of Prime Day, 28 percent of the retailers analyzed held their own sales events, boosting online transactions by 73 percent over the prior week. The halo effect of Prime Day is real! Categories like home furnishings, health care, consumer electronics, jewelry, apparel, and food all saw boosts.

Remember that one purchase will pay back many times over is a ticket to Street Fight LIVE 2024. Why isn’t it in your cart yet?