Prime Day Once Again Sets Shopping Record For Amazon

Amazon.com, Inc.'s AMZN annual Prime Day event this week-- the first time it stretched 48 hours -- was the "largest shopping event in Amazon history." The company said it was larger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

Amazon: Record Highs

Prime members across 18 countries combined to purchase more than 175 million items, Amazon said. Monday marked a new record high in terms of new people who signed up for Prime and Tuesday ranked a close second.

The most popular items in the U.S. include LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, Instant Pot DUO60, and 23andMe Health + Ancestry kits.

Amazon's grocery store chain, Whole Foods Market, took part in the event and offered tens of millions of dollars worth of savings, the company said.

Adobe: Other Retailers Benefited

Data from Adobe Analytics found that retailers who oversee more than $1 billion in annual sales saw a 64% increase in digital sales on Monday compared to a typical day, CNBC reported. This would mark an acceleration from a 54% increase in traffic during the first day of last year's Prime event.

Smaller online stores that generate less than $5 million in annual revenue saw a 30% increase in online sales on Monday, Adobe Analytics said.

Analyst: Who Cares If Amazon Lost Money?

Amazon doesn't typically disclose hard numbers and in the event it actually lost money on Prime Day it "doesn't matter," Charlie O'Shea, retail analyst at Moody's told CNBC. The purpose of Amazon's event is to keep the tens of millions of Prime members in the U.S. "happy" and "try to get more" members to sign up. Typically the most attractive deals on Prime Day is Amazon's own devices, he said. Amazon pushes sales of its devices as a "gateway to the ecosystem."

A secondary purpose for Prime Day may be to work out any weak links in logistics and delivery network, he said.

Amazon's stock traded around $1,999.32 per share at time of publication.

Related Links:

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Photo courtesy of Amazon.