175 million online purchases delivered for Amazon Prime Day

Amazon’s fifth annual Prime Day, which actually took place over two days (July 15-16th), saw a record-breaking 175 million items purchased, bringing a sharp rise in traffic for parcel delivery companies.

This follows 100 million purchases in 2018, although the event was shorter last year at only 36 hours.

Amazon upped its standard two-day delivery times for Prime members to four days, due to the volume of shipments. The company, which has placed a greater emphasis on its own delivery capabilities in recent years—and was recently dropped by FedEx for last-mile express services in the US—likely had to apportion greater volumes to FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal Service.

The event can be difficult for carriers to deal with depending on the logistics capabilities they already have in place. At the same time, merchants can struggle to make the discounts worthwhile when trying to balance discounted items against shipping costs and surcharges.

Prime Day echoed other “global” events including Alibaba and JD.com’s Singles Days, which attract consumers from all around the world. Prime Day also had a knock-on effect on general retail spending during the period.

Source: The Loadstar