Don’t Believe Social Media: Amazon Prime Day Was a Success (AMZN)

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I’ll be the first to admit it — I bought into the hype of Amazon (AMZN) Prime Day.

amazon stock amzn stockForty-inch TVs for 120 bucks, I said. Cheap tablets, laptops and the coolest gadgets at my fingertips, I said. Amazon is so great and so cool, I said, it can create its own holiday that’s even better than Black Friday shopping.

This is a game-changer, I said.

As a consumer, however, I was sorely disappointed. Thanks but no thanks — I don’t have an urgent need for Tupperware (TUP) containers, or a 24-inch shoehorn, or a discounted copy of a Harry Potter novel.

I also don’t need a Sony (SNE) Walkman or a VHS rewinder – two of the more daffy sales items that crossed my Twitter (TWTR) feed throughout the day.

And I wasn’t alone. Amazon got butchered and mocked throughout the day on social media. It seemed that nobody was excited about the so-called deals that Amazon was offering in celebration of its 20th birthday.

Amazon Prime Day Wasn’t a Total Bust

But if you are holding AMZN stock, don’t fret. Amazon may not be big enough to create its own holiday, but Amazon Prime Day didn’t jolt the Amazon stock price too badly.

On a day where Jeff Bezos’ company took a solid one on the chin on social media, AMZN stock fell only 0.9% Wednesday, on volume that was only slightly more than its average 3 million shares.

In fact, early sales figures show that Amazon Prime Day was a financial success. Retail analyst Sucharita Mulpuru of Seattle-based Forrester Research says AMZN sales on Wednesday were two or three times greater than a typical July day.

“I think from Amazon’s perspective, it was fairly successful,” she said.

In a statement, Amazon crowed that Amazon Prime Day triggered shopping at “record rates” that topped Black Friday last November.

Amazon surely signed up a bundle of new memberships for Amazon Prime — the $99-per-year service that gives customers access to the Amazon deals. And a healthy percentage of those shoppers will likely renew those Prime memberships a year from now.

And while Yahoo Finance proclaimed that a counter-promotion by competitor Walmart (WMT) included better brands and more mainstream products, it was Amazon that set the agenda for the day. And although Amazon Prime Day wasn’t a perfectly run promotion — who wanted the giant shoehorn, anyway? — AMZN did well enough Wednesday to win the day.

Don’t be surprised if AMZN stock tips up this week as news about its sales figures trickle out. And you can be sure that Amazon Prime Day will be coming back to a web browser near you next July.

Patrick Sanders is senior editor for investing at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter at @1patricksanders. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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Patrick Sanders is a freelance writer and editor in Maryland, and from 2015 to 2019 was head of the investment advice section at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter at @1patricksanders.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2015/07/dont-believe-social-media-amazon-prime-day-was-a-success-amzn/.

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