What amazed many industry watchers was that Amazon was able to drive Prime Day sales to a new record, seemingly without really trying.No live streaming or other forms of ‘shoppertainment’. No personalisation. No media hype.The event, which usually takes place in July, was postponed until October this year. The actual dates on which Prime Day would be held were announced at the last minute - and without much fanfare.The Amazon AdvantageSo many people shop Amazon each day, that many were on the site anyway - and by chance discovered a deal. In other cases, people came to the site to check out the deals, but ended up buying other products (lots of other products) that were not discounted.It’s important to realise that now people shop for just about every product category on Amazon, in addition to the more top-of-mind categories such as electronics, books, clothing, homewares and so forth.Most importantly, in an increasingly competitive e-commerce market, Amazon has proven that it has tremendous customer loyalty.During the recent Prime Day (Oct 13-14) 60% of Prime Day shoppers only purchased from Amazon during those days, according to data from Numerator.Amazon’s ties to consumers go so deep that 53% did’t even consider shopping on another site during Prime Day (per Numerator). Competing omni-channel sales events from retailers including Walmart, Target and Best Buy, held concurrently with Prime Day were overshadowed by the hard-to-beat Amazon offering.This is where that massive investment in free shipping - regardless of order size (for Prime members), and all of Amazon’s logistics services that allow it to fulfill orders quickly, is really paying off.Pursuing Private LabelAmazon’s move into developing private label brands has given them a pricing advantage. They could offer popular devices like the Echo, FireTV, Kindle and others for at nearly cost, and then make a profit off all the other products customers purchased while they were on the platform.This not only drove traffic to Amazon, but the more people who own these devices the great the ‘ecosphere’ surrounding those devices become. For example, the more people who own a Kindle, the greater the potential market for Kindle Books.First Party Wins The DayAmazon’s first-party sales prevailed during the event accounting for nearly 70% of the GMV (gross merchandise value). Typically, third-party sales account for about 60% of sales on Amazon, with 40% being first party sales.The top selling products were Amazon’s own devices including Echo Dot (3rd gen), which were offered at drastic discounts (a $74.99 Echo on offer for $23.99, a 68% savings).These ‘door busters’ clearly helped to drive consumers to shop the platform.Third-party sellers—most of which are small and medium-sized businesses—surpassed $3.5 billion in sales on Prime Day—a nearly 60% year-over-year increase, Amazon said in a statement.While Amazon has not yet reported figures for total sales (first-party and third-party sellers combined), many analysts have estimated that this year's sales will be between $7.5 billion to $10 billion. Overall spending during the event is estimated to be up 36% year-on-year. That’s on top of the 42% year-on-year sales growth Prime Day enjoyed in 2019.While that’s pretty impressive, it’s just a warm up act.Getting Primed for XmasOn Oct 16, Amazon announced that it’s “Holiday Dash Event starts today with Black Friday-worth deals dropping daily.”Deals include categories from “toys to fashion”, and can be accessed via Alexa.Apparel brands such as Calvin Klein, Levi’s , Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica and others will be offering up to 40% off on select items.To reduce any potential friction, items shipped through December 31, 2020 will have an extended return period until January 31, 2021.Analysts speculate that most of the products sold during Prime Day were ‘top of the catalog’ productsOver 53% of households that shopped during Prime Day placed two or more orders, with 12% placing three orders and 10% ordering five or more times.Prime Day In NumbersAverage household spending during Prime Days: $101.92Average order size: $44.75Active deals: 5,000Average discount: 10-25%Top 5 Bestsellers: Echo Dot, gift card reload, Fire TV stick, Amazon smart plug, Echo Show 5Echo Dot was the most popular item purchased on Prime Day globally.In fact, most of the ‘bestsellers’ around the world were electronics, household items, and some fast moving consumer goods (FMCG).For better or worse, apparel was not on the bestseller list for any of the countries in which Amazon trades.Hence, when consumers are looking to buy clothing online, Amazon is not the primary place they go.Coming Back for More60% of Prime Day shoppers plan to shop on Cyber Monday and 57% on Black Friday.91% of Prime Day shoppers plan to shop on Amazon again before the holidays.