Lyra Martin Culture 07.15.2022 15:Jul PM EDT

How Inflation Changes Amazon Prime Day Consumers' Behavior

Amazon Prime Day is famous for Instant Pots and Roombas, but buyers favored munchies, diapers, and dishwashing pods this year.

Shoppers' Preference Change was Observable on Prime Day

Looking at some of the top sellers during Amazon's two-day sale, which ended late on Wednesday (July 13), gives us a glimpse into how record-high inflation is changing people's shopping preferences.

Items like Instant Pots and Roombas are often in high demand on Amazon Prime Day. However, this year, shoppers showed a greater interest in snacks, diapers, and dishwashing pods.

The consumer price index, a comprehensive measurement of prices for goods and services, increased 9.1% in June, reaching its highest level in 41 years. Consumers have tightened their purse strings and are reducing discretionary spending as a result of rising costs.

Analysts have previously expressed concern that rising prices would make customers less likely to spend on Prime Day on new TVs or smart speakers like the Echo.

However, the inflation didn't seem to affect sales, but it may have affected the goods people purchased. Customers opted for everyday goods like Cascade dishwashing pods and Amazon Basics trash bags as over-indulgent things, according to Melissa Burdick, owner of Pacvue. This company assists businesses with advertising on Amazon and other e-commerce platforms.

Rising food store costs continue to be a major concern for many individuals around the country. According to a recent Harris Poll with Alpha Foods, over 90% of Americans are worried about rising food costs.

Total online retail sales in the US during Amazon's Prime Day event surpassed $11.9 billion. That's 8.5% higher than overall e-commerce transactions generated during last year's event, according to Adobe Analytics data. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target sought to capitalize on the Prime Day frenzy by launching their own competing events.

Prime Day 2022 is the Largest in Amazon's Records

This year's Prime Day event was the largest in Amazon's history, the firm said on Thursday (July 14), with customers purchasing more than 300 million products, up from about 250 million in 2021.

Prime members globally bought more than 100,000 products each minute during the two-day deal, the business claimed. Consumer gadgets, household items, and Amazon-branded devices were top sellers.

The two-day festival comes as inflation squeezes customers' budgets. According to Numerator, Frito-Lay snack boxes were among the top Prime Day purchases, which monitored expenditure.

Based on a study of Prime Day purchases from 21,306 homes, Numerator statistics revealed that almost 58 percent of orders were made for products under $20.

Higher pricing didn't appear to damper shopper excitement for Prime Day and other bargain events at Best Buy and Target. Amazon's Prime Day online sales topped $11.9 billion. Adobe Analytics data shows that's 8.5% more than the previous year's event.

Amazon cited its live streaming service, Amazon Live. Amazon claimed that Prime Day live streams garnered more than 100 million views, but it didn't say how compared to the previous year. Amazon says thousands of people live streamed the incident.