Amazon Prime Day 2022: Results Unwrapped

And that’s a wrap! Amazon Prime Day was another success for the ecommerce giant. Now’s your chance to see how your industry was impacted by our exclusive coverage of results.

To help understand consumer behavior driving this Prime Day performance, we used Shopper Intelligence, our ecommerce intelligence platform, to break down trends on a category and brand level, with exclusive insights from our industry experts across 7 main categories:

1. Grocery & Gourmet
2. Health & Household
3. Pet Food
4. Beauty & Personal Care
5. Athletic Apparel
6. Toys & Games
7. Consumer Electronics

Amazon Prime Day 2022: Everything you need to know

Amazon Prime Day has become an annual summer event that boosts online shopping at an otherwise historically slow time of year. This year it was no different with the event taking place July 12-13, 2022.

The retail event which marks its seventh-year anniversary has lifted not only Amazon but created a “halo effect” on other retailers, which hold parallel events (e.g. Target’s Deal Days, Chewy’s Blue Box Sale, Wayfair Way Day).

Prime Day 2022 was Amazon’s most successful for selling partners to date, with Prime members saving over $1.7 billion. Revenue jumped over 300% compared to the daily average in the 20 days leading up to the two-day event.

This year’s Amazon Prime Day results also show successes throughout each stage of the purchase funnel. When looking year-over-year (YoY), revenue increased by 30%, product views were up 126%, and unit sales jumped 15% during the same period. This shows that shoppers are spending more on purchases than last year in spite of unstable market conditions.

1. Grocery & Gourmet: shelf-stable items take the lead

The Grocery and gourmet subcategory saw a divide between the growth of fresh vs. non-perishable food subcategories, with non-perishables taking the clear lead.

Purchases for the Single Herbs & Spices subcategory grew 114% YoY, indicating increased stickiness and successful penetration for Amazon’s grocery category. At the same time, perishable food subcategories have seen a decline, with Packed Produce and Fresh Vegetables down -26% and -24%, respectively. We can see that consumers prefer to stock up on shelf-stable products that are made to last.

Fastest Growing Grocery & Gourmet Categories

Amazon.com, Desktop, Mobile Web & Mobile App, July 12 – 13 2022 vs. June 21 – 22 2021

Amazon’s Single Herbs & Spices subcategory grew 114% YoY on Prime Day

2. Health & Household: food storage cleans up

Food storage subcategories saw a significant lift within Health & Household, with unit sales for Food Storage Bags (which includes brands like Ziploc) up 468% YoY. Similarly, unit sales for Dishwashing Detergent grew by 429% YoY, both of which suggest that people are choosing to eat at home more.

The slowest-growing subcategories include Vitamins & Dietary, Supplements, and Sports Nutrition. It could be assumed that with the decline of Covid-related restrictions, consumers are putting less focus on what they put in their bodies than at the peak of the pandemic.

3. Pet food: brands barking up the right tree

Cat treats saw the largest Prime Day lift of any pet category on Amazon, with shoppers purchasing nearly 8x as many treats during Prime Day as they did in the 20-day lead-up period. Cat treats saw a whopping 230% increase in unit sales YoY.

Top Brands by Unit Sales and YoY Change

Amazon.com, Prime Day 2021 v. 2022

Furhaven saw the most impressive growth in unit sales among pet food brands, increasing by 796% YoY. Meanwhile, WAG, a first-party (1P) brand owned by Amazon, saw the largest drop in unit sales, down -42% YoY; however, this can be attributed to the fact that amazon.com is the only retail carrier.

4. Beauty & Personal Care: Oral care products sparkle

Amazon experienced a boost in popularity in the Beauty & Personal Care category. Average daily sales volumes were 2.9x higher on Prime Day than in the 20 days leading up to the event – up from 2.8x in 2021. Similarly, a 31% increase in revenue compared to last year’s Prime Day seems to confirm that the beauty industry may indeed be recession-proof.

Oral care products are in high demand, accounting for six out of the top 15 searches in clicks to product pages in the Beauty and Personal Care category. This is also reflected in the increase of units sold compared to the previous 20 days – with higher ticket items like teeth whitening strips seeing more than 30 times as many units sold.

Top Beauty & Personal Care by Unique Users with Total Product Clicks

Amazon.com, Desktop, Mobile Web & Mobile App, Prime Day ‘22

5. Athletic apparel: golf and running pull ahead

Overall, unit sales for the Sports & Outdoors category are down -7% compared to last year. Despite this, customers continued to turn to Amazon to support socially-distanced activities. The popularity of Covid-friendly sports like golf and running has continued to grow.

The Golf Clothing and Accessories category saw a significant Prime Day uplift, increasing 66% YoY. Following the same trend, Men’s Athletic Shoes grew 64% YoY. This is also reflected in the success of companies like running shoe brand, Saucony, which managed to increase unit sales on day 1 of Prime Day by an impressive 522% from 2021.

6. Toys & Games: Bunch O Balloons makes a splash

Unit sales and revenue both increased in the Toys & Games category compared to Prime Day 2021, with 4.1 times higher unit sales than in the 20 days leading up to Prime Day. Revenue grew 20% across the category YoY, some of which can be attributed to rising inflation.

Bunch O Balloons made a splash with their self-sealing water balloon bundles, managing to achieve a staggering 2560% Prime Day revenue increase year-over-year.

Top Toys & Games Brands Prime Day Performance

Amazon.com, Desktop, Mobile Web & Mobile App,  June 21 2021 vs. July 12, 2022

7. Consumer Electronics: Purchases fall flat

In the midst of surging inflation rates, and an unstable economy, topped off by supply chain woes, the Consumer Electronics category showed relatively lackluster growth. Amazon devices saw the biggest lift across the category, with the ecommerce giant and its subsidiaries accounting for nearly 50% of Prime Day revenue for Consumer Electronics.

Get primed with more insights

For additional insight into Prime Day performance, check out our 2022 Prime Day hub. We’ve also compiled a list of 87 Amazon stats every retailer should know and a detailed guide to getting Amazon SEO right.

If you’re looking for more data on Amazon, or other marketplaces, including Target, eBay, Walmart, and Chewy, or the overall ecommerce landscape any time of the year, reach out to us for a quick demo of Ecommerce Intelligence.

by Chloe Dougherty

Email Marketing Specialist

Chloe specializes in email and content marketing. She enjoys podcasts, reading short stories, and baking, and lives in Tel Aviv with her cat.