Amazon declares victory – Prime Day II concludes

Amazon.com’s second annual Prime Day has come and gone and here’s what we know:

• The e-tailer shook off some early technical glitches (the why not yet known) as customers encountered issues adding Lightning Deals to their carts. The site appears to have worked well for most of the day although it did take some heat on social media (#PrimeDayFail) at the start;
• The company claims that third-party sellers had sold 30 percent more merchandise yesterday than on the day of the inaugural event last year. According to ChannelAdvisor, clients in the U.S. that are third-party sellers on Amazon had dollar sales in line with the first Prime Day, while those in the UK were up 12 percent.

The most important question we can't answer is how many new 30-day trial or permanent Prime subscribers were gained as a result of yesterday’s event. While sales are important — last year’s Prime Day sales surpassed the site’s Black Friday performance — Jeff Bezos and company have their eye on the long haul. Every $99 annual subscription not only offsets some of Amazon’s expenses, it also virtually locks in customers. A recent analysis of Prime memberships by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) found that 73 percent of people who sign up for a free 30-day trial become annual members. Ninety-one percent of those who subscribe renew their memberships after the first year and that number increases to 96 percent after year two. According to CIRP (via CNBC), Amazon added 19 million Prime members in the U.S. in the year following its first Prime Day, a 43 percent increase in its total. Today, a majority of Amazon members are also Prime subscribers, according to the group.

• Amazon Says ‘Prime Day’ Sales Up 30 Percent for Merchants – Bloomberg
• Amazon’s Prime Day shoppers encounter checkout snafus – Reuters
• As Amazon guns for more Prime signups, half its shoppers are already members – CNBC
• Amazon’s Prime retention rates are just sick – RetailWire