Prime Day 2024 Expected to Be the Biggest Ever: Amazon CEO

E-commerce giant Amazon is expecting the eighth edition of its annual Prime Day sale in India, which will take place on July 20-21, to be the company’s biggest ever, a top executive said on Monday.

Last year, at its peak, Amazon recorded a whopping 22,190 orders in one minute, which was the highest number of sales in Prime Day history.

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“Every Prime Day is expected to be bigger than the last… The adoption of e-commerce and people’s desire to shop online continues to grow. The importance and expectation of speed has increased tremendously in this market. These are trends that serve us well, but also create great opportunities for us to serve our customers better,” Akshay Sahi, Head of Amazon Prime, Delivery and Returns Experience, India and Emerging Markets, told Business Standard.

According to Sahi, Amazon has expanded the event into three main pillars: “great deals, new releases, and blockbuster entertainment.”

To meet the growing number of shoppers and be able to deliver first- or next-day, Amazon is also strengthening its delivery network. To prepare for the anticipated increase in demand, Sahi said Amazon is scaling up its delivery network to increase the speed of deliveries and is making improvements to the user experience on its app.

“This year, 50 percent of Prime Day orders are being delivered same-day and next-day. We’ve expanded our reach significantly and now deliver to every zip code in the country. In fact, 97 percent of zip codes are getting deliveries in two days or less,” Sahi said.

“We currently operate fulfillment centers in over 15 states and have sortation centers in over 19 states. We have 1,950 of our own delivery stations and we work with 28,000 merchants for last-mile delivery. We currently have 43 million cubic feet of space where we can manage inventory, which creates a huge inbound capacity that can help speed up the flow of things,” Sahi said.

The e-commerce major started Prime Day in India in 2017 with 100 product launches. The event was expanded to 30,000 new launches in 2022, and last year, the number grew to over 45,000 such launches.

Amazon will launch thousands of new products from more than 450 brands across categories including electronics, fashion and beauty, groceries, Amazon devices, home and kitchen products, and furniture, at discounted prices.

These brands include: Intel, OnePlus, Samsung, Bajaj, Sony, Motorola, Boat, HP, American Tourister, Lapo, Chetak, Borosil, Riversoft, Yale, Adidas, Crocs, Mamaearth and HUL.

Amazon said it will continue to support small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) and offer Prime members products from hundreds of sellers, manufacturers, startups and brands, women entrepreneurs, artisans, weavers and local shops. This Prime Day, more than 3,200 new products will come from this segment, up from 2,000 a year ago.

Small and medium-sized businesses will market these products through Amazon programs such as Launchpad, Karigar, Saheli, and in local stores with deep discounts.

The company typically sees a spike in Amazon Prime membership, its subscription program, ahead of Prime Day. Sahi expects a similar result this year.

Amazon Prime is a subscription membership that offers premium services to its customers. In India, Prime members get free same-day shipping on over 4,00,000 products, unlimited 5 percent cashback on all purchases using the co-branded ICICI credit card, and other benefits.

While Sahi did not reveal the total number of Prime users in India, the company has over 200 million users across 25 countries around the world.

On the occasion, Prime Video’s streaming service will also announce 14 original series and movies in five languages. These include award-winning mega-series Mirzapur Season 3 (Hindi) and the recently released global sensation The Boys Season 4 (English), Amazon said.