Yearly, Amazon holds a “file” Prime Day, and yearly the corporate boasts concerning the efficiency of the annual gross sales occasion in a press launch. The self-congratulatory announcement isn’t precisely absurd—given its dimension, any year-over-year progress is noteworthy.
Final yr, whereas Amazon didn’t disclose the full variety of objects bought, it did notice that unbiased sellers “bought greater than 200 million objects through the Prime Day occasion.” In 2023, Prime members “bought greater than 375 million objects worldwide.” In 2022, that quantity was greater than 300 million, and in 2021, it was north of 250 million.
However this yr, what stood out to this longtime Amazon watcher is that the corporate didn’t disclose something concerning the variety of objects bought. The final time it made that selection was 2020, when nothing regular was taking place anyplace on this planet, and Prime Day was moved from summer season to October. Earlier than that, you must return to the second-ever Prime Day in 2016 to discover a wrap-up that didn’t present any replace on the variety of “items” bought.
It’s unclear precisely why Amazon determined to withhold that quantity for 2025, however this Prime Day was odd for a couple of causes. Sellers, and types massive and small, needed to provide you with totally different methods to deal with tariff chaos. And so they’re attempting to woo more and more pessimistic shoppers. These components may very well be weighing on the corporate’s resolution to withhold precise numbers.
When requested about this yr’s lacking metric, Amazon spokesperson Jessica Martin pointed Fortune to an Amazon weblog submit that shares details about historic Prime Day occasions, however in any other case declined to touch upon the absence of particular product gross sales tallies for 2025.
To make certain, it’s doable that this Prime Day was successful. An out of doors evaluation from Adobe estimated that gross sales throughout on-line retailers total elevated by greater than 30% throughout this yr’s 4 day Prime Day interval, in comparison with final yr. And Amazon mentioned on this yr’s recap that the 4 days of Prime Day 2025 outsold another four-day interval that included earlier Prime Days. However traditionally, the occasion hasn’t run longer than two days. That implies that earlier years have included two prime days and two common days, whereas this yr included 4 prime days. It’s unclear why the corporate would change the idea of comparability.
We’ll see if Amazon offers any extra particulars in future earnings stories later this yr. Till then, the lacking metric raises questions on simply how profitable Prime Day actually was.
Are you a present or former Amazon worker with ideas on this subject or a tip to share? Contact Jason Del Rey at jason.delrey@fortune.com, jasondelrey@protonmail.com, or by means of messaging apps Sign and WhatsApp at 917-655-4267. You may also contact him on LinkedIn or at @delrey on X, @jdelrey on Threads, and on Bluesky.
