October Prime Day: Could Amazon Top July’s Record Sales?

Key takeaways

• Amazon is holding another Prime Day event right now
• The July Prime Day was thought to generate an extra $12.7 billion in sales for the shopping giant
• Amazon’s share price has risen 1.7% during the shopping extravaganza

In a world that favors convenience and cheap shopping, it’s no wonder that Amazon’s Prime Day deals are so popular. The shopping events are a big money maker for the e-commerce conglomerate and a great deal for shoppers at the same time.

With Amazon holding another Prime Day over the last couple of days, the stock has gained once more, as it traditionally does when Amazon hosts one of these events. It could be a handy boon before the company releases its third-quarter figures.

Here’s a rundown of how Amazon’s Prime Days work, the impact on the stock, and what Amazon has in the pipeline.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is a shopping event that apparently takes place several times a year now. Think of significant discounts and a focus on consumers buying as much as possible. In all fairness, it’s great timing for those who like to get their Christmas shopping done early.

They’re also a way for the e-commerce giant to make a lot of money. During its July event earlier this year, Amazon Prime members bought over 375 million items worldwide, saving more than $2.5 billion in deals. The result? An estimated $12.7 billion in extra purchases for the shopping titan.

Amazon shares also tend to gain in value over the same time as its Prime Days. After the July event, the share price increased by 3.5%. Dow Jones Market Data puts the stock at an average gain of 1.4% for Prime Day events between 2015–2022. The same looks to be happening again, with Amazon stock gaining 1.7% since the event began yesterday.

What else is going on with Amazon?

The company has its third-quarter earnings report coming out at the end of October. All eyes will be on the cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services, after it saw a 3.7% gain in revenue in the second quarter from the one before. Investors are looking for more sustained growth in the segment and not a repeat of a decline in revenue seen in the first quarter of 2023.

Amazon itself has already forecasted a positive Q3 for investors to dine out on. The company has already predicted net sales from $138 billion to $143 billion when analysts had predicted $138.25 billion. Given Amazon saw a 9% boost to its share price for its second-quarter results, expectations will be high going into the end of October.

The bottom line

Amazon always rakes in the cash during its Prime Day sales, having focused on faster fulfilment and deliveries for customers that makes its shopping platform hard to resist when there’s a big sale.

The third-quarter results will be interesting for the shopping titan against the economic backdrop. Good sales won’t wow investors but will instead be looking for evidence that the cloud computing business is doing well to capitalize on the generative AI hype in the long term.