Amazon Prime Day is one of the most lucrative and influential retail events in the world. Last year it achieved sales of $ 14.2 billion. Capital one.
But the origins of this sales jugger are pursuing the vision of a single executive and a crucial place to the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos.
The origin of the Prime Day
In the early 2010s, Amazon’s international business was from the instructions Diego PiacentiniAn experienced manager who had joined the company after a successful career in 2000 Apple. When Amazon’s global footprint expanded, Piacentini was commissioned to find new ways to energize both the customers and the growing basis of Prime members outside the USA
Accordingly Brad Stone’s book “Amazon Unbound”, Piacentini was inspired by the explosive success of Alibabas single day in China, which quickly became the world’s largest online shopping events. So Piacentini Jeff Bezos threw on Amazon and was his own event, and Bezos was a main goal of increasing sales to Prime, the company’s subscription service.
After Bezos had received a blessing, Amazon leaders reported back and forth, When hold your event. According to Stone’s book, the Amazon Leadership finally decided not to go from Toe-toe with Alibaba’s single day, which takes place in November, and instead decided to have their own sale in the summer months, a traditionally slower time in retail. The logic that was customers there would have enough money in the summer months because they did not yet make all their vacation shopping, and that also meant that there would be plenty of storage space.
The Amazon Prime Day received the green light in January 2015, with the aim of summarizing Amazon on July 15 with the 20th anniversary.
From ‘Project Piñata’ to ‘Christmas in July’ ‘
The internal code name for the Amazon Prime Day initiative was “Piñata project”. Meagan Wulff Reitbein, a young product manager who was at Amazon for seven years Zillowwas assigned to carry out the plan. She traveled to the international hubs of Amazon – Tokyo, London, Paris and Munich – to convince suppliers and partners.
The first main day was launched in nine countries and the reaction was immediately. In Japan, the massive increase in traffic crashed on the local website. Customers have completed offers throughout Europe and the US.
Despite technical hiccups and mixed reviews, the numbers told a different story: 34.4 million items sold and 1.2 million new Prime members who were added on a single day. “It was open to Christmas in July – a larger day than Black Friday”.
Amazon Prime Day has only grown since then. In his second year, Prime Day’s turnover rose by 60%. By 2019, Amazon expanded the event to two days, and in 2025 the event now extends over four days. It started on Tuesday, July 8th, and lasts until Friday, July 11th – a full 96 hours to use the offers.
Prime Day has become a decisive event for Amazon. Last yearConsumers in 23 different countries bought over 300 million items with an average order value that approached $ 60. Remarkably, 88% of all Prime Day Consumer’s Prime members were, and 85% of customers have been Prime members for over a year. And people usually buy a lot of Amazon products, especially: Last year the buyers bought more Amazon Fire Sticks than any other article last year.
Fortune generative AI used for this story to help with a first draft. An editor checked the accuracy of the information before publication.
