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A Quick Post-Mortem on Amazon Prime Day 2015

By Kate Musgrove

The first Prime Day from Amazon has come and gone and reviews are mixed. There was a broad variety of deals, but a lot of the sale items were pretty pedestrian. The very hottest deal of the day was 50% off all Huggies diapers (plus another 20% off if you signed up for regular diaper deliveries). Parents of little ones were thrilled. It wasn't just a good price on diapers, it was an amazing price on diapers, working out to about 5 cents a diaper versus the 30-40 cents each you'd pay at other retailers. But diapers aren't that interesting and they're certainly not something that every shopper needs.

Okay, fine, except for this guy. But even if you do need them, how many can you really buy at one time?

Okay, I guess the answer to that question is seven thousand.

For people without kids, the thread discussing the sale was a little bit

but in all seriousness, I think Prime Day was interesting and I really hope it comes back next year.

In a way, it reminded me of Black Friday. 2007, the year that I was hired by RFD, there were two Black Friday deals posted on RedFlagDeals.com. Total, start to finish. Two Black Friday deals. The next year, there were 15 Black Friday deals. Here's how the number of Black Friday deals in Canada (as seen through coverage on RFD) has grown over time:

  • 2007: 2 deals
  • 2008: 15 deals
  • 2009: 33 deals
  • 2010: 54 deals
  • 2011: 130 deals
  • 2012: 180 deals
  • 2013: over 200 deals
  • 2014: over 200 deals

The growth is incredible, right? That's why I hope Amazon comes back with another Prime Day promotion next year and why I doubly hope other retailers will start to follow suit. Prime Day is a completely fabricated event, of course, but marking it with big sales is certainly no stranger than a country that celebrates Thanksgiving in October having huge day-after Thanksgiving sales at the end of November. And even the deals aren't amazing (or are amazing, but only if you have kids in diapers), competition is great and it makes for great deals. This year, pretty much only Walmart US took part in competing with Amazon's offers (they had a big homepage banner trumpeting "sale prices lower than Amazon's" and free shipping over $35, down from their usual free shipping threshold of $50) but next year, I'm hoping for at least 15 deals for Prime Day on July 15. Who is with me?

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    • That $33 was the posted price, once you went to checkout they were $16.50....
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    • The large box was $33 which is the same when wal-mart have them on sale - to have the addtionai 20% off you have to pay $80 for prime... i think this deal was shit... plus i was looking for size 4 on the eco box and they were $134 each box
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    • JimU, it was Huggies only. Perhaps it was a dream!
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    • When I checked the rfd page on this in the morning, I swear I saw Pampers were on sale as well, but when I checked back mid morning, it only listed Huggies. Was I just still asleep?
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    • I felt like looking at the number of Black Friday deals in Canada was relevant because it's a sign of how many retailers are offering Black Friday sales; five years ago, there were just a handful and now you basically can't find a Canadian retailer that doesn't have a Black Friday sale. I'm curious to see if the number of Prime Day sales increases in the same way -- stranger things have happened!
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