Welcome to the second installment in a series of three reports where PYMNTS Intelligence compares data from Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week. The series aims to elevate key insights and takeaways for executives, merchants and consumers.
In the first installment, tailored for executives, we found that fewer consumers participated in Walmart+ Week than Amazon Prime Day, yet shoppers spent more on average in the former. In fact, Amazon could face a growing challenge if Walmart continues to grow its membership.
This merchant-focused second edition shows how consumers shopped these special sales events, revealing what they bought and their main motivations to participate.
One trend in PYMNTS Intelligence’s data is that consumers purchased more than just items on sale during these special events. In other words, regular-priced items contributed significantly to the event’s success.
Walmart+ Week shoppers were more likely to buy products from most product categories than Prime Day shoppers. Groceries and health and beauty products topped the list of products sold. Amazon Prime Day shoppers purchased health and beauty products the most, followed by clothes and accessories. Moreover, data shows that consumers purchased carts of items, suggesting they used both sales events to stock up on essentials, whether on sale or not.
Many Walmart+ Week and Amazon Prime Day Purchases Were for Items Not on Sale
Budget-conscious, deal-seeking consumers are not the only factor attributing to the success of Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week. In fact, data shows that consumers did not only purchase specially discounted items during these sales events. While consumers bought 59% of items during Amazon Prime Day on sale, they bought 41% at the regular price. During Walmart+ Week, consumers purchased 56% of items on sale and 44% at the regular price.
Moreover, our study finds generational differences in these trends. Baby boomers and seniors, at 58%, were most likely to stick to Prime Day items on sale. Gen Z consumers bought an equal mix of sale and non-sale items. Walmart+ Week had a reversed pattern, with baby boomers more likely to purchase an equal mix of sale and non-sale items, and 61% of Gen Z consumers purchasing more sales items than regularly priced ones.
Although deals drew in consumers of any age to both events, they also purchased many regular-priced items. A rising tide lifts all boats, so to speak, as these events helped boost Amazon and Walmart sales even for items at regular prices.
Health and Beauty Makes a Strong Showing for Both Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week
Both Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week saw shoppers seeking deals for everything from essentials to big-ticket items. Data shows that Walmart+ shoppers were more likely to buy items from most categories than their Amazon Prime counterparts. That trend highlights that Walmart+ shoppers typically bought more items than Amazon Prime shoppers.
Health and beauty products and clothing and accessories were popular items among shoppers at both sales events. Among Amazon Prime Day shoppers, 44% purchased health and beauty products, and 42% bought clothing and accessories. These were the most popular item categories. Health and beauty and clothing and accessories were also the most popular for Amazon Prime Day last year. Millennials were especially likely to buy health and beauty products on Amazon Prime Day, as 51% did.
Walmart+ shoppers also bought health and beauty products at high rates, at nearly 2 out of 3. That 62% share tops the aforementioned 44% share of Prime Day shoppers who bought health and beauty products from Amazon Prime Day.
One way to explain the popularity of health and beauty products is that they can be smaller and more affordable items, making them easier to add to a shopping cart. Many are consumable, meaning that users will always need them, and sales are great times to stock up. Also, there may be some difference in the quality of items that could explain Walmart’s lead. While Walmart tends to offer lower-priced health and beauty products, Amazon also sells luxury products.
Time to Stock Up! Sales Events Lead Consumers to Purchase Carts, Not Single Items
Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week shoppers did not participate simply to purchase single items. Instead, they used these sales events to stock up on essentials. On average, Amazon Prime shoppers bought 11 items during Amazon Prime Day, while Walmart+ shoppers bought an average of 20 items during Walmart+ Week.
Looking at age groups, data shows that younger consumers tended to purchase more products than older ones. For instance, Gen Z consumers and millennials averaged 22 and 21 product purchases during Walmart+ Week, respectively, compared to 16 among baby boomers and seniors. During Amazon Prime Day, Gen Z consumers and millennials purchased an average of 12 and 13 products, respectively, while baby boomers and seniors averaged six product purchases.
These findings highlight the reality that consumers more likely filled Walmart carts with grocery items, rather than just retail. That grocery reliance contributed to the number of products per participant purchased at Walmart’s event being higher than Amazon Prime across all age groups. Even so, indications are that Amazon Prime members also took advantage of the Prime Day event to stock up on the products that they need.
Why Summer Sales Events Are Essential
A deep dive into the most recent Amazon and Walmart summer sales events reveals that consumers didn’t just shop for deals at both events. In fact, shoppers used the opportunity to make non-sale purchases and even stock up on essentials. In other words, Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week not only led consumers to purchase carts of items, but also boosted sales of both discount and regular-priced items. As a result, these summer sales events remain an important battleground in the Amazon and Walmart competition to capture consumer spend.
PYMNTS Intelligence has covered this clash of the titans both inside and outside the context of sales events. For more, read any of these data reports chronicling their often neck-and-neck race for consumer retail spend, including a deeper dive into how Amazon Prime Day sales stacked up versus the Walmart+ Week event.
