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Amazon Prime Day sparks early Christmas shopping surge as consumers widen search for deals online

Retail Connections | 19/10/23

Retailers are already starting to see a rise in early online Christmas shopping, as price sensitive consumers were prompted by Amazon Prime Day to seek out the best deals available on gifts, the latest data from Wunderkind, the leading performance marketing channel that scales one-to-one messages for retailers and brands, reveals.

Data from Wunderkind’s Marketing Pulse, which analysed over 42million shopper journeys between 02 – 15 October 2023, showed that online revenues grew +3.3% week-on-week last week (w/c 09 October). The uptick in shopper traffic proved even more marked, rising +7.69% compared to the week before, as increasingly pricing and promotions sensitive shoppers started to make an early Christmas shopping surge.

Original research of over 1,000 UK shoppers by Sensormatic showed that, with economic uncertainty and household budgets remaining squeezed, half (49%) of UK consumers have already started gift buying by October, with two fifths (38%) planning to start Christmas shopping earlier this year, with deal-searching and spreading out the cost of Christmas top motivators for getting ahead.

The surge in online revenue and traffic last week could also have been boosted by a halo effect from Amazon Prime’s Big Deals Day, which took place on 10 and 11 October. Other retailers also launched their own discounting events to compete for share of wallet, including Currys’ October ‘Clearance Sale’ which offered up to 40% off tech rivalling the levels of discounting seen on Amazon, and health and beauty retailer, Boots, launching its ‘Big Boots Sale’ ahead of Amazon Prime Day.

Research from Criteo suggests that, because of the increased competition around discounting prompted by Amazon Prime Day, 58% of UK shoppers planned to compare Amazon’s Prime deals with those prices and promotions offered by other retailers, which may also have contributed to the uptick in web traffic and revenues seen by UK online retailers last week, Wunderkind suggests.

Jon Halley, Regional VP at Wunderkind, commented:

“With cost-of-living pressure continuing to be felt by many households, shoppers are being savvier to make their discretionary spend work harder. And this means they’re being even more canny when it comes to seeking out the best deals available on Christmas gifting. Consumers are well versed in these extended discounting and big sale events like Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday – and are now much more likely to shop around and validate whether the deals on offer really do represent the best value for money.”

“For retailers, this means balancing the need to meet strong shopper demand for discounts while protecting margin. By identifying and understanding their customers, retailers can target appropriate deals to the right shoppers, making smarter discounting choices that uphold margin,” he added.

Cost-of-living pressures and Amazon Prime Day discounts fail to dampen online retail sales in July

Retail Connections | 09/08/23

UK retailers’ online sales remained resilient, up +2.04% year-on-year in July, despite ongoing cost-of-living pressures and stiff competition from Amazon Prime Day discounting, the latest data from Wunderkind, the leading performance marketing solution that scales one-to-one messages for retailers and brands, reveals.

Data from Wunderkind’s Marketing Pulse, which analysed over 258.3million shopper journeys, showed that, although July’s web revenues were down -8.42% compared to June – when the UK heatwave prompted a surge in online sales – from a year-on-year perspective, revenues were still up +2.04% in July. Meanwhile, web conversions were also positive year-on-year, rising by +53.5% compared to July 2022.

Amazon Prime Day steals a march on online retail

With consumers becoming increasingly price and promotions sensitive, recent research of over 1,000 UK shoppers by Retail Insight shows that now 40% of UK shoppers will only make a purchase when an item is discounted or on offer. And this ongoing price and promotions sensitivity helped make Amazon’s annual major discounting event, Prime Day, its largest ever.

The marketplace reported that, over the two Prime days (11 – 12 July), customers made £2billion in savings on deals.

However, it appears Amazon’s Prime Day gains had a knock-on impact elsewhere, as UK retailers saw a -15.29% week-on-week dip in total ecommerce revenues on Day 1 and a week-on-week downturn of -9.99% on Day 2 of Amazon Prime Day, according to Wunderkind’s Marketing Pulse data.

Consumer caution prompts considered buying behaviours

Turning the attention to web traffic, July 2023 saw a modest (+2.16%) increase in volume of visits to retailers’ sites compared to the preceding month of June.

However, compared to July 2022, the increase was much more marked – with traffic to retailer websites up +56.49% year-on-year, signalling that consumers are continuing to be ‘considered’ with purchasing and discretionary spend.

This is prompting more browsing before buying, as shoppers hunt to price-match, and compare discounts and offers available to ensure they get the best value for money. And these longer purchase consideration and evaluation phases are evidenced in a recent Trustpilot poll, which found the average UK shopper now takes 30% longer to make a purchase than they did just 12 months ago.

“Despite a myriad of challenges – from ongoing cost-of-living pressures and record high interest rates and amid stiff competition from heavy discounting by Amazon during its Prime Day promotion – online retail sales remained buoyant last month,” Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, General Manager (International) of Wunderkind, commented.

“And whilst consumer spending has remained resilient, there’s little doubt that retailers and brands are having to work harder for each conversion and fight even harder to keep shopper loyalty once a customer has been acquired. In short, retailers are having to run faster just to stand still.”

“By doubling down on owned channel optimisation, retailers and brands can turn the tide on brand switching, by using personalisation at scale to drive the compelling and meaningful buying journeys that keep shoppers coming back,” he concluded

Amazon Just Walk Out, HP and Worldpay to join 170+ tech innovators at Retail Technology Show

| 17/02/22

Retail Technology Show 2022’s hotbed of hot retail tech ‘just walked in’ – with innovators including Amazon Just Walk Out, HP, WorldPay and Zebra confirmed to exhibit at the 2022 expo. As the new flagship event for retail, the Retail Technology Show will take place at London’s Olympia on 26-27 April 2022, and brings together over 170 cutting-edge tech innovators as part of its exhibitor programme.

A hotbed of hot tech

The Retail Technology Show will shine a light on the latest innovations fast-forwarding digital transformation across the full spectrum of retailers’ operations. From technology providers spanning new ecommerce capabilities to ground-breaking solutions to power payments, future-proof supply chains, optimise operations and empower the retail workforce of the future, over 170+ innovators will exhibit at the two-day event and will range from established enterprise solutions – including Amazon Just Walk Out, HP, WorldPay, Star Micronics and Zebra – to new disruptors and fast growth start-ups.

Discover first-look innovation that delivers first-mover advantage

A dedicated Discovery Zone will offer retailers the chance to get ahead of the innovation curve and experience the newest innovations available to the market, which will be showcased for the first time at the show. From queue management solution, Akis Technologies, to AR and VR specialists, Realmore, sustainable impact SaaS solution, Dayrize, and mobile analytics platform, Waizu, the Discovery Zone will showcase a first-look at the new solutions that can help retailers create first-mover advantage.

A spotlight on start-up innovation

Baringa’s Start-Up Safari offers a curated tour of the hottest next-gen tech from retail disruptors giving retailers a first-look at some of the most future-forward innovations set to shake up the industry. Lucy Larkin, Partner in the Consumer Products & Retail team at Baringa, commented: “It’s exciting for the many brilliant new businesses out there, who get to make connections across the industry. It’s also a timely reminder of the vibrant, high-octane nature of the UK start-up community.”

Championing digital transformation – Innovation Awards

Once again Retail Technology Show’s Innovation Trail and Awards will recognise the top ten technology solutions at the show. The highly competitive Innovation Awards celebrate the biggest innovators at the show, whose game-changing products and service are reshaping retailers’ operations and reimagining the art of the possible through technological advancement. The shortlist of must-see tech will be featured in the Retail Technology Show Innovation Trail, with the winner crowned at the ‘BIG Retail Reunion Party’, taking place at the end of Day 1 (26 April).

The BIG Retail Reunion Party

As well as playing host to the Retail Technology Show’s Innovation Awards, the BIG Retail Reunion Party, taking place in the Champagne Bar on Day 1 offers retailers a chance to raise a glass and celebrate the retail industry reuniting over drinks, live music and entertainment.

Matt Bradley, Event Director for the Retail Technology Show, commented:

“Technology has underpinned retail’s post-pandemic recovery and will be the cornerstone of success for the brands and retailers of the future. With the unprecedented pace and scale of innovation in the industry, we’ve had to match this by meticulously curating the most future-forward technologies across the retail spectrum and bringing them all together under one roof, to deliver unrivalled value and opportunities for retailers to reimagine and future-proof their operations for success.”

Registration to the event that brings together Europe’s leading tech innovators and most forward-thinking retailers and brands is open. To register to attend, visit: https://bit.ly/RTS22prreg

5 reasons why convenience retailers don’t need to panic as Amazon opens more stores

Chris Field | 15/11/21

Amazon will soon discover how hard it is to run an efficient supply chain, one that ensures that shelves are full of the products customers want
Tesco and others are catching up fast on Amazon’s USP – checkoutless. There is no exclusive on its IP and there are range of much cheaper technologies currently in wide use in the likes of Singapore. There are also great innovations from companies that are not yet well known for checkoutless.
Tesco and others have been at convenience a long time, so have a solid base on which to innovate. Most can move just as fast as Amazon
There is room for Amazon. Convenience remains the fastest-growing sector in retail and there is plenty of room for everyone.
Amazon is not a trusted brand name for food in the UK so it will take a while to range and allocate profitably, once everyone gets over the excitement of checkoutless.

Amazon’s sales, share price and employee numbers rocket during coronavirus crisis

Alison Clements | 17/04/20

Amazon has seen an enormous increase in demand as shoppers are forced to stay home. It is estimated that customers around the world have been spending almost $11,000 a second on its products and services.

The online retailer is benefiting hugely from the coronavirus crisis, its share price surging by more than a third within a month. This Wednesday (15^th April) Amazon shares were changing hands at $2,295, while a month earlier they were worth $1,689.

Amazon’s share price hike came as financial analysts said they expected the company to be crowned “a clear winner” from the Covid-19 crisis and to report record sales and profits this year due to demand for deliveries and its cloud-based services.

Employees need protection

Amazon has not enjoyed such a sales bonanza without putting its warehouse workers at risk, say critics and unions. Three employees were fired by the company in the US this week, for criticising their employer’s safety measures for fulfilment centre staff. Amazon has been accused of not doing enough to protect its workers from the virus. About 75 Amazon warehouses and delivery workers in the US have been infected with the virus, according to the Washington Post.

Reuters reports that the world’s largest online retailer is facing intensifying scrutiny by lawmakers and unions over whether it is doing enough to protect staff from the novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 1.9 million people, including workers at more than 50 of Amazon’s U.S. warehouses.

Mass recruitment drive to fulfill through the coronavirus pandemic

While many companies across the world have been forced to make staff redundant or place them on government-funded furlough schemes, Amazon is hiring tens of thousands of staff as the business struggles under the weight of orders from consumers trapped at homes all over the world.

The company announced this week that it was hiring an extra 75,000 staff to help it to process the increase in orders. The recruits come on top of 100,000 taken on already since the coronavirus crisis hit western economies last month. The additional workers will take Amazon’s global workforce to nearly 1 million.

Amazon faces $100m hit from delaying Prime Day

Alison Clements | 07/04/20

Amazon Prime Day normally takes place every year in July, and last year the web giant sold over 175 million items during the two day sale.

But in 2020, due to the Covid-19 virus which has caused huge supply chain and workforce disruption, Prime Day has been delayed until August or September, according to a new report by Reuters.

Reuters says: “Amazon is postponing its major summer shopping event, Prime Day, until at least August and expects a potential $100 million hit from excess devices it might now sell at a discount, according to internal meeting notes.”

Prime Day decision

Prime Day was launched in 2015 as a way to stimulate sales during the summer shopping lull, though the company never publishes the date far in advance.

This year’s decision to delay it means Amazon will have 5 million extra devices it would have expected to sell sooner. These include items such as voice-controlled Echo speakers which have been popular orders during previous Prime Day events.

The delay of Prime Day will also affect third-party merchants who have come to depend on Amazon’s platform for mid-year revenue.

Amazon’s fulfilment staff safety concerns

Amazon fulfilment centre workers have been at the front line of supplying essential goods to consumers during the coronavirus outbreak, which (at the time of writing) has infected more than a million people globally and led to more than 54,000 deaths.

In recent months unions have criticised Amazon for not doing enough to protect workers. Concerns include not ensuring enough space between workers, failures to close for deep cleaning, employees risking infection where colleagues have fallen ill, exposure from handling deliveries and a lack of gloves and hand sanitisers.

The Guardian has reported that workers at Amazon’s warehouse and shipping facilities say they fear going to work amid the coronavirus outbreak, and have called on the company to do more to improve safety.

Amazon Go Grocery: The web giant’s first cashier-less supermarket

Alison Clements | 02/03/20

Amazon has opened a cashier-less supermarket in Seattle – the first Amazon-branded store with fresh produce for sale. Amazon also owns the Whole Foods chain of US supermarkets which it bought in 2017 for over $13 billion.

At 10,400 sq ft the new Amazon Go Grocery store is much bigger than Amazon’s 25 Go convenience store-style outlets. Amazon says the Go Grocery supermarket carries around 5,000 SKUs, including “an array of fresh fruits and vegetables that change with the seasons” as well as meat, seafood, breads, store cupboard items.

Amazon Go app and QR codes cater for the family

Amazon Go Grocery and Amazon Go convenience stores allow customers to use the same Amazon Go app for entry. To bring several people into the store – for instance for a family shopping trip – customers must use the QR code in their Amazon Go app to scan in each person first at the gate, then scan again for themselves to enter.

“Everyone can then shop the store like normal,” says Amazon.” Any items taken off the shelf by family or friends who entered the store using the app will be added to that person’s virtual cart. If they return any items back to the shelf while in the store, those items will be removed from the virtual cart.” Items do not need to be scanned.

Amazon’s ‘Just walk out’ checkout technology means there is no scanning of goods, no physical payment element and no need to speak to a human being.

What are staff doing in the Amazon Go Grocery store?

Amazon insists its teams of associates “are an important part of the experience at Amazon Go Grocery”. In the Seattle stores they are present, greeting shoppers at the door, restocking shelves and the fresh produce area, answering questions, and making product recommendations.

We’ve simply shifted how our associates spend their time so they can help deliver a great experience for shoppers,” says Amazon.

Cameras and sensors are believed to keep track of items picked up and taken out of the store.

Commentators suggests that once hundreds of shoppers are in the store it could be more difficult for the technology to work with 100% accuracy. One reporter who visited the store said the bill came through to her online 2.5 hours after leaving the store. Discrepancies can be dealt with through the app, Amazon says.

View the Good Morning America’s video on Amazon Go Grocery:

From the Amazon website:

Why speed to deliver may be Amazon’s undoing

Chris Field | 10/02/20

In the era of sustainability, can Amazon’s obsession with its three business drivers serve it in the future?

Basically, if you work for Amazon and want your boss to fund an initiative, it has to relate to either free delivery, free returns or 1-day shipping, or you won’t get the money. For all its talk of order consolidation and reduced packaging, it still acts primarily on these three mantras.

The generations from A to Z all want their stuff now, but do they really? First of all, who told them they needed their stuff within 24 hours? You guessed it, Amazon. And what percentage of John Lewis customers opt for fast delivery though click and collect and then turn up late? Ben Farrell at this week’s Delivery Conference in London didn’t say but it’s high.

Speed merchants

Multispeed supply chains are the future, and for a variety of reasons that Amazon may well be slow or unable to react to, because their whole brand is based around speed and free everything. Multispeed means I need to get my Hello Fresh! Delivery quickly because it contains fresh food whereas, do I really need to get my new paper shredder for next day delivery, unless the FBI are on my case?

Would I be prepared to wait a week or even longer for multiple orders to be delivered all at once, in the same box or even, as John Lewis does for come click and collect, in a reusable bag that the courier takes back? The answer of course is yes, as long as I get an incentive in addition to the warm feeling generated by reducing packaging and road miles. For instance, why not offer an Amazon Prime-style delivery service where I pay monthly to get all the things I really don’t need to get quickly. And over time, as I get the hang of it and beat my speed addiction, I can move all my deliveries to my slow delivery account. I may even cancel my HelloFresh subscription because the amount of packaging involved is just ridiculous. Even the bin man may one day tell me to just cut down on the crap.

Consumers don’t always need it NOW

Seriously though, it is clear after attending the Delivery Conference, that the courier companies, the aggregators and tech companies are more than capable of delivering the slower supply chain and are pressurising the brands to respond. Consider one exhibitor, Cycleon, which unusually integrates reverse logistics and returns management and analytics into a single solution, and offers it internationally.

Another vendor there, Loqate, which is part of GBG and the modern name for location and identity verification specialists, PCA Predict, has teamed up with what3words to enable micro-location of multiple assets within a single post code or address. For instance, you can now uniquely identify your oil tank and the order management system can add personalised activation data such as, only fill to 2,000 litres, or the key is under the mat, or, ignore the other tank which is actually disused.

Sustainability shines through

In short, the brands are starting to want this, and their customers have always wanted it; add sustainability and you have delivery and service capabilities that completely contradict Amazon’s value proposition. For its competitors, here is a major business opportunity that they can exploit right now.

The Delivery Conference took place on 4th February in London.

Amazon’s Tilbury Fulfilment Centre: 20 Fast Facts

Alison Clements | 24/01/20

Retail Connections took at whistlestop tour of Amazon’s state-of-the-art fulfilment centre this week (23 January 2020). We were guided around the site by Amazon ‘Tour Ambassadors’ Lee and Paul, and witnessed first-hand how robots and humans are working in tandem to meet customer demand for ever-faster deliveries.

It’s a monster! The vast building at Tilbury, Essex is Amazon’s largest fulfilment centre (FC) in the UK – 2 million sq ft – the size of 28 football pitches.

2. It’s the second largest Amazon fulfilment centre in the world, second only to a 2.3m sq ft centre in the US.

3, The Tilbury depot is named LCY2 after London City Airport – all Amazon fulfilment centres are named after the closest airport.

4. The building opened in September 2017 and employs 4,000 members of staff with numbers going up significantly for the peaks of Black Friday and Christmas.

5. Amazon claims more humans are employed in its growing number of robotics-enabled fulfilment centres as processing of orders is so much faster, requiring more people alongside the robots. In contrast half the number of associates – around 2,000 – work at each of the older FCs.

6. Employees are responsible for five basic tasks: unpacking and inspecting incoming goods; placing goods in storage stacks; picking goods that are brought to pickers by the robot-enabled stacks; sorting and packing orders; and shipping.

7. The retailer claims that the robotics-enabled FCs are three times more efficient and 20% faster than the traditional, less high tech FCs.

8. The record time from a customer clicking ‘buy’ online, to the order being ready to ship in this fulfilment centre is 15 minutes. The slowest is one hour.

9. This is one of the most modern Amazon FCs – making use of 6,000 Kiva robots that move 48,000 stacks of inventory – known as pods – around several enormous picking fields.

10. Each individual Kiva robot can support a pod packed with products weighing up to 22 stone or 140 kg.

11. They cost the same as a small car – around £10,000 each – but Amazon says the cost savings they bring make this a worthwhile investment.

12. The now-familiar looking orange Kiva robots use QR codes pasted on the floor to navigate. Cameras mounted on the bodies of the drives prevent any accidental collisions. The moving pods are caged in for safety.

13. For efficiency reasons, the system here is ‘random stow’ and ‘random pick’ meaning inventory of one item – say a packet of batteries – is dotted around the storage area in several locations, rather than all kept together.

14. At Tilbury the set up is for smaller items to be delivered – such as toys, books, cosmetics, clothing, footwear and small electricals. Amazon’s Doncaster site specialises in heavier items, requiring fork lift trucks rather than robots to move product to pickers.

15. Inventory on the site is 60% owned by small vendors, and 40% owned by Amazon.

16. New employees at Tilbury are trained for four days before beginning work on the FC floor.

17. The site operates 24 hours a day, making use of a day and night shift so that next day and same day deliveries are possible.

18. LCY2 generates its own power using an on-site generator and solar panels on the roof. This means that if there is a power cut locally, Amazon orders can still be fulfilled.

19. There’s a team of cleaners working here all the time.

20. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has never been to Tilbury.

Read about Amazon’s Kiva robots in our special report here.

Lakeland, JML and Amazon join Rylan on Channel 4 show

Alison Clements | 03/12/19

A panel of top retailers has joined TV personality Rylan Clark-Neal to champion product innovations for Christmas. The panel consists of Ken Daly, CEO of innovative consumer products group JML; Wendy Miranda, customer ambassador for Lakeland; and Amazon Launchpad’s director of consumer retail, Fiona McDonnell.

This is the second series of Buy It Now, Buy It Now for Christmas on Channel 4. The first episode aired on Thursday 28th November at 8pm. Channel 4 has commissioned a Christmas-themed series, showing every Thursday evening for four weeks in the run up to Christmas.

What’s the aim of the show?

In the Buy It Now for Christmas series, inventors from across the UK will have 90 seconds to pitch to an audience of real shoppers and will receive live feedback on their products. The inventors will then face a panel of expert retailers and will be in with a chance of landing a life-changing order.

JML is a household name in the UK, recognised for investing in innovation brands and products. As CEO since 2012, Ken has ensured that JML remains an inviting destination for inventors and entrepreneurs to showcase their innovations.

Investing in new products for retail

Commenting on his involvement in the show, Ken said “For the second year running, Buy It Now has been a launch-pad for a number of British inventions. At JML, we’re always looking to invest in exciting new products. So it has been very rewarding to be a part of the show again and meet innovators from all over the UK. Last series we bought into Hairshark, a clever new hairbrush. It was a great success for us and we have subsequently purchased hundreds of thousands of units, having introduced Hairshark into Boots and other major retailers nationwide. This time around we’ve sourced several more products through Buy It Now and are very excited about their potential.”

A wide range of Christmas gifts will feature, including eco-friendly toys and genius gadgets, just in time for the busiest shopping period of the year.