Peter Naylor, SVP Advertising Sales at Hulu, says that they are “exploring new ad experiences for binge watchers.” Naylor indicated to AdAge that Hulu may introduce a binge ad product to advertisers at the upcoming NewFronts. The challenge for Hulu is how to capitalize on consumers who are binge-watching shows without raising their annoyance level too high.
In 2013, Netflixbegan releasing all the episodes of its original programming in one batch. This practice quickly became known at binge watching. The concept was used by Netflix as a way to quickly hook viewers and reduce subscription churn. It also made the service distinctly different from regular TV networks. It was clear from the start that subscribers loved binge-watching their favorite shows on Netflix.
Bulk releasing of a seasons worth of shows is now standard practice on many subscription platforms including Amazon Prime and Hulu.
Hulu is exploring new ad experiences for binge watchers, according to Peter Naylor, head of ad sales, as the streaming TV service looks for ways to insert brands into shows without being too intrusive.
As Hulu prepares to pitch advertisers during the NewFronts, it is thinking about ways to create a less interruptive experience. While there is no specific product for marketers to buy currently, Hulu is analyzing what the commercial experience might look like when it is clear the viewer is committed for the long haul, Naylor says.
“We know if someone watched the first, second, third episode in a row, they’re binging,” Naylor says. “That’s an opportunity to create some kind of binge advertising.”
“You will see the continuous expansion over the next year into many different categories,” says Rent the Runway CEO Jennifer Hyman. The company just raised additional funds at a $1 billion valuation. “Anything that you do not use every single day, we want to make it fiscally irresponsible for someone to not have a subscription to Rent the Runway. We’re trying to build the Amazon Prime of rental.”
Jennifer Hyman, CEO of Rent the Runway, discusses in an interview on CNBC how her company benefits from the growing sharing economy and how ultimately she envisions Rent the Runway becoming the Amazon Prime of rental:
We Benefit From the Advancement in the Sharing Economy
It’s been 10 years since we’ve been working hard to pioneer this new form of dynamic ownership. Ten years ago we were not a darling of the industry and really had to partner with designers to show them that this was an entirely new customer base for them and a new revenue stream. This is just how young people are thinking about ownership across the board. I actually think we benefit from the advancements in the sharing economy. If you think about how this concept of dynamic ownership where we have unlimited choice and the ability to use whatever product we want whenever we want it, our digital worlds have already moved there.
That’s how we consume entertainment. That’s how we consume music. The idea that you would have that closet in the cloud for the physical world and that form of dynamic ownership, the Millennial Generation Z consumer is so ready to adopt this behavior. That’s what we’ve seen since we launched our subscription, just this dramatic growth and acceleration, not only in how many users we have but in how frequently they use the product. They’re using it 120 days of the year with the unlimited subscription, which is now 70 percent of our revenue.
Dynamic Ownership Applies to the Closet, the Home, and Beyond
Think about how frequently millennials are moving and how your home has become this new bastion of self-expression. Your home used to be a private space and now because of social media, it’s as public as you taking photos of yourself every single day. So the ability to continuously dynamically change your home and have new items arriving we really think that this idea of dynamic ownership applies to the closet, the home, and beyond.
Think about all the things that you don’t have to use every single day and bringing that into the physical world and think about the sustainability of this as well. The millennial and younger customer really cares about the fact that there’s a huge amount of waste. Over 80 percent of the closet is not used regularly. So to create a new contract with the customer where she could have the variety that she wants but she doesn’t have to accumulate all of this stuff that she doesn’t use. You couple that with the fact that this younger generation is living in cities where you don’t even have the space to house all of the extra stuff that you might have put in your garage.
We’re Trying to Build the Amazon Prime of Rental
It (revenue) really depends on the item. That metric changes every year based on our cost to serve, which goes down every year. It also matters what cost we procure the inventory at. We started a model last year which is a platform where brands are giving this inventory on consignment and we actually are revenue sharing with them on that inventory. It’s our own version of fulfilled by Amazon and it’s now a new revenue monetization stream for the 600 brands that we work with.
You will see the continuous expansion over the next year into many different categories. Anything that you do not use every single day, we want to make it fiscally irresponsible for someone to not have a subscription to Rent the Runway. We’re trying to build the Amazon Prime of rental. Rent the Runway is primarily a logistics company. What we really do is we restore physical goods to perfect condition before we send them out to the next customer. We now know all of these different data points about any given fabric, how to restore it to perfect condition and how to maximize the turns while it still looks brand-new.
Former Walmart CEO Bill Simon says that Amazon has been “predatory” by selling goods below cost subsidized by profits from their cloud and advertising businesses. Simon says that this strategy put major competitors like Circuit City and Toys R Us out of business allowing Walmart to then raise the price of Prime without losing their customers.
Bill Simon, a former Walmart CEO, discussed Amazon, Walmart, and Alibaba in an interview on Fox Business which can be watched below:
Amazon Behavior Has Been Predatory by Definition
I’ve not been an advocate of breaking Amazon up. I’ve been an advocate of really looking at them hard and maybe having them report more details in segment reporting. They just sort of smush everything up into one number and report and I don’t think that gives clarity to the investor. If you really think about it their behavior has been predatory almost by definition. In 2014 they took the price of Prime up right after Circuit City and some others went out of business. They took another price increase to $129 for Prime and Toys R Us is gone.
The consumer loves them, it’s awesome, I use them all the time, it’s really great to have the stuff delivered. But you see them putting people out of business and raising their price, and then again putting people out of business and raising their price, and that’s just not right.
Didn’t Walmart Put Competitors Out of Business? Walmart did it for years and years by being a good retailer, not by selling below cost and subsidizing it from income from the cloud and from advertising. Walmart just bought well, moved it well, shipped it well, sold it well, and did it better than anybody else. That’s a different play. It’s sort of like if Exxon decided to get into the restaurant business and used oil revenue to drive restaurant companies out of business.
How Does Alibaba Compare to Amazon? I love Alibaba. I’ve been in their stock for a while and it is just a terrific business. They’ve got a little bit of a different business model than Amazon. They built it differently because they have much more population density across their key markets than Amazon does other than the main metro’s in the US. I think they have a better opportunity to move the product and eventually, one day make money. I don’t think Amazon has that.
Walmart Successfully Went After Digital Business
Walmart stated a couple of years ago that they were really going to go after the digital business and they’ve done that. They have done it really well. They bought Jet, they just invested in Flipkart, they bought Bonobos, and they’ve bought a lot of other things. It sort of puts some juice back in the business.
On the other hand, three years ago they delivered $29 billion in operating income, last year they delivered $20 billion, and they have already sort of warned that they are going to be below that this year. It’s come at a really steep price but they are doing exactly what they said they are going to do and if you are an investor who likes that strategy you’re buying.
People Don’t Want Their Groceries Delivered
Grocery is hard, it’s really hard. It took Walmart 20-25 years to get average at it, nevermind good. When Amazon bought Whole Foods, they not only bought a grocer, they bought a premium fresh grocer. That’s really hard to deliver and to deliver consistently and I think they are finding that out. Part of the problem is that people generally don’t want to have their groceries delivered.
Most cities, other than New York and San Francisco and older cities, were built in and around the time and grew with the interstate highway system. So people in Dallas commute to and from work and they pass 20 grocery stores. They don’t need it delivered to them. They don’t want it sitting on their doorstep but it would be really nice if they could pick it up on their way home and not have to shop for it. That’s the theory behind Click and Collect and I think that’s a winner.
Amazon has rolled out a new paid membership program for businesses in the United States and Germany, a clear indication that the company now has its sights on corporate customers.
The program, dubbed Business Prime Shipping, extends Amazon Prime’s free, two-day shipping features to everyone with an Amazon Business account andallows them to purchase office supplies. Some sectors will undoubtedly see this new program as a threat to office supply shops likes Office Depot and Staples, retailers like Walmart and stores like Costco, which specializes in warehouse deals.
According to Amazon’s press release, the pricing for the new membership model is determined by the number of users on the business account. The base price starts at $499 for a company with about 10 users and $1,299 for businesses with 100 users. The most expensive is $10,099 for companies with more than 100 users.
Once a company signs up for the program, all the employees or users will be notified through email about the benefits they are entitled to. New users added to current Amazon Business accounts will also be automatically enlisted in the program.
Greg Greeley, VP of Amazon Prime, said the company is excited to introduce the new shipping program and described it as combining the vast selection of products open to Amazon Business clients with the convenience and speed that Prime is famous for. He also assured customers that the company would keep innovating to ensure easier business purchasing.
Amazon Business was launched in the US in 2015 and was later introduced to countries like Germany and the United Kingdom. The service was recently expanded to include Japan and India.
Aside from the usual benefits offered to Prime subscribers,Amazon Business provides other features big businesses need, like being able to compare offers between sellers, exclusive pricing on more than 5 million items, bulk discounts, integration with 30 or more purchasing systems, and reporting and analytics.
Amazon did not reveal when the new shipping program will expand beyond Germany and the US.
Companies can also sign up to try out Amazon’s Business Prime Shipping for free for 30 days.
Cable TV is on the decline while the number of Amazon Prime subscribers has increased rapidly since last year. One estimate reveals that nearly a quarter of the U.S. population are Amazon Prime subscribers and the numbers are steadily on the rise. However, can it make cable TV obsolete?
The Rise of Amazon
Amazon Prime had 66 million subscribers at the end of 2016 and a whopping 79 million subscribers to date. Meanwhile, the number of households subscribed to cable TV has decreased by nearly 5 million in the last seven years.
The modest decrease in cable TV subscriptions coupled with the increase of Amazon Prime subscriptions paints a rather vivid picture of the future of home television viewing. If this trend continues, Amazon Prime will have more subscribers than cable or satellite TV by next year. The chance of this overhaul happening in the near future is high.
In an attempt to be more accessible to everyone, Amazon is now coaxing lower-income American households with a discounted service. The companyis offering monthly payment options to cater to those who are not willing to fork over $99 for the annual subscription.
Main Reason for Subscribing
Looking at the Amazon Prime’s impressive increase in memberships, it’s easy to conclude that the service will soon render cable TV obsolete. However, it is important to consider the reason behind Amazon Prime’s growing subscriber base.
Business Insiderreports thatAmazon Prime’s video service isn’t the main reason why people are subscribing. The growth in subscriptions is mostly due to the company’s impressive delivery service which is relatively fast and reliable.
That being said, cable TV isn’t directly threatened by a competitor in the same service field. It is likely that a household can subscribe to Amazon Prime while still enjoying the perks of having cable TV.
Other Competition
Although Amazon Prime’s main catch is not home entertainment, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t working on building a subscriber base using that platform in the near future. Currently, Amazon Prime isn’t directly battling with cable TV – or at least, not yet.
The service has to compete with other streaming services including Netflix and Hulu. A recentreport suggests that Amazon Prime is gunning to become a major player in the streaming market and has already spent $4.5 billion on video this year.
Amazon is now offering the option to subscribe to Prime Video without subscribing to Prime itself. Prime Video has, until now, basically been a perk for Prime members, who also get free two-day shipping, unlimited music streaming, access to over a million ebook, early access to lightning deals, and free-same-day delivery in eligible areas.
Now, as it continues to build its original content library to truly compete with Netflix, Amazon is letting people just get its video streaming service without paying more per month to get all the other stuff. If you just want Prime Video, you can get it for $8.99 a month.
Amazon doesn’t have the volume of original programming Netflix does, but that may change in time. Currently, its original series line-up includes Bosch, Hand of God, The Man in High Castle, Mozart in the Jungle, Transparent, and Red Oaks. In the children’s department, it has Annedroids, Creative Galaxy, Tumble Leaf, Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street, Wishenpoof!, and Just Add Magic. Original series that have already ended include Betas, Alpha House, and Mad Dogs.
Amazon also has a continuation of Ripper Street (Season 4) and a number of other titles slated for the future. These include: Z: The Beginning of Everything, The Stinky & Dirty Show, Sneaky Pete, One Mississippi, The Last Tycoon, Jack Ryan, Great Men, an untitled motoring show from W. Chump and Sons, and an untitled Woody Allen TV series.
Amazon also has exclusive streaming rights for a number of titles.
While a standalone subscription to Prime Video is possible and the cheaper option (in the short term), it’s still probably worth it to most people to go ahead and get the full Prime package, which is just two dollars more a month. It’s actually cheaper in the long run to pay $99 a year and get the whole package. It works out to less than the Prime Video subscription at just $8.25. Understandably, not everyone wants to drop a hundred bucks at once on it though.
The change comes as Netflix prepares to raise prices for its customers who have subscribed for two years and longer. The company announced a price hike in May of 2014. At the time, it raised the price for new subscribers to $8.99 Later, it increased the price of its most popular plan to $9.99 – again for new customers. With the 2014 announcement, they said existing users wouldn’t have to pay more for two years, but that two-year point is quickly approaching. Netflix referenced the increase in its most recent quarterly letter to shareholders.
Amazon launched Prime Now for quick one-hour (or less) deliveries for $7.99 and free two-hour delivery in New York in late 2014. It has since expanded to other select metro areas. While we haven’t heard much about geographical expansion of the service lately, it sounds like it’s about to expand significantly in another way.
Prime Now requires customers to use a mobile app, but that will soon change if a new report is accurate. Bloomberg Business got its hands on related documents and says Amazon is planning a launch to put Prime Now on the web in May, and is preparing deals with brands to get them visibility for it. Spencer Soper at Bloomberg Business reports:
Amazon is trying to sell advertising space to major brands for the Web launch, promising them visibility with tens of millions of Amazon shoppers. The premium “Launch Hero Package” would cost $500,000 for about two weeks of placement on Amazon’s website associated with the rollout. That price includes e-mail promotions sent to Amazon customers, which Amazon said have a stand-alone value of $100,000, according to the documents reviewed by Bloomberg.
Amazon isn’t commenting on the news.
Prime Now is currently available nearly 20 cities in the United States as well as London. You can enter your zip code here to see if it’s available in your area.
In case it hasn’t been clear by now (it has), Amazon’s primary objective when it comes to everyday users, is to get them to become Prime members, which gives them access to free two-day shipping.
Amazon has offered free shipping to non-Prime members for years, however. It just takes longer. It used to be for orders of $25 and over, but they jacked it up to $45 and over a few years ago. Now, they’ve increased the minimum yet again – this time to $49.
TechCrunch points to a an Amazon help center document, which details the current terms. It does still allow customers a $25 minimum for books that qualify for eligible free shipping.
Amazon says, “Orders including $25 or more of eligible books qualify for FREE Shipping. All orders of $49 or more of eligible items across any product category also qualify for FREE Shipping. With free shipping, your order will be delivered 5-8 business days after all of your items are available to ship, including pre-order items.”
Last year, Amazon saw a 51% increase in Prime memberships worldwide. In the U.S. it was 47%.
Amazon announced that it has added over 4,000 new items to its Prime Now same-day service.
With Prime Now, Prime customers can get free two-hour delivery and $7.99 one-hour delivery.
Prime Now is currently offered to Prime members in Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Miami, Minneapolis, Nashville, Orange County, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Francisco, San Jose, San Diego, Seattle and Richmond.
Some of these locations feature deliveries from local restaurants and stores. In fact, Amazon also announced today that Chicago is getting local store delivery from Plum Market, Sprinkles Cupcakes, and My Fit Foods.
“Prime Now has been so popular with Chicago Prime members that we are excited to expand our superfast delivery benefits to include groceries and treats from favorite local stores Plum Market, Sprinkles Cupcakes, and My Fit Foods,” said Stephenie Landry, Director of Prime Now. “There are times when you can’t make it to the store and there are times when you simply don’t want to go, especially now as customers are busy preparing for the holidays.”
In less than a year, Prime has grown from one location to 20 metropolitan areas in the U.S., and will likely grow much more in the coming year.
Last summer, Amazon launched Prime Music as an added benefit to an Amazon Prime subscription. At the time, it only boasted about a million songs in its catalog – so it was never really supposed to be a Spotify killer or anything. What Amazon Prime Music always felt like was just one more dangling carrot for those on the fence about paying for Amazon Prime.
The service has added artists since then, but one of the glaring omission was always Universal Music artists.
Well, that’s changing. Amazon has just announced a new deal with Universal that brings its artists to the service.
“We are pleased to make a selection of our catalog available on Prime Music,” said Francis Keeling, Universal Music Group’s Global Head of Digital Business. “With Amazon’s tremendous reach and consumer appeal, we are delighted to build on our relationship by making Universal Music’s world-class artists available to Amazon Prime members.”
Amazon lists Katy Perry, Luke Bryan, Lana Del Rey, Maroon 5, Of Monsters and Men, Ariana Grande, The Weeknd, Ellie Goulding, Drake, Lorde, Jessie J and Eminem among the Universal artists now streaming in their catalog.
“Prime Music has already become a top destination for streaming music in the U.S. and U.K., and we are thrilled today to make it even better by growing our selection with Universal Music artists,” stated Steve Boom, VP of Digital Music for Amazon. “From chart topping artists like Lady Gaga to legendary musicians such as Tom Petty and Nirvana, we know our Prime members will love listening to all the additional music that’s now available as part of their membership.”
One of the most popular and well-reviewed shows of the past year is coming to Amazon, exclusively.
Amazon Prime members will soon be able to stream USA’s hit Mr. Robot, as the company has just announced a multi-regional deal with NBCUniversal.
“Mr. Robot is one the most compelling new dramas on television,” said Brad Beale, Amazon Vice President of Digital Video Content Acquisition. “Rami Malek delivers a mesmerizing performance and leads a great cast with an intriguing story full of dark twists. Prime members are going to love binging on this awesome show.”
The deal will give viewers in the US, UK, Germany, Austria, and Japan the chance to watch all ten episodes of the series’ first season.
But not all countries will get Mr. Robot at the same time. Folks in the UK get it soon – October 16th. On November 20th, it lands in Germany and Austria.
But us in the State have to wait until spring 2016.
“Mr. Robot is a tremendous success and Amazon Prime has provided a great opportunity to make the show even more accessible to audiences,” said Frances Manfredi, President, NBCUniversal Television and New Media Distribution. “We are pleased that Amazon recognizes the high quality of NBCUniversal’s content and is partnering with us in a network friendly way that allows viewers to watch the show when and where they want it.”
The show currently holds a 98% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes, and has been one of the most-buzzed about new series since its debut in June.
Mr. Robot will be one of the shows for which Amazon allows offline playback.
Just a friendly reminder – Amazon Prime, a subscription service that usually costs $99 a year, is just $67 a year if you sign up today.
If you’ve been on the fence about getting a subscription – today’s probably the day to do it. This is likely the cheapest it’s going to be (until Transparent wins another award, I guess).
The reason for Amazon’s nearly one-third reduction in price is its hit original series Transparent, which took home a handful of Emmys last Sunday.
It was the 67th annual Emmys, hence the $67 promotional price.
If this sort of promotion sounds familiar, that’s because Amazon did this earlier this year. When Transparent won big at the 72nd annual Golden Globes, Amazon slashed the price of Prime to $72 for one day.
If you want to catch the promotional deal, you’ll need to sign up for Prime between 12:00 am ET and 11:59 pm PT on Friday, September 25th. You can do that here.
“This has been an incredibly exciting year—with the Golden Globes wins in January and now twelve nominations and five Primetime Emmy wins. We are thrilled to celebrate Transparent with our customers by offering a Prime discount,” said Michael Paull, Vice President of Digital Video for Amazon. “Congratulations again to Jill Soloway, Jeffrey Tambor and the cast and crew of Transparent for making such a beautiful show, and to our customers—enjoy!”
Should you get Amazon Prime? I don’t know, this isn’t an ad. This is just a friendly reminder that it’s pretty cheap today. In fact, it’s even cheaper than it was before Amazon hiked the price up a couple years ago.
Amazon had a pretty good night at the 67th Emmys on Sunday, taking home a handful of statues for its hit original series Transparent.
And in recognition of that, the company is slashing the price of an Amazon Prime subscription by a third.
On Friday, September 25th, you can lock in a year of Amazon Prime for just $67 – $32 cheaper than the normal rate of $99.
If this sort of promotion sounds familiar, that’s because Amazon did this earlier this year. When Transparent won big at the 72nd annual Golden Globes, Amazon slashed the price of Prime to $72 for one day.
If you want to catch the promotional deal, you’ll need to sign up for Prime between 12:00 am ET and 11:59 pm PT on Friday. You can do that here.
“This has been an incredibly exciting year—with the Golden Globes wins in January and now twelve nominations and five Primetime Emmy wins. We are thrilled to celebrate Transparent with our customers by offering a Prime discount,” said Michael Paull, Vice President of Digital Video for Amazon. “Congratulations again to Jill Soloway, Jeffrey Tambor and the cast and crew of Transparent for making such a beautiful show, and to our customers—enjoy!”
If you’ve been thinking about getting Amazon Prime but have been hesitant to pull the trigger, this is the time to do it. It’s not going to get any cheaper than this.
Not to be outdone, Amazon is also expanding its streaming video services to Japan.
Netflix recently confirmed that it will officially launch in Japan – its first Asian country – on September 2nd. Now, Amazon has announced that it will also launch its Prime Instant Video offering in Japan in September.
This will be only the fourth country in which Amazon offers free Prime Video streaming to Prime subscribers (the US, UK, and Germany).
“As we’ve shown with the launch of Prime Video in the U.S. and around the world, we are investing significantly to bring high-quality, local and popular programming to Prime members, and our customers in Japan should expect the same investment,” Jasper Cheung, president of Amazon Japan, said in a statement. “We’ve been offering videos and DVDs in Japan for 15 years — we know the entertainment customers want — and we plan to deliver it with Prime Video, all at no additional cost.”
Amazon has offered Prime services in Japan for a decade, but this is the first time it’s adding Prime Instant Video to the package.
“We are passionate about making distinct, exclusive entertainment that will become Prime member’s next favorite TV show or movie, and we know Prime members in Japan will love what we introduce just for them,” said Amazon Studios VP Roy Price.
“Amazon Dash Button is simple to set up. Use the Amazon app on your smartphone to easily connect to your home Wi-Fi and select the product you want to reorder with Dash Button. Once connected, a single press automatically places your order. Amazon sends an order alert to your phone, so it’s easy to cancel if you change your mind. Unless you elect otherwise, Dash Button responds only to your first press until your order is delivered.”
Basically, you can set up a Tide-branded dash button near your washing machine, and when you run out of detergent you simply press the button and two days later – more Tide. Or you can place a Huggies-branded Dash button next to the changing table and when you run out of diapers, press the button and two days later – more Huggies.
There are a total of 18 Dash buttons currently available. Some of the products you can order by Dash are Bounty paper towels, Gatorade, SmartWater, Larabars, Gerber formula, Olay beauty products, Clorox wipes, Izze juice, Glad trash bags, and Kraft Mac & Cheese.
You can find all 18 dash buttons here. They run $4.99 a piece. To be fair, it still seems like it could be a joke.
But then again, I always do forget to order paper towels…
Did you know that Amazon has a credit card that gives Prime members an extra little something for every purchase?
Probably not, as Amazon has not really advertised it or even put out a press release or anything. Re/code just spotted it last week.
Amazon has offered its Amazon.com Store Card since March, but recently the company added an additional perk for Prime members – 5% back on any purchases made with the card.
“With the Amazon Prime Store Card, Amazon Store Cardholders who are also Prime members receive 5% cash back on purchases. The cash back amount is automatically applied as a statement credit within two billing cycles,” says Amazon.
You may know that Target has something similar called a RedCard, which offers 5% back on purchases (applied immediately). It’s clear that Amazon had that in mind when decided to offer this new Prime card.
Just tack 5% cash back on the growing list of benefits of subscribing to Amazon Prime. It’s been over a year now since Amazon hiked the price up to $99 a year from $79 a year, and every little perk it can add could help sway people to join.
Amazon may be gearing up to make another sizable investment in India.
The India Times reports that the company is preparing to launch its Prime service in the country, including Amazon Instant Video within the year.
Apparently, Amazon is already in talks with content producers. According to the report, this move will cost Amazon more than $5 billion, much of which will be spent on content.
“Our biggest financial backer (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos) doesn’t need a fresh pitch while deciding every new investment — we are really long on India, investment figures are easily in multiples of billion dollars,” the source told the Times.
Amazon first launched Amazon.in in 2013, originally selling books and DVDs. Over time, the ecommerce marketplace began to sell a fuller slate of products. Most recently, Amazon.in launched a luxury beauty product store.
Amazon made a big investment in India last year – $2 billion to “support its rapid growth and continue to enhance the customer and seller experience in India.”
“We see huge potential in the Indian economy and for the growth of e-commerce in India. With this additional investment of US $2 billion, our team can continue to think big, innovate, and raise the bar for customers in India. At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales,” said Bezos at the time.
Chances are you heard little but negative reactions and jokes when it comes to Amazon’s Prime Day sale, but the company announced on Thursday that it broke global records with sales exceeding Black Friday. Apparently more than a few people got something out of it. Amazon certainly did.
The company says it sold more units than it did on Black Friday of 2014, which was the biggest Black Friday ever. Worldwide order growth increased 266% compared to the same day last year and 18% compared to Black Friday 2014.
Despite lackluster reviews all over the Internet including popular hashtags like #PrimeFail and #PrimeDay Fail, it appears to have been a win for the online retail giant. The real goal was clearly to get more Prime members (as that is the goal of nearly everything Amazon does), and according to the company, it saw more new members try Prime worldwide than any other day in its history.
“Thank you to the hundreds of thousands of new members who signed up on Prime Day, and our tens of millions of existing members for making our first ever Prime Day a huge success,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President of Amazon Prime. “Customers worldwide ordered an astonishing 398 items per second and saved millions on Prime Day deals. Worldwide order growth increased 266% over the same day last year and 18% more than Black Friday 2014 – all in an event exclusively available to Prime members. Going into this, we weren’t sure whether Prime Day would be a one-time thing or if it would become an annual event. After yesterday’s results, we’ll definitely be doing this again.”
Sellers on Amazon that use Fulfillment by Amazon also saw record-breaking sales with 300% growth, Amazon says. Customers also ordered hundreds of thousands of Amazon devices, which makes Prime Day the largest device sales day in the company’s history as well.
Not exactly a fail apparently.
We’ll close with some stats from the announcement:
– Members ordered tens of thousands of Fire TV Sticks in one hour, making it the fastest-selling deal on an Amazon device ever
– Fire tablet sales on Amazon exceeded sales on Black Friday last year
– Members ordered thousands of e-readers and thousands of Echos in just 15 minutes
– 56,000 Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy sets
– 47,000 Televisions sold, which was 1300% year-over-year growth
– 51,000 Bose Headphones, compared to 8 the previous Wednesday
– 28,000 Rubbermaid 42-Piece Easy Find Lid Food Storage Sets, compared to 428 the previous Wednesday
– 24,000 Instant Pot 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cookers, compared to 182 the previous Wednesday
– 14,000 iRobot Roomba 595 Pet Vacuum Cleaning Robots, compared to 1 the previous Wednesday
– 12,000 Fifty Shades of Grey Unrated Edition on Blu-ray, compared to 121 the previous Wednesday
– 10,000 Meguiar’s X2020 Supreme Shine Microfiber Towels, compared to 244 the previous Wednesday
Top sellers by country (excluding Amazon devices):
– US: Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy
– UK: Lenovo FLEX 10 10.1-inch Multimode Touchscreen Notebook
– Spain: SSD Drive
– Japan: Green Smoothie mix
– Italy: Logitech Keyboard
– Germany: Croc Sandals
– France: Monopoly Boardgame
– Canada: Huggies Diapers
– Austria: Croc Sandals
As you may have heard, Amazon is celebrating its 20th birthday on by throwing a big deals party on Wednesday it’s calling Prime Day. Amazon says that there will be deals throughout the day that give Black Friday a run for its money.
Well, we have a sneak peek at some of those deals, and some are pretty substantial.
If you’ve been looking to buy a Fire TV stick, which is Amazon’s fastest-selling device of all time, tomorrow is the time. Fire TV sticks will be $24, $15 cheaper than normal price.
Here’s a look at some of the other deals that will pop up at various times throughout the day on July 15th:
– Kindle, $30 off
– Fire HD 7, $60 off
– Fire HD 7 Kids Edition, $60 off
– 32-inch LED TV, $75
– 40-inch 1080p LED TV, $115
– Brand-name 32-inch Smart HDTV, under $200
– 50-inch 4K TV bundle, under $1000
– Bose headphones at the lowest price ever on Amazon
– Chromebook laptop, only $199
Amazon is also holding some easy-to-enter contests. All you have to do is listen to any song on Prime Music and Amazon will enter you in a drawing for up to $25,000 in gift cards. Also, you can take this quiz and be entered to win a $2,000 gift card.
You have to be an Amazon Prime member to gain access to these deals, but Amazon offers a 30-day free trial if you’re not currently subscribed.
Amazon hopes tomorrow will be a big shopping day, and the company is really hyping it up. Not to be outdone, Walmart threw some shade earlier this week and announced their own lineup of deals.
If you’re thinking about signing up for Amazon Prime, it might be a decent idea to do it by July 15th.
Amazon has just announced Prime Day, an online shopping “holiday” for Prime members that it says will trump Black Friday in terms of deals offered.
According to the company, Prime Day will take place on July 15th and is being initiated in honor of Amazon’s 20th birthday.
“Next week, Amazon turns 20 and on the eve of its birthday, the company introduces Prime Day, a global shopping event, offering more deals than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada and Austria. On Wednesday, July 15, new and existing members in the U.S. will find deals starting at midnight, with new deals starting as often as every ten minutes. They can shop thousands of Lightning Deals, seven popular Deals of the Day and receive unlimited fast, free shipping,” says the company.
“Prime Day is a one-day only event filled with more deals than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members around the globe. Members tell us every day how much they love Prime and we will keep making it better,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President Amazon Prime. “If you’re not already a Prime member, you’ll want to join so you don’t miss out on one of the biggest deals extravaganzas in the world.”
The promise of a deals extravaganza will likely push a good amount of people to at least try an Amazon Prime free trial. The company sure hopes they’ll stay on and pay the $99 a year, as Amazon Prime subscriptions have been crucial in helping it turn a profit as of late.
Amazon has announced that it’s going to start streaming some shows in High Dynamic Range (HDR), just as it promised earlier this year.
HDR basically improves image quality by enhancing shadows and highlights and brightening colors. With HDR, Amazon’s streaming video will appear more lifelike.
This sounds nice, obviously, but there’s one catch to this – it’s very, very limited at this point.
Amazon is only enabling HDR streams for one of its original series – Mozart in the Jungle. And it’s only for Prime members in the US, and it’s only compatible with one device as of now – Samsung SUHD TVs.
“HDR is a technical innovation that provides a truly stunning viewing experience and we’re thrilled to be the first to offer this unmatched picture quality,” said Michael Paull, Vice President of Digital Video at Amazon. “We can’t wait for our Prime members to watch and re-watch Mozart in the Jungle in HDR at no additional cost to their membership, and we look forward to adding more titles and devices that support HDR this year.”
Of course, Amazon says that this is just the beginning and that there will be “more ways to watch soon.”
Amazon is the first to offer HDR streaming, but it won’t be the last. Netflix is also rolling it out soon – and it feels that HDR is way more important to your viewing experience than other quality boosts like 4K resolution.
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