A survey by JDA Software found that more than half of U.S. consumers – 52% – ran into technical difficulties during Prime Day. Of that group, 27% either gave up without making a purchase or bought less than they had planned.
There were also allegations from some merchants that Amazon jacked up suggested retail prices on some products during Prime Day to make it appear that shoppers were getting a bargain, according to Fox Business, a charge the company denied. The Federal Trade Commission is looking into the allegations.
Tech issues were mostly related to an inability to access Amazon.com due to site overloads and crashes. Amazon’s servers were overwhelmed with more traffic than the company bargained for, according to internal company documents obtained by CNBC.
The JDA survey polled more than 1,000 U.S. consumers about their Prime Day experience. The frequency varied but 32% said they shop on Amazon “every few weeks.”
In an interesting wrinkle, mobile and tablet was the top platform for shopping Prime Day, cited by 60% of respondents, followed by desktop/laptop at 53%. Only 9% said they shopped at a Whole Food Market during Prime Day. Of those who did, 75% said they regularly shop there anyway, with the rest specifically showing up for Prime Day deals.
Some other findings from the JDA survey:
- 40% said they made unplanned purchases based on items on sale
- 31% said they planned out purchases ahead of time
- 19% said all of their items were discounted
- 10% said they planned out purchases in advance but bought items based on what was on sale, getting everything at a discount
According to data from Hitwise, Amazon processed more than 17 million transactions during Prime Day, up 91% compared to the same period in the previous week. Out of the top 48 retailers selling during Prime Day as determined by Hitwise, Amazon accounted for a whopping 86% of all transactions. The rest didn’t’ fare too badly, however, seeing a 25% lift in transactions.
The retailers with the biggest gain in Prime Day transactions vs. the prior week, according to Hitwise, were Target (up 122%), Lowe’s (up 90%), Best Buy (up 81%) and Kohl’s (up 75%).