A third-party success story that has absolutely nothing to do with politics. Amongst all the political news, Amazon Prime Day is looking like the biggest success story of the week. Amazon has not disclosed their total Prime Day sales, but they did announce that third-party sellers on their marketplace earned more than $3.5 billion during this year’s Prime Day shopping event.
Prime Day, which launched in 2015 typically takes place in mid-July but this year the online retail giant moved the event to October, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The move to October almost seemed to kick start the holiday season for retailers in general as discount promotions popped up from other major retailers in response to the Amazon event.
Amazon typically spends the days following Prime Day touting their success but this year it was clear they chose a different approach, playing up the success of small businesses instead. “We are thrilled that Prime Day was a record-breaking event for small and medium businesses worldwide, with sales surpassing $3.5 billion—an increase of nearly 60% from last year,” Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer, said in a news release.
Amazon highlighted that it would be investing $18 billion this year to help small and medium sized businesses. The support included funding a promotion that helped drive over $900 million in sales in the weeks leading up to Prime Day.
The small and business owners were not the only winners. If Amazon is having success, then the net worth of founder Jeff Bezos is moving north. And wow, did he ever have a good week. The anticipated success of Prime Day alone was enough to send Jeff Bezos back above the 200-billion-dollar mark. Bezos began 2020 worth around $115-billion and has seen his worth almost double as the pandemic lockdowns have driven people towards online shopping. The billionaires’ stake in Amazon makes up more than 90% of his fortune.
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