FBIC’s global team has been tracking Amazon Prime Day and its “lighting deals” around the clock today. Since midnight PDT, FBIC team members in Hong Kong, the UK and the US have been following Amazon’s global sites, social media outlets and media responses. As promised, the e-tailer refreshed the sites with new deals every ten minutes, using an eBay-like countdown to lock down prices. Consumers have largely expressed strong disappointment in most of the deals, claiming Amazon did not deliver with the expected quality of deals. Even if the deals were sub-optimal, extensive publicity around this event could lift Amazon’s and its competitors’ sales.

NEGATIVE SENTIMENT CONTINUES

As the event unfolded, customers started to slam Amazon with hashtags like #unhappyPrimeDay, #AmazonFail, and even #PrimeDayFail. As of 6:30PM EDT, #PrimeDayFail had replaced #PrimeDay to trend on Tweeter. Complaining about Prime Day has evolved into an entertainment event: customers have captured screens of “1% off” on some Prime Deals, venting about extra waiting time to buy toilet paper or making fun of Prime Day replacing themselves as the biggest disappointment of their parents’ life. Amazon received negative media coverage from almost every major news outlet. Some headlines. As our report noted earlier, the product mix was somewhat esoteric, deals were too mundane, and the website was difficult to navigate.

DAILY SALES WERE UP ON PRIME DAY

Did Amazon really benefit from the Prime Day publicity? The numbers tell the truth: despite the media backlash, Amazon’s daily sales surged on Prime Day. On this inaugural Prime Day, Amazon’s US sales were up 80% from last year and Europe sales were up 40% as of noon EDT today, according to Channel Advisors’ estimate based on its 2,800 Amazon third-party merchant clients. In a Prime Day Update press release, Amazon praised today’s strong sales: “Prime Day peak order rates have already surpassed 2014 Black Friday,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President Amazon Prime. “Prime members have already bought tens of thousands of Fire TV Sticks, 35,000 Lord of the Rings Blu-Ray sets, 28,000 Rubbermaid sets, and 4,000 Echo devices in 15 minutes. The Kate Spade purse was gone in less than a minute. We also sold 1,200 of the $999 TVs in less than 10 minutes. And there are thousands more deals coming.”

PRIME DAY IS STILL A SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL EVENT

The photo contest on Prime Day picked up the most positive responses from social media. Thousands of Prime customers shared their “Prime moments” for a chance to win $10,000 in Amazon gift cards. Most of them expressed appreciation towards the convenience Prime membership has provided. Some Tweets with the hashtag #PrimeLiving included: “PrimeLiving allows to live rurally, but buy nationally” “PrimeLiving with @HailMerry Snacks! Love Amazon!” “#PrimeLiving means time and money to take my kids swimming while I write!” “We use it everyday!”

RESPONSES FROM COMPETITORS

Following strong response earlier this week, Walmart featured “Low Prices Every Day for Everyone” and “Dare to Compare” on its homepage today, promoting over 2,000 online exclusive “rollbacks” in addition to lowering the free shipping requirement to $35 from $50. This morning, Target has extended its “Black Friday in July” through July 18. The midsummer event offers buy one, get one at 50% off on clothes, shoes, fragrances and other items. As mentioned in our earlier reports, Prime Day also drew responses from European retailers. In the UK, leading electronics specialist chain Currys-PC World countered with its own flash sale. Like Amazon, though, promotions are an everyday event at Currys-PC World, so it’s possible that conventional offers were rebundled into a “flash event.” But in Germany, MediaMarket ,the largest electronics specialty retailer, made no apparent attempt to respond.

PRIME DAY VERSUS SINGLES’ DAY: PRIME DAY IS NOT GLOBAL WITHOUT CHINA

Amazon’s main Chinese competitor, Alibaba, launched its first Singles’ Day promotion on November 11, 2009, as a celebration of China’s singles. Last year, Alibaba achieved $9 billion in sales on Singles’ Day, up from $5.8 billion in 2013. The idea of Prime Day could have been inspired by Amazon China’s experience with Singles’ day. Amazon China actively participated in Singles’ Day last year: it started a 48-hour Singles’ Day promotion offering up to 40% off on many products. Its promotional campaign featured “Killer Seconds —Flash Sales Storms” at specific times. Due to the Amazon Prime-only nature of today’s promotions, only customers from the US, UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada and Austria were able to shop for the deals. Amazon China’s site was doing its usual promotions without any mention of Prime Day. Will Amazon Prime Day, the newest online shopping holiday, top Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales record? It might be difficult if the ecommerce giant excludes world’s second largest consumer market, China.

SELECT DEALS FROM AMAZON, WALMART AND TARGET