Amazon (AMZN +1.10%) has become a habit for many during the coronavirus pandemic to resupply household items or to purchase last-minute gifts. And this e-commerce giant hopes its Prime Day sales will get even more consumers attracted to its platform with sale prices on many of the items listed on the site. But does this event really matter to investors? On a Fool Live episode recorded on June 30, Fool contributors Brian Feroldi and Brian Stoffel talk about the results of the company's latest Prime Day extravaganza and whether investors should even care.
Brian Stoffel: I am going to start off talking about Amazon. I know Amazon didn't have earnings, but they did have Prime Day and it was a two-day event as it has been more recently. Just a couple of excerpts from what the company had to say, "Prime Day 2021 was the biggest two-day period ever for Amazon third-party sellers, nearly all of which are small and medium-sized businesses, growing even more than Amazon's retail business." They said that, Tools, beauty, nutrition, baby care all sold well.
Just if you're curious, I just find this interesting. They said their top-selling products during Prime Day were the iRobot Roomba, the Keurig K-Slim coffee maker, apple cider vinegar gummy vitamins, and Crest 3D White Professional Effect white strips. That's just interesting me.
Now, in terms of the takeaway, overall, most news outlets focused on the fact that how these results weren't great and in general, I would agree. When we find out that third-party sellers are growing faster than Amazon retail, that's not surprising. We know that third-party sellers are the bulk of who is selling things on Amazon now these days anyway. It wasn't great, especially compared to the last couple of years. To me, it's just a big meh.
Brian Feroldi: I'm really surprised to hear you focus on a Prime Day because you are more of a long-term thinker. Is Prime Day a big part of the thesis for you on Amazon? If they had a down year for Prime Day, would you be like game over?
Stoffel: No. What you're really getting at here, Brian, is the fact that we're doing this show in between earning seasons. It's like I want to hit on Amazon because Prime Day is important to some investors, but you're absolutely right. To me, this is not a big deal.
Prime day is one of those things that it's just positive. If there is a bad Prime Day, that doesn't mean people are going to stop shopping at Amazon. But if there's a good Prime Day then people probably have been drawn into the ecosystem. I honestly think half of it is just that there aren't that many people left to pull into the ecosystem which is fine because you can still buy more stuff on Amazon over time anyway.
Feroldi: Let's not forget that that was a made-up holiday. I know now many people in my life that circle it on their calendar. [laughs] That's a powerful company right there.
