Fierce share of search (SoS) battles and keyword volatility defined some of Amazon’s top-performing product categories on Prime Day.
Another Prime Day is in the books, and the 2023 edition of the event was unsurprisingly massive. Amazon confirmed day one of the event as the biggest sales day in the company’s history, reporting that members purchased over 375 million items and saved more than $2.5 billion worldwide. Adobe Analytics tallied $6.4 billion in US sales on day one thanks to over 1 trillion visits to retail websites and over 100 million unique SKUs.
Day two saw a slight dip in sales (a measly $6.3 billion) bringing the two-day event total to a whopping $12.7 billion in consumer sales. 2023 sales rose 6.1% from Prime Day 2022 and set a new record for Prime Day spending, but interestingly fell short of Adobe’s expected 9.5% growth rate.
Selected Prime Day Insights
Methodology
Using proprietary, AI-powered web data harvesting technology, Engage3 analysts monitored real-time Amazon search data and conducted an analysis of organic and sponsored search results for dozens of keywords across home goods, electronics, and health – categories identified by Amazon as the event’s top performers. The below charts visualize the weighted share of search* by brand for each keyword. Data in the selected tables below represent US sales and times are presented in EST.
*Weighted search: higher search placements like 1st and 2nd account for more than 9th or 10th.
E.g. 1st =32%, 2nd=21.3%, 3rd=10.7%.
Television
TCL and Insignia fought over the top search visibility for Television search terms. Insignia had the greatest weighted share of search over Prime Day as a whole for “Television” at 34.1% ahead of TCL (23.9%). Despite TCL winning day one with a 34.3% ahead of Insignia’s 18.2%.
For the term “TV”, fortunes were reversed. TCL had the greatest share across the whole Prime Day at 30.6% to Insignia’s 28.6%. However, Insignia had the greatest share on the 2nd day with 31.1% ahead of TCL’s 25.3%.
Air Fryers
Despite recently filing for bankruptcy, Instant Pot led weighted share of search over Prime Day at 23.2%, just ahead of Cosori (17.9%). In a category marked by high volatility, Instant Pot managed to lead both days.
Power Drills
BLACK+DECKER had the greatest weighted share for both “Cordless Power Drill” and “Power Drill” at 25.6% and 33.4% respectively. This is ahead of Denali for “Cordless Power Drill” and Oubel for “Power Drill”. BLACK+DECKER led both Organic and Sponsored search for both.
Beauty & Personal Care
Revlon had the greatest weighted SoS for “Hair Dryer” at 21.8%. Kristen Ess led the way for “Hair Straightener” with 27.5%. Amazon Basics had the greatest share for “Moisturizers” at 20.3% but lost the top share to Cetaphil on day 1.
Toys
Hasbro Gaming had the greatest share for “Board Games” at 35.5% ahead of Exploding Kittens. Exploding Kittens was also second for “Card Games” beaten out by Mattel which had a share of 22.6%. For “Kids Toys”, Melissa & Doug (22.9%) won the battle for “Kids Toys,” blowing past 2nd-placed Lego at 14.5%”. Lego, however, topped the highly competitive “Toys” search term with a share of 16.4% thanks to an aggressive Sponsored approach.
Vacuum Cleaners
Bissell had the greatest weighted share of search for “Vacuum Cleaner” at 27.4%, far ahead of its rivals, the closest of which was Dyson (11.3%). Foppapedretti surprisingly was the leader for “Cordless Vacuum Cleaner” with 13.9% ahead of Tineco (10.9%).
Search is a key battleground in 2023 and beyond
Prime Day is a high-visibility, high-stakes event that highlights the rapid evolution of digital shelf strategy. Search competition and keyword volatility are at an all-time high. A set-and-forget daily keyword strategy just isn’t enough. In dynamic online marketplaces where minutes count, brands and retailers need accurate, near-instant visibility into search analytics to identify strategic opportunities and maximize their return.
Our complete Prime Day Search analysis includes raw and weighted share of search for over 30 product categories on Amazon US and UK, a deep dive into sponsored vs. organic search traffic, and search volatility insights. Click here to request a copy of our full report.
