Prime Day 2021 UK: Who's winning day 1?

Today begins Day 1 of Amazon Prime Day and traffic will be surging on the Amazon site. Focused shoppers will be piling into Amazon’s search tool in an effort to find a deal, whether it’s to get a shiny new washing machine, some wireless headphones or a long-awaited 4k TV to watch the rest of the Euro 2021 football competition.

Most shoppers won’t look past the first page of results. On a typical day, the top three products account for two-thirds (64%) of all clicks. The brands that have invested in boosting their search rankings to take advantage of the spike in traffic today will benefit. 

This morning, we analysed search results of the brands most prominent to shoppers in 6 major categories. Results below: 
 

Consumer Electronics

Winners (Greatest average weighted share of search*)

“Headphones” - Sony
“Laptop” - Huawei
“TV” - TCL
“Webcam” - Papalook

Consumer electronics will be popular with shoppers this Prime Day. In headphones, Sony was prominent, occupying first and third positions, sandwiching a OneOdio listing.

Huawei and TCL were most prominent for the search terms “laptop” and “tv” respectively. Both brands occupied the top two sponsored positions, beating out Asus in laptops and Samsung in TVs..

With many more people working from home, perhaps it’s not surprising that traffic for “webcam” spiked over 2020. This surge in demand boosted sales but led to availability issues for shoppers last year which helped third-party products rise up the rankings throughout the year. The search results today showed a large number of third-party products in the top 10 with Papalook taking the two top spots.

Home

Winners (Greatest average weighted share of search*)

“Air Fryer” - Breville
“Coffee Machine” - Tassimo (Bosch)
“Mattress” - Simba
“Microwave” - Toshiba and Sharp

“Air fryer” has been a popular term with shoppers over previous Prime Days and Cyber 5, and this year Breville was the most prominent brand. While Tower had three listings in the top 10, Breville’s top spot gives it a better overall weighting.

Top spot for “coffee machine” gave Tassimo (Bosch) the win while SImba occupied both first and second for “mattress”. 

There was a tie for the most prominent brand for “microwave” between Toshiba and Sharp. Toshiba had the top spot but Sharp had three listings, including second, meaning the brands could not be split.

Health and Beauty

Winners (Greatest average weighted share of search*)

“Hair Dryer” - Remington
“Makeup” - Prreal
“Nail Polish” - Max Factor
“Perfume” - Calvin Klein

Remington dominated the hair dryer category with 60% of all listings in the top 10 and the critical top three.

Amazon’s own Eono cosmetics brand was top for “makeup” but it was bested by Prreal which gained the second and third positions. Max Factor also had second and third for “nail polish” meaning it had a greater average weighted search than top placed brand Art 2C.

Calvin Klein had the greatest share for the search term “perfume”. Its Eternity for Women fragrances ranked first and sixth. 

Toys

Winners (Greatest average weighted share of search*)

“Board Games” - Exploding Kittens
“Jigsaws” - HXMARS
“Toys” - Osmo

Exploding Kittens’ card game and Throw Throw Burrito game were first and second for “board games” while classics like Monopoly and Cluedo did not make the top 10.

Established brands like Ravensburger and Clementoni did not make the top 10 for “jigsaws”. Third-party sellers dominated the top 10 and puzzle brand HXMARS at the top.

In previous years we have seen Osmo invest to return strongly during shopping events and this was no different as it had the top three sponsored positions for the popular search term “toys”.

Baby

Winners (Greatest average weighted share of search*)

“Baby Carriers” - Bebamour
“Baby Monitors” - Heimvision
“Car Seats” - Nania
“Pushchairs” - Silver Cross

Bebamour’s baby carrier will have caught the eye of bargain hunters as it was not only top spot for a search for “baby carrier” but also on a 20% Prime Day deal.

BT, Hello Baby and ToGuard had two listings each in the top 10 for “baby monitor” but top spot for Heimvision was enough to give it the edge when we looked at weighted search. However, top spot for the term “car seats” was not enough for Britax as Nania had three products in the top 10 including second and third.

Silver Cross far outperformed its rivals for “pushchairs” as it had 50% of the top 10 and two of the top three.

Alcohol

Winners (Greatest average weighted share of search*)

“Champagne” - Moët & Chandon
“Gin” - Tovess (Amazon)
“Vodka” - Smirnoff
“Whisky” - Talisker

Moët & Chandon was the leading Champagne brand on Prime Day with all of the top three search results. rival Vueve Cliquot was struggling for visibility.

Amazon’s own Tovess Pomegranate & Rose Gin was in top spot.ts Orange & Clementine Gin came in eighth giving it the greatest average weight search for “gin”.

Belvedere was top for “vodka” but Smirnoff had the rest of the top three and two more products in the top 10.

Talisker had three of its products in the top 10 for “whisky” ahead of Glenlivet. However, Glenlivet returned fifth and sixth as Talisker came second, fourth and eighth.

The challenge to Amazon

Once again, Amazon’s rivals have launched competing sales events to challenge Prime Day. But others, like Argos and John Lewis, seem to have abstained again this year.

Curry’s revived its Epic Deals from last year; Boots highlighted daily deals and “Better than Black Friday deals” and Very launched its Very Big Sale.
 

Prime Day may be about Amazon but it has a halo effect for other retailers as bargain-hungry shoppers head online. We have analysed five search terms across these retailers to see which brands performed best.

Winners (Greatest average weighted share of search*)

“TV” - Currys - LG, Very - LG
“Air Fryer” - Currys - Tefal, Very - Ninja 
“Perfume” - Boots - Issey Miyake, Very - Vera Wang
“Board Games” - The Toy Shop - Monopoly, Very - Monopoly
“Car Seats” - Boots - Joie, Very - Safety Baby

LG was the top performing brand for “TV” on both Currys and Very. It had two of the top three on Currys and all of the top six on Very.

Tefal and Ninja were the most prominent brands on Currys and Very for the term “Air Fryer”. Ninja two of the top three and five of the top ten on Very.

For perfume, there were no obvious leaders on Boots or Very. Issey Miyake and Vera Wang ranked first on Boots and Very respectively.

Unlike on Amazon, Hasbro dominated the term “board games” with Monopoly the leading brand on both retailers.

Joie had all of the first nine search positions for “car seats” on Boots with only Mothercare stopping it from the clean sweep of the top 10.

That’s it for Day 1 of Prime Day. Will things change on Day 2? Come back tomorrow, 22 June, for more analysis based on the morning’s data. 

*Weighted share of search is weighted so that products nearer the top of the search results are given a greater percentage share than results than results further down. The weighting is exponential for rankings from 1st to 10th