Report: Amazon Prime Day hinders brick-and-mortar foot traffic

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Jul 26, 2017

Amazon Prime Day on July 10, 2017 was the Seattle-based company’s biggest global shopping in history, surpassing Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2016. Big box retailers didn’t fare as well on Prime Day, however.

 
According to Sense360, a real-time data insights and consumer intelligence company, foot traffic at Walmart, JCPenney, Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, Home Depot, Lowes, Sears, Kohl’s, Target and Best Buy, all saw an average 24% decrease in traffic on Prime Day.
 
In addition, the retailers had a 32% decrease in traffic by consumers that have the Amazon App installed on their phone and only a 7% decrease by consumers who did not have the Amazon App installed.

Of the retailers that experienced traffic declines, Sears, JCPenney and Kohl’s suffered the worst on Prime Day with 36%, 34% and 31% respective traffic decreases, while Macy’s, Barnes & Noble, and Best Buy performed not as poorly with a decrease of 9%, 11% and 19%, respectively.
 
“Our data shows that Amazon is clearly changing the game for brick and mortar retailers, and that the trend is only growing as the rise of smartphones and apps give consumers even more convenient ways to take advantage of promotions such as Prime Day," said Eli Portnoy, CEO and Founder of Sense360.