Once again, Amazon – and its Prime members – have something to smile about. Amazons Prime Day 2019, which actually stretched across 48 hours, was the most successful shopping event in company history, reports Amazon. Members in 18 countries bought more than 175 million items, including everything from clothing and electronics to groceries and beauty products. Prime Day, held July 15 and 16, was also the biggest sales event ever for Amazon devices, particularly the Echo Dot, Fire TV stick, Alexa voice remote and Fire TV stick with Alexa voice remote.

We want to thank Prime members all around the world, said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO in a July 17 news release. Members purchased millions of Alexa-enabled devices, received tens of millions of dollars in savings by shopping from Whole Foods Market and bought more than $2 billion of products from independent small and medium-sized businesses. Huge thank you to Amazonians everywhere who made this day possible for customers.

Prime members in the U.S. received tens of millions of dollars in savings at Whole Foods Market on Prime Day. The grocery stores most popular items were strawberries, red cherries and blueberries. Another key highlight this year was that millions of people around the world live streamed the Prime Day Concert headlined by Taylor Swift who performed You Need to Calm Down, her first live performance of the song.

Other top highlights for Prime Day 2019 include the following:

• Prime members from 18 countries saved more than $1 billion. This is double the number of countries from five years ago on the first Prime Day.
• Millions of purchased items were shipped in one day or faster with Prime Free One-Day, Prime Free Same-Day or Prime Now worldwide.
• On July 15, Amazon signed up more new Prime members than on any other day in company history. July 16 was a close second, also a company record.
• Prime Day 2019 was a big one for Fire tablets with the Fire 7 as the top seller.
• It was also the best Prime Day ever for Kindle devices.
• Customers bought two times as many Fire TV Edition Smart TVs this year as last year, setting a record.
• In the U.S., Prime members bought more than 100,000 lunchboxes, 100,000 laptops, 200,000 TVs, 1 million sets of headphones, 350,000 luxury beauty products, 400,000 pet products, 650,000 cleaning supplies and more than 1 million toys.
• Top sellers in the U.S. were the LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, Instant Pot DU060 and 23andMe Health + Ancestry kits. Canada had similar best sellers plus PlayStation 4 Slim with Spiderman and Horizon Zero Dawn.
• Top sellers in the U.K. were the Sony PlayStation classic console, Oral-B SmartSeries Electric toothbrush and the Shark vacuum cleaner.

Amazon also reports that Prime Day 2019 was successful for small- and medium-sized businesses who sell products through the Amazon marketplace. During the two-day Prime Day, small- and medium-sized companies far exceeded $2 billion in sales, also a record.

Amazon wasnt the only company rolling out the red caret for a summer shopping extravaganza. Walmart, eBay and Target offered their own promotions, says CBS News. Though Amazon 100 million Prime members, there are still shoppers who arent members who are looking for deals without the price tag of a membership program. According to CNET, Walmart offered electronics deals on top sellers like Nintendo Switch, Chromebook, iPads and Apple Watches, in direct competition with Amazon.

Insider Take:

It is fascinating to watch Amazon Prime Day get bigger and better each year, exceeding its own company records and stepping up its game with more deals and exclusive entertainment to draw in new members. Some new Prime members will take advantage of the 30-day free trial and possibly cancel their membership after the trial is over, but Amazon will retain many of those customers who will get more than just deals and free shipping. They get Amazon Prime and the many other features and benefits of a Prime membership which hooks them and improves retention.

It is interesting to watch other large retailers go head to head with Amazon, rather than trying innovative solutions or shopping events of their own. But comparing Amazon to Walmart or Target isnt really comparing apples to oranges anyway. Amazon is an entire ecosystem and global marketplace, where Walmart and Target have limited offerings. They should stick to what they do well – or start something completely new and different, rather than trying to copy Amazon. They may increase sales for a day, but they arent creating a sustainable relationship with a one-time shopper looking for a deal.