Amazon Prime Day boosts small business sales, brings competition

SEATTLE, Wash.-- Amazon Prime Day 2017 saw huge success. The company's members-only sales surpassed both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, making it the biggest day in Amazon history.

Sales grew by more than 60% over 2016.

But Prime Day isn't all about Amazon. It's also a huge day for thousands of small businesses that participate in the event. About 40% of all of Amazon's lightning deals were supplied by small businesses or entrepreneurs, giving them a much needed boost in the middle of summer.

According to Amazon, a company out of Bellevue selling the Furbo Dog Camera, a camera that lets you see, talk and even toss treats to your dog while you're not home, saw it's daily sales increase by over 500 times on Prime Day.

In a press release from Amazon, the company is quoted saying, "Within the first six hours, Furbo Dog Camera shot up to the No.1 Best Seller in four categories including the highly competitive pet supplies and home monitor category."

Another small business in New York, Simply Gum, said its deal almost sold out as soon as it went live.

"We experienced a 703% lift in our revenue for the duration of our deal compared to a typical Monday night so it was a huge lift for us. What was also surprising was that it happened so quickly, quicker than we could have ever imagined," said Adeena Cohen, with Simply Gum.

There's been chatter in the past that Amazon kills small businesses, but Simply Gum said its experience with the company has always been positive.

MID-JULY COMPETITION

Amazon Prime Day began in 2015 to celebrate the company's 20th birthday. Since then, mid-July has become a sort of "Black Friday of the summer" with other big box retailers offering their own competitive deals during the same time frame as Prime Day.

Best Buy offered deals on appliances, discounts on Samsung Galaxy phones, headphones and computers... and even offered shoppers $30 off the Amazon Alexa competitor, Google Home.

Toys "R" Us offered a 36-hour cyber saving event that ended Wednesday morning. In a statement they told us, "You might think this was in response to Amazon's Prime Day, but let's just say we at Toys R Us believed a deal as good as this one was worth sharing with everyone- no membership required."

Other stores that were offering sales were JCPenney, Macy's and Office Depot.

AMAZON'S BEST SELLERS

Amazon said prime members' most popular purchase was the Echo Dot. Other top sellers in the US: A pressure cooker and 23andMe DNA Tests to find out your ancestry.

In the U.S., Amazon sold more than 200,000 women's dresses and more than 200,000 lightbulbs.

The company also said it sold more than 3.5 million toys worldwide.

And a quick fun fact: One of the fastest Prime Now deliveries on Prime Day was in Kirkland, Washington.  The order was delivered in 12 minutes.