Orders up 60% on Amazon's second Prime Day

Amazon’s second Prime Day saw customer orders soar by 60% globally in comparison to the first, with "hundreds of thousands" of Kindle e-readers sold.

Amazon held its second annual Prime Day on Tuesday (12th July) on its websites in countries around the world, including the UK, which allowed members of its £79-a-year Prime subscription to take advantage of high discounts on items with new deals "every five minutes".

Amazon says it held the discount day to say "thank you" to Prime members, but the company is also using the retail event to encourage more consumers to sign up to the annual membership, which is parts of its growth plan.

Tuesday was the company’s biggest day "ever" for Amazon device sales globally, Amazon said, including sales of Kindle e-readers, Fire TV’s and Fire tablets, with the Kindle Paperwhite e-reader on a £30-off offer in the UK, for example.

Customers orders rose by 60% in comparison to its first Prime Day in 2015, with orders rising 50% in the US. No specific data was given for the UK.

The biggest-selling items of the day globally were electronics, toys and shoes, with "hundreds of thousands of Kindle e-readers" sold, according to the e-commerce giant, along with 2m toys and more than 1m shoes. Top-selling items in the UK were Amazon devices the Fire TV Stick, Fire tablet and Kindle Paperwhite, with the latter device especially popular in South Yorkshire, the company said.

Greg Greeley, vice president, Amazon Prime, said: "We want to thank our tens of millions of members around the world for making this the biggest day in the history of Amazon."

He confirmed the Prime Day would return next year.