Prime Day Fail or Prime Day Success? Let These Numbers Be the Judge...

Consumers, business analysts, merchants and retail experts alike all had a lot to say about Amazon's much hyped about Prime Day that took place today, July 15. Among the statements made about Amazon's Prime Day included that it was a "made up holiday" and much like a "garage sale". Additionally, some folks went as far as sharing hashtags that slammed Amazon with labels that included #unhappyPrimeDay, #AmazonFail, #gobacktosleep and the most popular among these, #PrimeDayFail. At the end of the day, however, what really tells us whether or not Amazon's Prime Day was a success or failure are the numbers. And while Amazon hasn't released official earnings at this point, data collected by Talkwalker - a social data intelligence company - identified the following data that was collected from July 13 to July 15, 2015 through 6pm eastern: The #PrimeDay hashtag has received 110,016 mentions #PrimeDay hashtag has received 90,350 engagements (re-tweets, shares, mentions etc.) The #PrimeDayFail hashtag received 6,303 mentions after the sales launched Sentiment for the #PrimeDay hashtag went from 10% negative sentiment before the sale to 24% negative once sales launched @Amazon has received 89,648 total audience mentions @Amazon has received 32,093 engagements Combined @Amazon and the #PrimeDay hashtag have had a sizeable dip in sentiment since the sales launched receiving a combined 41,434 negative mentions from users. Todd Grossman, CEO of the Americas for Talkwalker, believes that this data is vital for Amazon to analyze - as well as offers other retailers the benefit from learning from Amazon's seemingly failed Prime Day.

It's critical for Amazon to actively monitor consumer feedback on social media for #PrimeDay in real-time. Understanding consumer reaction and sentiment can potentially empower them to be a fluid in how they communicate with customers - enabling them to address concerns or combat misconceptions about what kinds of products and discounts are available. Right now, Amazon needs to think about how they can turn customer sentiment around to avoid a longer-term reputation issue," Grossman states.

Amazon has historically thrived, with consumer perception strong and sales data supporting this. So could a long-term reputation issue really be at hand? In this case, likely not - especially since many Amazon Prime members didn't even know about the sale and those that did didn't necessarily understand what it was.