Online retail giant Amazon (AMZN - Analyst Report) had an inaugural one day sales promo dubbed “Prime Day” yesterday to celebrate the company’s 20^th anniversary of the launch of its website. The company promoted the sale one as one that had even more deals than the famed Black Friday that occurs every year in November. The sale wasn’t for just anyone, though, as only Amazon’s prime membership subscribers were able to participate.
 
The event drew large amounts of interest from consumers and coverage from media outlets, but now that it has come and gone it’s time for the investors to get what they want to see, the sales results.
 
Successful is a great word to use for Amazon’s Prime Day sales results. The company saw 18% more orders yesterday than it did on its latest Black Friday of 2014, the largest Black Friday the company has ever had in terms of sales. There were 266% more orders than on July 15^th of last year, and sales from 3^rd-party sellers using the company’s fulfillment services were 300% higher than last year.
 
34.4 million items were sold in Prime-eligible locales, including “hundreds of thousands” of Fire TV HDMI sticks, which was just one of the many items on sale that saw massive sales numbers. The company also reported that it saw more members try Prime yesterday than any other day in its history. For those that don’t know, Amazon Prime is a yearly subscription with an annual fee of $99 that gives users benefits when they shop on the retailer’s website like free 2-day shipping, occasional discounts, access to Amazon Instant Video, among others. A large influx of new members is a revenue generator both in terms of the subscription fee as well as providing revenue in the future as users order products through the service.  
 
Amazon got exactly what it was looking for when it launched the massive one day sale of “Prime Day”, as several previous single-day company sales records were greatly surpassed. Prime members can expect the same sale next year as well, with Amazon Prime VP Greg Greeley stating, “After yesterday’s results, we’ll definitely be doing this again”.
 
For those looking forward to it, there are officially only 364 more days until next year’s Prime Day.