The Top-Selling Amazon Prime Day vs. Walmart Products

Amazon's competition with Walmart rollbacks looks like the tortoise and the hare

ByABC News
July 16, 2015, 4:30 PM

— -- Amazon is touting that its Prime Day deals broke the company's Black Friday records despite being a disappointment for some. Here's a look at how Walmart and Amazon stacked up in their shopping deals face-off.

Amazon said today that it sold "more units" on Prime Day than those of its biggest Black Friday ever, which was last year. The company also touts that it "had more new members try Prime worldwide than any single day in Amazon history."

But analysts weren't so quick to declare Amazon a winner.

“One day definitely doesn’t decide this 'race,'" Charles O'Shea, vice president with Moody's, told ABC News today.

A statement from a Walmart spokesman said, "Customers flocked to our site and the last three days have been among some of our biggest days ever for online orders. And customers are finding faster ways to get their online orders, as Wednesday was the highest day of the year for same-day pickup in Walmart stores, with orders increasing triple digits over the same day last year."

Amazon's one-day shopping event was a new promotion for Amazon Prime customers, who pay $99 a year for perks like free two-day shipping and streamed entertainment content. Students pay $49 a year. The company said it shared "thousands of lightning deals" and seven "deals of the day."

Walmart launched a rival sale, including more than 2,000 online exclusive "rollbacks." The discounted items are available for 90 days and will include electronics, home products, baby products and toys. The company will also decrease its free shipping minimum order to $35 from $50.

While Amazon may have sold more "units" than it did on Black Friday, there were fewer deals on what some consider that shopping day's bread and butter: electronics and toys.

“It's difficult to say whether one retailer offered 'better' deals than the other, because they had different deals," Poonam Goyal, senior retail analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, told ABC News. "However, the deal being promoted was better than the rival retailer most of the time."

She noted that Amazon Prime Day shoppers seeking more electronics-focused purchases may have been disappointed by the "scattered" discounts.

Amazon said today that its global order growth was 18 percent -- more than that of Black Friday -- after customers ordered 34.4 million items on Wednesday across Prime-eligible countries and broke Black Friday records with 398 items ordered per second.

Walmart's top-selling online rollbacks on Wednesday included:

• Apple iPad Air 32GB WiFi, $399.99

• FitBit Charge HR, $142.77

• Disney Frozen Anna & Kristoff Dolls, $12.35

• Black & Decker 18-Volt NiCad Drill and 133 pieces Home Project Kit, $50

• Xbox One Solution Bundle with Your Choice of Console, Game and Controller, $349

• Shark Easy Spray Steam Mop DLX, $20

Walmart's top items picked up in store include:

• Apple iPad Mini

• Fitbit Charge

• HP 15.6-inch laptop

PHOTO: Pictured is an infographic provided by Walmart.
Pictured is an infographic provided by Walmart.

Here are Amazon's Prime Day U.S. "highlights":

• "Tens of thousands" of Fire TV Sticks sold in one hour, making it the fastest-selling deal on an Amazon device ever

• Fire tablet sales on Amazon exceeded sales on Black Friday last year

• Thousands of e-readers and thousands of Echos sold in 15 minutes

• 56,000 Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy sets

• 47,000 televisions sold, which was 1,300 percent year-over-year growth for Amazon

• 51,000 Bose Headphones, compared to 8 the previous Wednesday

• 28,000 Rubbermaid 42-Piece Easy Find Lid Food Storage Sets, compared to 428 the previous Wednesday

• 24,000 Instant Pot 7-in-1 Programmable Pressure Cookers, compared to 182 the previous Wednesday

• 14,000 iRobot Roomba 595 Pet Vacuum Cleaning Robots, compared to 1 the previous Wednesday

• 12,000 "Fifty Shades of Grey" Unrated Edition on Blu-ray, compared to 121 the previous Wednesday

• 10,000 Meguiar's X2020 Supreme Shine Microfiber Towels, compared to 244 the previous Wednesday