Prime Day brings nearly as many eyes to Amazon as Cyber Monday (AMZN)

Amazon created Prime Day essentially out of thin air. But the company's standing in online shopping is so dominant that the event — a day-long sale for members of its Prime subscription service — has reached a level that’s comparable to more traditional retail holidays.

To give you an idea: Nearly 50 million Americans visited Amazon during its Prime Day event last year, according to a recent ComScore report charted for us by Statista. That's only 10 million fewer than the number who visited Amazon on Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving that traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season online. And that day had a boost, because it was open to everyone, not just those who pay Amazon $100 a year to be a Prime member.

Prime Day is still too young and limited to surpass days like Cyber Monday and Black Friday in terms of overall e-commerce sales, but it’s created a similar sort of effect as those shopping holidays. Various other retailers have been forced to run their own sales events in response to Prime Day’s growing pull.

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