For weeks leading up to Amazon’s two-day deal dash, Prime Day, countless emails went out to anyone who had purchased from the online retailer. News organizations were reporting sales expectations to surpass those of Black Friday with revenue exceeding Prime Day 2018’s $4.2 billion* in sales. So, how did Amazon’s Prime Day measure up?

In an Amazon statement released just after the event, the two-day sale was its best shopping experience to date and sales exceeded those of 2018’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. 175 million items were sold worldwide with revenue reaching an estimated $5.8 billion* and achieved a rate of 3.6 million unit sales per hour. Needless to say, Amazon Prime Day 2019 absolutely exceeded expectations.

It wasn’t only Amazon who reaped the benefits of Prime Day. As stated last week, experts were predicting retail sales to rise by 79% during the event. The expected sales boost was in part because retailers such as Walmart, Target, and Best-Buy were price matching many of Amazon’s deals with the added bonus of in-store pickup for those who wanted the great discounts, but were worried about the reported increase in cyber attacks. The news surrounding the attacks appear to have been unwarranted as no articles have surfaced reporting major incidence in security.

Once calculated, the actual numbers came close to prediction. Popular retailers such as Gap, Nike, and Macy’s had the most significant jump in sales with Gap and Nike outshining Amazon with gains of 150% over an average Monday. Other large retailers celebrated a 54% increase in sales on July 15 and a 72% increase on July 16. Smaller retail stores, those whose annual sales are less than $5M, experienced an average boost of 28%.

Amazon Prime Day has become a national shopping experience to rival that of Black Friday or even Cyber Monday. Creating its own shopping holiday was smart business, and it didn’t take long for other retailers to piggy-back on top of Amazon’s success. No doubt moving forward the retail market will use Prime Day as a critical marketing strategy to gain foot traffic and increase sales.

*Amazon does not release sales numbers for Prime Day; all sales figures are calculated estimates. (Source: Bloomberg, CNBC)