Amazon App Dominates During Prime Day; Will It Challenge Facebook Messenger in the End?
Once, apps were the future. Then, they weren't. Are they now again?
At this year's F8 developers conference, Facebook (FB) - Get Report CEO Mark Zuckerberg famously laid out his 10-year strategy for the company. Zuckerberg's trajectory for world domination largely involves Facebook's Messenger app becoming how people do just about everything -- from ordering pizzas to contacting a doctor, to controlling drone vehicles.
The concept of using mobile phone applications for multiple facets of life seems a bit far-fetched at first. However, businesses are increasingly relying on apps to bring in customers' dollars. For instance, Starbucks (SBUX) - Get Report recently revamped its mobile app to become an efficient platform that allows customers to order and pay for their coffee straight from their mobile devices. The app also keeps track of the company's rewards program. And it's been a huge hit -- more than 19 million customers regularly use the app.
In this app economy, it's not so crazy to imagine a future without cash registers. All purchases can be made via mobile phone.
This opens up opportunities for investors as companies reap the rewards that quick and efficient mobile payment processing can bring.
And one company -- Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report -- is out to give even Facebook's Messenger a run for its money.
Facebook and Starbucks are holdings in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. See how Cramer rates the stock here. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells FB or SBUX? Learn more now.
Last week, Amazon held its second annual Prime Day, which featured blockbuster sales on thousands of items. While the naysayers opined that the sales event would be a flop, in actuality it was a record-breaking day for the e-commerce giant.
Amazon can be notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to released actual numbers, so analysts must look to outside sources to glean an idea of what sales were actually like. Data just released by Survey Monkey points to Amazon's app as being where the real Prime Day success occurred.
Survey Monkey, which tracks mobile app usage, reports that 12 million Amazon app users made purchases on Prime Day, versus about 8 million on an average day. And Amazon itself is conceding that this year's Prime Day app usage beat last year's by more than 100%. That's a lot of people turning to Amazon's app for making their purchases.
Amazon's app usage also goes a long way to prove just how powerful the e-commerce superstar is over the competition. Walmart, the closest thing Amazon has to a competitor in the U.S., also has a shopping app that it counts as a success. However, according to Survey Monkey, whereas about 50% of Walmart app users also use the Amazon app, just a small percentage of the consumers who use the Amazon app also use Walmart's mobile application.
If you're looking to invest in the retail space, Amazon continues to be a steady bet. The company is simply a behemoth, yet it continues to innovate. Facebook's Messenger may become the "one app to rule them all" in the next 10 years, but until then, count on profits from Amazon's mobile platform.
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This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.