NEW YORKIn the midst of tariff-related price concerns and perhaps some consumer weariness, Amazon is extending its annual Prime Day promotions and providing additional membership benefits to Gen Z shoppers. This is the eleventh year of the event.
Amazon, based in Seattle, is hosting the now-disnamed Prime Day spanning four days for the first time. At 3:01 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, the e-commerce behemoth promised Prime members a flurry of summer offers that would run through early Friday.
In 2015, Amazon introduced Prime Day, which was extended to two days in 2019. Deals would drop as frequently as every five minutes during specific times in this year’s extended version, according to the business.
For a limited period, there will be 5% cash back on purchases made by Prime members aged 18 to 24 who pay $7.49 a month rather than $14.99, which older customers who are not eligible for cheaper rates pay for free shipping and other benefits.
Regarding the possible effect of tariffs on Prime Day sales, Amazon officials chose not to comment. Two and a half months have passed since an internet news piece raised rumors that Amazon might put additional tariff expenses next to product prices on its website.
Before Amazon revealed that the proposal had been proposed for its low-cost Haul shop but never approved, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized the alleged alteration as a hostile and political act.
Other big retail chains scheduled competitive bargains in July after Amazon’s previous success using Prime Day to boost sales and draw new members. This year, Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are doing the same thing.
Similar to Amazon, Walmart is extending its discount period by two days. It begins on Tuesday and ends on July 13. For the first time, the biggest retailer in the country is offering its summer sales both online and in-store.
This is what to anticipate:
Spending may not increase with the number of days.
According to a recent statement by Amazon Prime Vice President Jamil Ghani to The Associated Press, the company extended Prime Day this year because customers wanted more time to buy and save money.
Given the increasing concerns about inflation and the possibility of price hikes due to tariffs, analysts are uncertain if the additional days will result in more sales. Although it doesn’t reveal Prime Day sales numbers, Amazon said that last year’s event set a global sales record.
According to Adobe Digital Insights, the sales event is expected to generate $23.8 billion in total online spending between July 8 and July 11, which is 28.4% more than during the same period the previous year. Online sales for the same four days of July in 2024 and 2023 grew by 11% and 6.1%, respectively.
Amazon’s decision to extend the sales event to four days presents a significant chance to significantly increase and speed up the spending velocity, according to Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights.
According to Caila Schwartz, head of consumer insights and strategy at Salesforce, a software company, July sales have generally slowed down in previous years. Since Amazon does not have a Salesforce Commerce Cloud account, the business software provider is unable to access the online behemoth’s e-commerce sales and, consequently, Prime Day data.
According to Schwartz, we observed last year that after making a purchase, the customers left. We are aware that consumers are extremely cautious. Therefore, we might observe a similar trend in which people arrive early, are prepared to purchase, and then retreat.
Tariffs don’t appear to have a significant effect on prices yet.
In May, Amazon executives revealed that the corporation and numerous third-party sellers stocked up on foreign items prior to the implementation of President Donald Trump’s tariffs in an attempt to evade large import tax costs. Amazon said that many third-party merchants had not altered their prices at that time as a result of that action.
Pandya of Adobe Digital Insights anticipates that between Tuesday and Friday, other U.S. retail businesses will mark down their products by 10% to 24% off the manufacturers’ suggested retail price, while reductions will stay consistent with those of the previous year.
According to Schwartz of Salesforce, she has observed that shops are getting more specific with their discounts, for example, by providing promotion codes that only apply to specific products rather than their complete websites.
Consumers may concentrate on necessities.
Back-to-school spending has historically been boosted by Amazon Prime and other July promotions, which also encourage early planners to purchase other seasonal goods. According to analysts, American shoppers are likely to buy this week because they are afraid that tariffs would raise the cost of goods in the future.
Customers will likely choose items like beauty basics, according to Brett Rose, CEO of United National Consumer Supplies, a wholesale distributor of overstocked items like toys and cosmetics.
He stated that they would purchase more commonplace products.
Examining the savings
Similar to previous years, Amazon had pre-prime day sales. Amazon announced that it would provide exclusive deals on Alexa-enabled devices, such as Echo, Fire TV, and Fire tablets, for the major occasion.
Walmart announced that a 32-inch Samsung smart monitor would be available for $199 instead of $299.99 during its July sale, while a 50-inch Vizio smart TV, which normally retails for $298.00, would be discounted by $50. Key back-to-school items, such as a $5 backpack and a selection of 20 school supplies for less than $20, will continue to be priced at Target’s 2024 rates.
Some independent vendors will not be present on Prime Day.
Over 60% of Amazon’s retail sales come from independent companies selling products on the website. To maintain their profit margins amid the continued tariff uncertainties, several third-party vendors are anticipated to skip Prime Day and refrain from offering discounts, according to analysts.
According to Rose of United National Consumer Supplies, he talked to third-party sellers who stated that they would prefer to endure a drop in sales this week rather than deplete a large portion of their pre-tariff inventory now and run the risk of seeing a decline in their profit margins later.
In order to avoid tariffs, several independent companies that sell their goods on Amazon are hoping that Prime Day will help them use up the inventory they accumulated earlier in the year.
According to founder Patrick Jones, the majority of the candle lids, labels, jars, reed diffusers, and other products used by the home fragrance company Outdoor Fellow, which sells around 30% of its products on Amazon, come from China. Jones stockpiled up at the start of the year, almost doubling his inventory, out of fear of rising tariff charges.
He intends to provide larger reductions for Prime Day, like 32% off a candle that would typically cost $34, Jones added.
He stated that all of the products currently available on Amazon are still from the stock we had before the tariffs were implemented. Therefore, we are still able to provide the discount that we had in mind.
Jones stated that when the goods arrive from China in a few weeks, he wants to know if the June order he placed will result in significant customs charges.
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This report was written by Mae Anderson, an AP Business Writer.
