Amazon Announces Prime Day’s Return as Shoppers Flock to Seasonal Deals

With consumer spending increasingly motivated by deals and seasonality, Amazon is gearing up for its tenth-ever Prime Day savings event, as Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores, announced via LinkedIn Friday (April 26).

“Last year, we had our biggest Prime Day in our company’s history: Prime members purchased more than 375 million items worldwide and saved more than $2.5 billion on millions of deals across Amazon stores,” Herrington said. “We are working hard and inventing new ways to pack even more great savings into the event this year.”

Indeed, consumers are looking for these kinds of deals. Last summer’s Prime Day, for instance, garnered purchases from 40% of United States consumers, per PYMNTS Intelligence’s “Summer Deal Days 2023: How Amazon Still Dominates.” The event resulted in $12.7 billion in total consumer spending for Amazon Prime Day.

Moreover, a PYMNTS Intelligence report last year found that 46% of retail shoppers are deal chasers, willing to go wherever they will get the best price.

Not only are deals becoming a stronger driver of consumer spending, but so is seasonality.

“In the past year, we’ve seen engagement in our promotions with higher-than-expected volume around popular seasonal moments,” Katie Stratton, chief growth officer at Target-owned on-demand delivery aggregator Shipt, noted in an interview with PYMNTS earlier this month.

Amid this shift toward buying at peak times, Amazon is going all in on its seasonal deals events, expanding its offerings to more parts of the year. This year, for instance, it held its first Big Spring Sale, offering deals on seasonal items including cosmetics, sports gear, outdoor products, apparel and electronics.

The event was popular, but not as popular as the eCommerce giant’s other savings events. The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Amazon First Annual Big Spring Sale: A Sale Too Many?,” for which we surveyed more than 7,400 U.S. consumers following the event, revealed that 28% of U.S. consumers shopped during Amazon’s Big Spring Sale. That figure marks a 29% drop from Amazon’s last major sales event, despite this one being the company’s first open to non-subscribers.

Amazon is not the only one looking to meet this demand — the company’s savings days have spawned similar such events from rivals such as Walmart and Target and even from DoorDash. The “Summer Deal Days 2023” study noted that 1 in 5 shoppers participated in Walmart+ Week last July, bringing in an estimated $10.5 billion for the superstore chain.

Across digital and physical retail channels, consumers are demanding deals, per the PYMNTS Intelligence study, “2024 Global Digital Shopping Index: U.S. Edition,” created in collaboration with Visa Acceptance Solutions. The report, which drew from a survey of more than 2,400 United States consumers, found that 74% of U.S. retail shoppers expect relevant promo codes. Plus, 75% expect digital coupons.

“Shoppers have been impacted by inflation for the past two years and they are now changing their journey — kicking off their shopping by exploring sales and discounts first,” Frank Minervini, the vice president and head of marketing at Ziff Davis Shopping, the parent company of RetailMeNot, told PYMNTS in a conversation earlier this year.