The retail giant will be hosting an “early access” Prime Day sale on October 11 and 12.
Just like pumpkin spice season now starts in August and holiday music can be heard in some stores as early as October, “last chance” sales are also becoming a year-round phenomenon.
Traditionally, each year had two major shopping days: Cyber Monday in November and Amazon (AMZN) – Get Amazon.com Inc. Report‘s Prime Day in July.
Created in 2015 to celebrate the retail giant’s 20th birthday, Prime Day has morphed into an annual event in which those who have Amazon’s paid subscription service get two days of discounts on many popular brands and in-demand items.
The event is extremely popular and, according to Amazon, Prime members bought over 100,000 items per minute during this year’s Prime Day on July 12 and 13. Some of the most popular items were the Apple Watch Series 7 (AAPL) – Get Apple Inc. Report, Laneige and NuFace beauty products, and Le Creuset cookware.
Amazon Prime, Take Two
For years, Prime Day been marketed as a once-a-year opportunity but, this year, Amazon announced that it will be hosting an early “Prime Early Access Sale” on October 11 and 12.
Available in the U.S. and 14 other countries like the UK, Canada, France, and Australia, the fall shopping event will feature similar discounts.
Just like with regular Prime Day, those who have the Amazon Prime subscription service will see discounts on popular electronics, hardware, beauty, and other products when they log in.
Many shoppers specifically wait for these sales to purchase more expensive items such as electronics, kitchen appliances, and other larger items for the home.
“These days, it’s not lost on you or me that folks are trying to make their dollar stretch,” Prime VP Jamil Ghani told CNBC.
The October date is significant for several reasons. Due to disruptions from the covid-19 outbreak, Prime Day’s usual July timing was moved to October in 2020.
October has also, in recent years, started to mark the very start of holiday shopping — that is when the most organized of buyers start looking for deals to place under the tree in December.
As inflation has cut into many people’s discretionary spending, some retailers have been using “sale days” and other promotions to get people shopping. The second Prime Day was announced after competitors like Walmart (WMT) – Get Walmart Inc. Report and Target (TGT) – Get Target Corporation Report announced their own early October sales.
Is It Sales Season All The Time Now?
The retail shift to earlier and earlier shopping season has been taking place for decades. While stores previously discounted their products only after Christmas, Black Friday started to emerge as a shopping day around the 1950s.
In the last decade, Black Friday has also morphed from a single-day mall rush (remember those viral photos of people elbowing each other over TVs at Walmart?) to a weekend-long event that is moving increasingly online.
Whether the discounts truly offer deals or are used by retailers to create a get-it-while-it’s-still-cheap appearance, consumers increasingly turn to sales when money is tight.
After the consumer price index hit a 40-year high of 9.1% in June, many found that progressively rising costs were eating away at what they could afford.
A recent Bankrate survey found that 84% of holiday shoppers this year are looking to save money. 40% plan to buy fewer items, 21% are searching for cheaper brands and and 41% saying they’d be seeking out coupons, sales and other discounts — a prime opportunity for retailers to sweep in with additional “sales days.”
“Consumers are going to start holiday shopping earlier this year as they look to spread the costs at a time when household incomes are being squeezed,” Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData Retail, told CNN Business.
