Amazon Prime Day evolved out of the company’s desire to grow Prime memberships and create a shopping holiday during the slower summer season.
The company frames the event, which launched in 2015, as a gift to loyal customers.
“Prime Day is about celebrating our members by providing them with exceptional savings and convenient delivery, and now is an excellent time to save,” said Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime.
Analysts take a less celebratory tone.
“Amazon launched Prime Day to get more people to pay for its membership, which includes benefits like free shipping and streaming TV shows,” according to Business Insider.
That market, however, has been mostly saturated, according Sky Canaves, a principal analyst for retail and e-commerce at EMarketer a sibling company of the business website.
Over 86% of online shoppers are already Prime members, according to EMarketer.
“There just isn’t much growth to capture,” Canaves said.
Now, Prime Day largely exists as a sales holiday, and pretty much every other retailer has jumped in on the action. Data from Placer.ai, however, shows that Walmart, Target, Costco, and perhaps Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Home Depot will benefit from their copycat summer sales.
Amazon wants to take dollars from brick-and-mortar retailers
This year’s Prime Day Event, as Amazon calls it, takes place from June 23-26. Rivals including Walmart, Target, and many others have planned similar sales and data from Placer.ai’s The Anchor shows that brick-and-mortar stores have a chance to profit as well.
“Despite ongoing headwinds, foot traffic to major retail chains for the first five months of the year stayed in positive territory relative to 2025, a notable showing given the macroeconomic uncertainty weighing on consumer sentiment. And even though the pace of growth has cooled since March — likely due in part to the sharp increase in gas prices — the direction never turned negative,” the report showed.
Shira Petrack, who wrote the article, explained why this is good news for brick-and-mortar operators.
“That consistency matters heading into Prime Day. Even as growth moderated through the spring, audiences continued to choose physical retail, suggesting that in-store visits are holding up rather than ceding ground to online channels,” she wrote.
For retailers planning summer promotions to Prime Day, “the steady baseline of positive year-over-year (YoY) traffic suggests that demand is present, and the opportunity lies in converting resilient visit volume into stronger spend during the promotional window,” she added.
Walmart, Target, and Costco are clear foot traffic winners
Costco, Target, and (to a slightly lesser effect) Best Buy maintained year-over-year traffic gains throughout the spring – “suggesting that, for these retailers, promotional events are more likely to amplify existing momentum than to create it,” Petrack wrote.
“Meanwhile, Walmart’s traffic in recent weeks remained largely in line with last year, potentially reflecting continued pressure on its more value-oriented customer base – making the upcoming promotional events an important opportunity to reignite growth,” she added.
For Home Depot and Lowe’s, the summer sales season is less clear.
“Both have shown signs of improvement after a prolonged slowdown, making the July 4th period an important test of whether that recovery can continue,” according to Placer.AI.
Prime Day changed the summer sales season
“I think that Prime Day and the associated sales and discounts from other retailers around Prime Day are being used as a kickoff for back to school,” GlobalData Retail Director Neil Saunders told Retail Brew.
Amazon, he said, pulled the start of the back-to-school shopping season ahead.
Data from a National Retail Federation (NRF) study showed that has happened.
“As of early July, more than half (55%) of back-to-school and college shoppers have already begun buying items for the upcoming school year, according to the annual survey released by the NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics.
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A report from PMG shows that Prime Day has grown into something bigger than an Amazon-only event.
“Prime Day 2025’s impact extended far beyond Amazon’s ecosystem,” Parks Blackwell, Vice President of Marketing and Client Development at PMG said in a press release. “Our analysis showed significant growth not just on Amazon, but across the broader digital retail landscape as consumers embraced this expanded shopping window. The event’s success demonstrates how Prime Day has evolved from a single-retailer sale into a cultural force and transformative market-wide phenomenon.”
Upcoming summer retail sales events:
- Amazon: Prime Day
Dates: June 23-26, 2026Amazon’s annual Prime Day event runs for four days and features “millions of exclusive deals” across more than 35 categories including electronics, beauty, apparel, home goods, groceries, and back-to-school products. Amazon said new deals will drop throughout the event and that early offers are already available to Prime members.
Source: Amazon
- Walmart: Walmart Deals
Dates: June 22-28, 2026Early access: Walmart+ members get access to select deals during the first 24 hours.
Walmart said the event features “thousands of offers” across electronics, fashion, toys, furniture, and back-to-school items.
Source: Walmart
- Target: Target Circle Deal Days
Dates: June 23-26, 2026Early access: June 22 for Target Circle 360 members.
Target said members can save up to 45% on apparel, beauty, home, toys, and back-to-school merchandise.
Source: Target
- Costco: Summer Savings Event
Dates: June 15-July 19, 2026Costco’s annual Summer Savings promotion offers member-only discounts both online and in warehouses.
Source: Costco
- Best Buy: Black Friday in July
Expected timing: July 2026 (Best Buy has not yet published 2026 dates as of June 22).Historically, Best Buy runs its Black Friday in July event during the same period as Prime Day.
- Home Depot: Fourth of July Savings Event
Dates: Ongoing through early July 2026Home Depot’s annual Fourth of July promotion features discounts on appliances, grills, patio furniture, outdoor power equipment, and home improvement products.
Source: Home Depot
- Lowe’s: Summer Sale/Fourth of July Sale
Dates: Ongoing through early July 2026Lowe’s annual summer promotion includes discounts on appliances, grills, outdoor furniture, lawn equipment, and home improvement products.
Source: Lowe’s
