Amazon Prime Day to spark online spending frenzy as Walmart, Target lean into deal days

Amazon (AMZN) kicks off its 12th annual Prime Day on Tuesday, with deals running from June 23 to June 26, and other big retailers like Walmart (WMT), Best Buy (BBY), and Target (TGT) are looking to get a piece of the pie.

Overall, Adobe projects consumers will spend $26 billion online during Prime week, up 9% from a year ago.

The sales event is expected to provide a spending boost in the second quarter, marking the first $300 billion quarter outside of the holiday season. Walmart and Best Buy have already started their six-day deal events on Monday, with deals of up to 50% off scheduled to run until Sunday. Target is running promotions of up to 45% off from June 23 to June 26, in line with Amazon’s event.

Amazon’s Prime Day set a new standard for consumers to score major promotions in summer rather than wait until the key holiday months, Adobe Digital Insights lead analyst Vivek Pandya said.

Adobe predicted Prime week will jump-start back-to-school shopping for kids’ apparel, lunch boxes, and backpacks, as well as travel needs like luggage, car seats, and portable chargers. Online sales for home items, such as new refrigerators, power tools, washers, and dryers, are also expected to get a boost.

Bank of America expects that some of the biggest deals will be in electronics, apparel, and beauty, with Amazon’s own products like Alexa+ and Kindle sold at discounts of up to 60% and 45%, respectively. Plus, Amazon is expected to offer an extra 10% off sale prices on grocery items as it doubles down on its grocery business.

The event is typically held in July, but Amazon said holding it in June this year felt right, given the World Cup and the 250th anniversary of US independence.

“Stating it bluntly, more savings now is better than more savings later, and so we’re not … shying away from the fact that … having the event sooner means people can save more money sooner,” Prime vice president Jamil Ghani told Yahoo Finance.

This year’s Prime Day comes as consumer sentiment remains near record low levels. Although the national average gas price has fallen back below $4 per gallon, consumers are experiencing the biggest jump in headline inflation since 2023.

Yet consumers continue to spend. Bank of America found that e-commerce spending was up 13% in May from a year ago.

“The resilience of longer-distance visits, combined with easing gas prices and generally positive traffic trends, points to a consumer who is becoming more selective rather than disengaged,” Placer.ai’s Shira Petrack said in a recent report.

Numerator found that of those who plan to shop, nearly half (46%) said they will browse for deals without a specific plan, one-fourth (25%) will stock up on goods they regularly buy, and one-fifth (21%) will purchase household essentials or higher-priced items they have delayed buying.

Adobe also predicts that Americans will use buy now, pay later as an option to help pay for some purchases, accounting for 7.8% of e-commerce spending during the event.