Amazon Prime Day sales to hit record $14 billion, data firm says

By Ananya Mariam Rajesh and Arriana McLymore

(Reuters) – Shoppers are likely to spend roughly $14 billion during Amazon (NASDAQ:)’s Prime Day two-day shopping event this week, according to projections from Adobe (NASDAQ:) Analytics, a firm that studies e-commerce transaction data.

Spending at Amazon on Tuesday and Wednesday could rise 10.5% from Prime Day 2023, Adobe said.

The online retailer began holding Prime Day a decade ago, typically in July. Prime Day accounts for 1% to 2% of Amazon’s net global sales, according to CFRA Research.

Amazon started advertising pre-Prime Day deals in early July on clothes, back-to-school gear, wellness products and electronics, though it moved Prime Day back by five days on the calendar this year.

Amazon said that Day 1 of its two-day Prime Day 2023 earned its biggest sales day ever, although it doesn’t disclose total sales for Prime Day.

The $12.7 billion shoppers spent at Amazon last year during Prime Day was 6.1% more than what they spent during the 2022 event, according to Adobe.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Amazon’s Prime Day has turned July, an otherwise slow time for retailers, into a season when shoppers look for bargains, especially on back-to-school clothing, electronics, uniforms, backpacks, dorm decorations and supplies.

Rivals Walmart (NYSE:) and Target are also launching July discounts and marketing events in a bid to beat Amazon at its own game, and capture some of the $38.8 billion that the National Retail Federation trade group projects Americans will spend on back-to-school merchandise this summer.

Following years of high inflation, shoppers have delayed purchases of non-essential goods and retailers are tempting shoppers to break that habit with aggressive July discounting.

KEY QUOTES

“We are expecting really strong momentum for back-to-school,” said Vivek Pandya, Adobe’s lead insights analyst.

Shoppers are now more willing to spend and have started to use Prime Day as a back-to-school shopping opportunity, he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

Shoppers could spend $7.1 billion at Amazon on Tuesday alone, up 11.3% from a year earlier, Adobe said. Day 2 is expected to bring $6.9 billion in online sales, up 9.2% from a year earlier, it said.

Adobe expects Amazon to dangle discounts of 22% on electronics, 20% on clothing, 17% on home goods and furniture and 11% on sporting goods.

Adobe’s projections are based on its analysis of data measuring transactions from previous Prime Days.