Dive Brief:
-
Prime Day this year will commence at midnight Pacific Daylight Time on July 12 and run through July 13, Amazon said on Thursday. The sale is open only to those with a Prime membership, which costs $139 per year or $14.99 per month in the U.S.
-
Deals on Amazon devices like Echo speakers, Kindle and Fire tablets, Ring security kits, Blink doorbells, Eero WiFi routers and Fire televisions will roll out this month, beginning June 21, per a company press release.
-
Prime Day will also take place in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, the U.K., Poland and Sweden. Later this summer, Prime Day events will be held in India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
Dive Insight:
To promote its big summer sale this year, Amazon turned to piano virtuoso Jon Batiste, who riffs on Billy Ocean’s “Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car” with a twist, “get into my cart.”
Some of the items Batiste is dreaming about adding to the cart — a sequined pillow, not one but two massagers, a camera drone, three-man canoe or a new grill — may not be quite essential enough for consumers, who have cut back on discretionary spending as inflation encroaches on their household budgets.
But the sale is timed well, considering that more consumers are also seeking out discounts and clipping coupons. A great majority of Amazon Prime members plan to shop the sale, but say they’ll be more careful about what they buy, according to research from coupon company RetailMeNot. As a result, shoppers on average are set to spend $388 during Prime Day this year, down quite a bit from last year’s $594.
Moreover, not all of that will be spent at Amazon, with RetailMeNot finding rivals are likely to get $155 of it as they promote their own summertime deals. In past years, retailers including Walmart, Target, Kohl’s, Dick’s, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Office Depot, Staples and Joann, among many others, have made a point of answering Prime Day with their own deal days.
Almost half of survey respondents also told RetailMeNot that they will wait until Prime Day to make their biggest purchases of the year. That could include back-to-school or even holiday purchases.
