Dive Brief:
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Amazon’s Prime Day summer sale will run from midnight July 16 through July 17, with some deals starting now. Influencers including Millie Bobby Brown and others will also drop deals every day from July 8 through July 15.
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The event is limited to those who pay for a Prime membership. Rival sales were also announced at Walmart, Target and Best Buy, which are offering deals that are available without a paid membership.
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To market the event, Amazon has enlisted Megan Thee Stallion, who released a music video featuring “It’s Prime Day,” an original song. As in years past, Prime members can request access to invite-only deals, sign up for deal notifications or have Alexa track deals and give event reminders.
Dive Insight:
When Megan Thee Stallion sings “Sign up to be a member if you want free shipping” in her song dedicated to Prime Day, she points out a key advantage of Prime. But it may also be a reminder that at places like Walmart, Target and Best Buy that have hundreds of stores, shipping at any price needn’t be a consideration.
Newcomers like Shein, which don’t ship as quickly as Prime, are showing that consumers don’t necessarily value the same-day, one-day and two-day shipping touted by Amazon, according to Katie Thomas, who leads the Kearney Consumer Institute, a think tank at consulting firm Kearney.
“This has brought up the question of, ‘How fast do I truly need something?’ And if I need it that fast, I'll probably just go to the store,” she said by phone.
In any case, consumers have now come to expect that Prime Day also means summer sales at other retailers as well, Thomas said. Moreover, research shows that summertime shoppers are more self-indulgent than Black Friday shoppers, and more likely to look out for themselves along with their back-to-school lists, she said.
“Once Prime Day got more consistent after the pandemic years, and we knew there was going to be these summer sale seasons, they do provide an opportunity to maybe stock up a little earlier on school supplies and technology,” she said. “It's sort of the usual suspects in terms of the categories and the products that are on sale. So, this is a ‘summer sale season,’ but I don't know that we'll see anything surprising this year.”
The ‘biggest,’ but is it the best?
Walmart is calling its sale, which starts July 8 at 5 p.m. ET and lasts through July 11, its “largest savings event ever,” with deals open to all customers. Target also bills its Target Circle Week event, running from 2 a.m. CT on July 7 through July 13, as its “biggest sale of the season.” Special prices are available to members of Target Circle, which is free to join. A paid tier called Target Circle 360 offers unlimited access to same-day delivery with Shipt, with no delivery fees on orders over $35, and during Target Circle Week that subscription, normally $99 annually, is on sale for $49 for the first year.
Best Buy will hold its “Black Friday in July” event — also its “biggest sale of the summer” — from July 15 to July 17, with members of the paid tiers of its loyalty program getting access to exclusive deals. Paying members also earn extra rewards during a Member Deals Days Event now through June 30, the company said by email.
In the U.S. an Amazon Prime membership is $14.99 per month or $139 per year, though eligible non-members can start a free 30-day trial. A six-month trial of Prime Student, priced at $7.49 per month or $69 per year, is available to consumers ages 18 to 24. Government assistance recipients can get Prime Access for $6.99 per month, according to a company press release.
As Thomas noted, these retailers are emphasizing back-to-school supplies and technology, though it’s not clear they’ll be offering deals on items that are most in demand.
“It is a struggle for the consumer’s dollar, and who's going to win, and consumers are probably going to land where they shop the most, if that deal is price matched,” she said. “But, while there are sales, are they sales on the products consumers truly want? This started with the pandemic, when there were all those sorts of inventory issues, and everybody was sitting on too many air fryers.”
