Amazon and its retailer rivals look to set Prime Day sales records – RetailWire - RetailWire

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Jun 21, 2021

Amazon.com is expected to achieve a new sales record when its annual Prime Day event, which started today, is all said and done. The same could very well be true for many of its rival retailers that have jumped on and sped off on Amazon’s sales promotion bandwagon over the past several years.

Prime Day is expected to generate around $11 billion in sales for Amazon and its third-party marketplace sellers that are going all-in on the event, up from $10.4 billion last year, according to an Adobe forecast. The research firm eMarketer expects that Amazon and its rivals will generate $12.18 billion combined during the period, up 17 percent from similar events in 2020.

Rivals, including Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Target and Walmart, are running promotions concurrently with discounts intended to influence even some of the roughly 150,000 Prime members in the U.S.

Surveys from a variety of sources show that consumers are planning to do some shopping over the next couple of days and not just with Amazon. Adobe reports that large chains, in particular, are poised to do very well this week, following up on last year’s events that coincided with Prime Day. Retailers with annual online sales of $1 billion saw gains that were 10 percent greater than small merchants last year. Adobe found that only about a third of consumers express a preference for shopping at small retailers while Prime Day is going on.

Some retailers are looking to outdo Amazon this year with events that run longer than the official two-day Prime Day event. Amazon, it should be noted, has been running special promotions for days featuring special deals offered by third-party consumer direct brands and others selling on its marketplace.

Best Buy got the earliest start, kicking off its “Bigger Deal Savings Event” on June 15 and running through June 22. Target, which yesterday launched its “Deal Days” promotion, is running the event through June 22. Walmart kicked off “Deal for Days” yesterday, running the event through June 23, one day longer than Amazon.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: How are you expecting results to shake out when Prime Day and rivals’ events are done? What are the keys to succeeding during Prime Day, particularly for smaller chains and independent retailers that are not necessarily top of mind for consumers?

Braintrust

"Consumers will be the biggest winners — if they shop around for deals. Exuberance for the return of our social lives will drive demand for fashion and beauty this Prime Day."