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Amazon has extended annual Prime Day sales and offers new membership perks to generation Z-Shoppers amid tariff-related price concerns and consumer boredom at an event that is likely to mark its 11th year.
The promised blitz of summer deals for e-commerce giants for prime members begins Tuesday at 3:01am ET. Seattle-based Amazon is holding its first four-day, imitated Prime Day. The company launched the event in 2015 and expanded to two days in 2019.
Before closing Prime Day early in 2025, Amazon said that trading often drops every five minutes during a certain period. Prime members ages 18-24 pay $7.49 a month instead of $14.99.
Amazon executives declined to comment on the potential impact of tariffs on Prime Day transactions. The event comes two months after an online news report sparked speculation that it would display additional tariff costs next to the website’s product prices.
White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt argued for the change as “hostile and political acts” before Amazon made it clear that the idea had come up but was not approved for the low-cost hauler front desk.
Amazon’s past successes have spurred other major retail chains to use Prime Day to promote sales, attract new members and schedule competing sales in July. Best Buy, Target and Walmart are practicing this year.
Like Amazon, Walmart is adding two more days to the promotional period, which starts on Tuesday and runs through July 13th.
This is what you’d expect:
Will longer Prime events reduce urgency?
Vice President Jamil Ghani, Amazon’s Vice President of Prime Ghani, recently expanded this year’s Prime Day as shoppers “wanted more time to shop and save.”
Analysts are not convinced that updated inflation concerns and potential price increases due to tariffs will result in consumers being converted into more purchases as they are unwilling to do so. Amazon has not disclosed Prime Day sales figures, but said last year the event achieved record global sales.
Adobe Digital Insights forecasts that sales events will drive $23.8 billion in overall online spending from July 8th to July 11th over a similar period last year. In 2024 and 2023, online sales increased by 11% and 6.1% over the equivalent four days in July.
Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said Amazon’s move to expand its sales events to four days is a major opportunity to “actually amplify and accelerate spending speed.”
Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights and strategy at Software Company Salesforce, noted that July sales have generally lost momentum in recent years. As Amazon is not a Salesforce customer, business software companies don’t know the Prime Day figures.
“What we saw last year was that (shoppers) bought it and then they were finished,” Schwartz said. “We know that consumers are still really cautious, so there’s a chance that they’ll come out early and they’re ready to buy and see a similar pattern as they’re ready to go back.”
How does increased costs from tariffs affect discounts?
Amazon executives reported in May that many of its company and its third-party sellers had tried to break a major import tax bill by raising foreign goods before President Donald Trump’s tariffs came into effect. And because of the move, a considerable number of third-party sellers hadn’t changed their pricing at the time, Amazon said.
Adobe Digital Insights’ Pandya hopes discounts will line up when last year and other US retailers get 10% to 24% off the manufacturer’s proposed retail price between Tuesday and Friday.
Salesforce’s Schwartz said retailers are finding discounts more accurate, including providing promo codes that apply to selected products rather than to the entire website.
Customs duties or duties are taxes on products purchased from overseas and are used in virtually all countries.
Do shoppers stick to essentials or splurge on their money?
Amazon Prime and other July sales have historically returned to school. Analysts said they are hoping consumers will buy this week, fearing that tariffs will become more expensive later.
Brett Rose, CEO of United National Consumer Supplies, a wholesaler of excess products such as Toys and Beauty Products, thinks shoppers will go for items like Beauty Essentials.
“They’re going to buy more everyday items,” he said.
What are some transactions?
Like last few years, Amazon offered early deals leading up to Prime Day. For the big event, Amazon said there are special discounts on Alexa-enabled products such as Echo, Fire TV and Fire tablets.
Walmart said sales in July will include a 32-inch Samsung Smart Monitor, which costs $199 instead of $299.99. The standard retail price is $50 from the 50-inch Vizio Smart TV, which costs $298.00. Target said it maintains 2024 prices for its 2024 back-to-school items, including a $5 backpack and a selection of 20 school supplies totaling under $20.
How do Amazon’s third-party sellers get freight?
Independent companies selling products through Amazon account for more than 60% of the company’s retail sales. Some third-party sellers are expected to sit on Prime Day, which does not offer discounts to maintain profit margins during ongoing tariff uncertainty, analysts said.
Rose of United National Consumer Supplies said she has spoken with third-party sellers who have used up a lot of tax stock this week and said they are at risk after seeing their profit margins suffer later.
However, some independent companies selling products on Amazon are aiming to Prime Day to create dents in stocks built up at the beginning of the year to avoid tariffs.
Home Fragrance Company’s outdoor fellows, which account for around 30% of sales through Amazon’s Marketplace, have acquired most of candle lids, labels, jars, lead diffusers and other items from China, founder Patrick Jones said. Fearing the high costs from customs duties, Jones held stock at the beginning of the year, almost doubled its stock.
For Prime Day, he plans to offer bigger discounts, including a 32% discount off the price of a candle, usually $34, Jones said.
“All the products we currently have on Amazon are from the inventory we got before customs duties came into effect,” he said. “So we can still offer discounts that we are planning.”
Jones said he was waiting to find out if the order placed in June was subject to heavy tariffs when it arrived from China in a few weeks.
White House spokesman Caroline Leavitt denounced Amazon on Tuesday, reporting plans to bring the costs of President Donald Trump’s tariffs to the site’s product prices. Amazon later confirmed that the plan would “never be approved” and that it would “not happen.”
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AP Business Writer May Anderson contributed to this report.
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