New York (AP) -Amazon is extending its annual sales of Prime Day and offers new members of membership to buyers of generation Z amid the pricing concerns related to the rate and possibly some boredom of consumers with an event that marks their eleventh year.
For the first time, Amazon, based in Seattle, is celebrating the primary day now taken for four days. The promised bombardment of the Electronic Commerce Giant of Summer Offers for Prime members began at 3:01 am, Eastern time, Tuesday and ends on early Friday.
Amazon launched Prime Day in 2015 and expanded it two days in 2019. The company said that this year’s longest version would have fallen as often as every 5 minutes during certain periods.
Prime members between 18 and 24 years old, who pay $ 7.49 per month instead of $ 14.99 that older customers are not eligible for discount rates pay for free shipping and other benefits, they will receive a 5% cash refund in their purchases for limited time.
Amazon executives refused to comment on the potential impact of rates on first -day agreements. The event will take place two and a half months after an online news report caused speculation that Amazon planned to show additional tariff costs next to the prices of products on its website.
The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, denounced the supposed change as a “hostile and political act” before Amazon clarified that the idea had been floating for its low -cost showcase but never approved.
Amazon’s past success with the use of Prime Day to boost sales and attract new members stimulated other important retail chains to program sales in July. Best Buy, Target and Walmart are repeating the practice this year.
Like Amazon, Walmart is adding two more days to its promotional period, which begins on Tuesday and extends until July 13. The largest retailer in the country is making its summer offers available in stores and online for the first time.
This is what you should expect:
It is possible that more days do not mean more expenses
Amazon expanded the main day this year because buyers “wanted more time to buy and save,” said Amazon Prime Vice President Jamil Ghani, The Associated Press.
Analysts are not sure that additional days translate into more purchases since renewed inflation concerns and potential increases in rates prices can make consumers less willing to spend. Amazon does not reveal Prime Day’s sales figures, but said last year that the event achieved global record sales.
Adobe Digital Insights predicts that the sales event will generate $ 23.8 billion in online general expenses from July 8 to 11, 28.4% more than the similar period last year. In 2024 and 2023, online sales increased 11% and 6.1% during the four days comparable in July.
Vivek Pandya, principal adobe digital analyst Insights, said the Amazon movement to extend the four -day sales event is a great opportunity to “really amplify and accelerate the speed of spending.”
Caila Schwartz, director of Insights and Strategy of the consumer of the Salesforce software company, said that July sales in general have lost some impulse in recent years. Amazon is not a Salesforce Commerce Cloud customer, so the business software company does not have access to electronic sales of the online giant and, therefore, it is not aware of the first -day figures.
“What we saw last year was that (the buyers) bought and then ended,” said Schwartz. “We know that the consumer is still really cautious. Therefore, we are likely to see a similar pattern where they leave early, they are ready to buy and then step back.”
Tariffs don’t seem to be affecting costs (until now)
Amazon executives reported in May that the company and many of its third party vendors tried to overcome the large import taxes by supplying foreign goods before President Donald Trump’s tariffs were valid. And due to that movement, a good number of third party vendors had not changed their prices at that time, said Amazon.
Pandya of Adobe Digital Insights expects discounts to remain at the same time with last year and that other American retail companies mark 10% to 24% discount on the suggested retail price of manufacturers between Tuesday and Friday.
Schwartz de Salesforce said that it has noticed that retailers become more precise with their discounts, such as offering promotional codes that apply to selected products instead of all websites.
Buyers can focus on needs
Amazon Prime and other July sales have historically helped to boost the expense of return to school and encouraged advanced planners to buy other seasonal goods before. The analysts said they expected US consumers to buy this week for fear that tariffs make the articles more expensive later.
Brett Rose, CEO of United National Consumer Supplies, a wholesale distributor of exaggerated goods such as toys and beauty products, believes that buyers will look for articles such as Beauty Essentials.
“They will buy more everyday items,” he said.
A look at discounts
As in recent years, Amazon offered early offers before primary day. For the great event, Amazon said he would have special discounts on enabled products for Alexa such as Echo, Fire TV and Fire Tablets.
Walmart said his sale in July would include a 32 -inch Samsung Smart monitor with a price of $ 199 instead of $ 299.99; and $ 50 discount on a 50 -inch Vizio intelligent television with a standard retardation price of $ 298.00. Target said he maintained his 2024 prices in key articles back to school, including a $ 5 backpack and a selection of 20 school supplies for a total of less than $ 20.
Some third party sellers will sit in the first time
Independent companies that sell goods through Amazon represent more than 60% of the company’s retail sales. Some third -party vendors are expected to sit on the first day and do not offer discounts to preserve their profit margins during the uncertainty of the current rate, analysts said.
Rose, from United National Consumer Supplies, said he spoke with third -party vendors who said they would prefer to receive a sales success this week than to use much of their inventory prior to rates now and risk seeing that their profit margins suffer later.
However, some independent companies that sell their products on Amazon are looking for Prime Day to make a dent in the inventory they accumulated at the beginning of the year to avoid rates.
The Home Fellow home fragrance company, which makes about 30% of its sales through the Amazon market, gets most of its candle covers, labels, bottles, cane diffusers and other articles from China, said founder Patrick Jones. Fearing high rates costs, Jones supplied at the beginning of the year, doubling his inventory.
For Prime Day, he plans to offer greater discounts, as a 32% discount on the price of a candle that normally has a price of $ 34, Jones said.
“All the product we have in Amazon at this time is still the inventory we obtained before the rates came into force,” he said. “So we can still offer the discount we are planning to do.”
Jones said he was waiting to find out if the order he made in June will incur great customs duties when the goods arrive from China in a few weeks.
Anne d’Onnocezio and The AP Business writer, Mae Anderson, contributed to this report
