Amazon’s competitors sense an opportunity: Dedicated sales days only work if customers feel like they’re taking advantage of an offer they can’t get elsewhere.
- With retailers like Target, Abercrombie & Fitch, and Big Lots offering steep markdowns on their excess inventory, customers may feel less inclined to wait for Prime Day or other big sales events.
- Target, for instance, is looking to quickly get rid of bulky items like furniture and consumer electronics—two categories that typically perform well on Prime Day—so it can make room for groceries, back-to-school products, and household essentials.
The big takeaway: Retailers’ ability to take sales away from Amazon depends partly upon their ability to make shoppers aware such deals are available.
- Without a dedicated event to market against, it’s much harder to drive sales at anywhere close to the scale of a Walmart+ Weekend or Prime Day.
- That said, the mere existence of a shopping event doesn’t guarantee shoppers will respond: Only 33% of the people who shopped on Walmart+ Weekend knew about it beforehand, per Numerator. By contrast, 94% of Prime Day shoppers in 2021 knew about the event in advance.
- Most retailers are probably better off leveraging Prime Day for their own benefit by offering competing sales. We expect competitors to generate $5.22 billion in sales this Prime Day—up 17.8% year-over-year (YoY).
Go further: For more on what brands and retailers can do to prepare for Amazon Prime Day, read our latest report here.