The annual sales extravaganza known as Amazon Prime Day is back to its regularly scheduled program, following a number of date changes previously caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It also comes during a period of sluggish growth for the e-commerce giant.
Prime Day 2022 will run from July 12 to 13. As an added bonus, Amazon is reportedly adding another Prime Day event in the fall.
A report by CNBC said Amazon recently began notifying select third-party merchants of a "Prime Fall" event. The notice doesn't announce any dates, but instructs third-party sellers to submit limited-time "lightning deals" by July 22. Amazon declined to comment on the report.
The addition of a fall Prime event comes after Amazon announced in April its slowest quarterly revenue growth since the dot-com bust in 2001.
"We estimate that Prime Day will contribute $8.1 billion in gross merchandising volume and $4.7 billion to net sales," Jeffries analyst Brent Thill wrote in a note to clients. That's roughly equal to the take for Amazon during last year's event, which was held in June 2021.
Getting A Jump Start
Launched in 2015 as a 24-hour shopping event, Amazon Prime Day was later changed to two days. It features deeply discounted prices on merchandise. The company says Prime Day is its biggest shopping event of the year, though it doesn't release specific sales figures.
Amazon got a jump start on Prime Day with select deals that started June 21. Amazon customers that buy goods from small to medium-size businesses have a chance to win prizes.
"From June 21 through July 11, for every $1 spent on eligible small business products, customers will receive a chance to win epic prizes," said the Amazon Prime news release. This includes Super Bowl tickets and VIP passes to select concerts.
Prime members can discover and shop for products from small business brands in Amazon's store with the new Small Business Badge, the company said.
Discounts On Amazon Prime Day
For this year's Prime Day, expect to see heavily discounted prices on items in the categories of pet products, beauty care, toys, and a long line of electronics.
As it does each year, some of the best deals will be Amazon's own products. This includes Amazon's line of smart speakers and various products that bring internet streaming to TVs. Amazon is also offering discounts on home security products from its Ring product line. And the company already is promoting reduced prices on its line of Fire TVs.
To take advantage of sales on Prime Day, consumers need to be an Amazon Prime member. Nonmembers can sign up for a Prime membership at any point and get a free 30-day trial. Amazon Prime Day will occur in about 21 countries.
"Prime Day has been a core driver to incremental Prime Membership adoption, an important factor considering the over 200 million Prime members spend 2-3x more per year on average than nonmembers," wrote Thill.
Perks For Amazon Prime Members
Amazon raised Prime fees in March to $14.99 a month, up from $12.99, or to $139 a year, up from $119. With it, Prime members get access to exclusive deals, free one-day delivery as well as a free membership to its music and TV-content services.
Amazon leverages the success of its Prime Day events in several ways. Earlier this year, it held its first Amazon Pet Day, a 24-hour sales event that ran on May 2. The event offered discounts of up to 40% in categories that included pet food, pet electronics, toys, pet travel and pet cleaning products.
Amazon also is placing an emphasis on beauty products. Last October, for the first time, it ran a three-week promotion on beauty products. It was designed to lure early holiday sales and boost the company's position in a booming product category. The global beauty market generates about $500 billion in annual sales.
Amazon already is offering discounts on beauty products ahead of its official Prime Day start.
Competing retailers, including Walmart and Target, continue to bring their own sales events in response to Prime Day. Target has already announced their "Target Deal Days" event, which will start one day before Prime Day, running from July 11 to 13.
"We note that Walmart has not announced their 'Deals for Days' sales event yet, but we expect they will run their competing sales event around the same time as Prime Day," Thill wrote.
Please follow Brian Deagon on Twitter at @IBD_BDeagon for more on tech stocks, analysis and financial markets.
