Amazon Prime Day spend could fall, rivals' price cuts rise - report

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Oct 9, 2020

Amazon’s Prime Day discount event usually has the ability to deliver some surprises and with the delayed event due to happen on October 13 and 14, there’s a prediction that it could be much smaller than in previous years.

The event was delayed from earlier in the summer due to the coronavirus crisis so it's the first time it will have happened in October. 

October is closer to Black Friday and the giant holiday shopping season, and it's uncharted territory for the online retail giant. And LovetheSales.com, the UK site that aggregates discounts, said there could be lower demand this year than in 2019 when Prime Day took in record sales of £5.35 billion. 

It said online searches in the lead up to Prime Day are down 44% in the US and 54% in the rest of the world. With the drop in anticipation for the event, the LovetheSales data team is projecting a fall in sales of £2.63bn for Amazon, against Prime Day 2019 spending. 

LovetheSales co-founder Stuart McClure, said: “Prime Day sales have been increasing year-on-year for the past five years, according to Amazon. However, the e-tail giant has spent billions ingraining Prime Day as a July event”. 

He said the data shows less awareness of and less of an appetite for this year's October Prime Day, “and with Black Friday just around the corner, many shoppers might just give Prime Day a miss this year.”

Of course, as mentioned, Amazon does have the ability to surprise and consumers could still flock online over the two day event.

With that in mind, rivals have been discounting products in order to make their own offers more attractive just before Prime Day. LovetheSales’ data showed the volume of fashion discounts by competing retailers this week was up 17% year-on-year.

At the most active end, discounts at Asos are up 62%, while at Superdry they’re up 58% and JD Sports’ markdowns have risen 51%. 

The fashion categories with the best offers in October so far are coats/jackets, trainers, hoodies, leggings, and trousers/chinos.