Amazon announced on Monday that it will stage a second shopping event similar to Prime Day the following month, making it the first large retailer to offer holiday offers earlier this year to tempt cautious consumers with smaller budgets.
During the event on October 11-12, Amazon Prime members will have early access to discounted merchandise. After Amazon’s annual Prime Day in July, the “Prime Early Access Sale” commences.
The Seattle-based e-commerce giant has utilized similar kind of sales events for years to attract customers to its $139-per-year Prime membership, which includes faster shipping and greater deals. But October’s event will be the first time the company has held two major sales campaigns in the same year.
In recent months, Amazon’s retail business had slowed considerably. The addition of the October shopping extravaganza reflects the company’s realization that it must provide greater discounts to inflation-stricken consumers during what is predicted to be a difficult holiday shopping season for shops.
Despite a continuous decline from June 05:14, inflation remains high in August.
Walmart and Target stated last week that they will begin offering discounts and price-matching offers earlier this year in order to stay up with Americans who are being pressured by rising inflation.
Similar to last year, Target will begin promoting holiday promotions in early October and will hire up to 100,000 seasonal workers in stores and distribution sites for the holiday season. In the meanwhile, Walmart is extending its return window for holiday gifts from November 1 to January 24 to October 1 through January 31.
“Holiday kickoff”
Neil Saunders, executive director of GlobalData Retail, explains, “Amazon wants to be a part of the early adopters and have a taste of the cherry.” “And the easiest way to accomplish this is to have a single day that serves as a holiday launch.”
This is the second year in a row that customers are anticipated to begin holiday shopping earlier. In order to prevent shipment delays caused by supply-chain problems, Americans began shopping earlier than usual in 2017. This year, economists anticipate that budget-conscious customers would seek to spread out their expenditures and acquire items before prices rise.
Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs discusses inflation, the Fed, and supply chain difficulties. 06:10
Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, stated that the business will give bargains on digital items and products that are “especially relevant for the holiday season,” in contrast to its Prime Day event in July, which, for instance, was centered on back-to-school supplies. He declined to state whether Amazon’s fall price event will become a permanent staple.
This year, we are solely focused on hosting a successful event, stated Ghani. “I cannot predict what will occur in the future because we are not really considering it.”