Amazon’s biggest shopping day is turning into more and more days as the e-commerce giant announced that its annual Prime Day will span July 8-11.
The four-day event marks a shift from the two-day format Amazon has used in recent years, with millions of deals across 35-plus categories.
Amazon held the first Prime Day in July 2015. The company has experimented with different scheduling approaches over the years, holding the event in October 2020 due to the pandemic, and then in June 2021, before returning to July in 2022.
Prime Day and other special summer shopping events are intended to help to boost sales volume for Amazon and other online retailers, such as Walmart, during the summer months, in the lead-up to back-to-school shopping.
Reuters reported in April that some third-party sellers were backing out of this year’s Prime Day due to tariff-related concerns.
U.S. consumer sentiment rose this month in a potential tailwind ahead of Amazon’s Prime Day.
Amazon said last year’s two-day Prime Day was its biggest ever, setting a record for sales and items sold — though it did not share specific numbers.
NBA star LeBron James is the star of this year’s Prime Day ad campaign, titled “What’s Next?” (above), in which he daydreams about what path he might want to pursue if he retires from basketball. The ad shows James considering work as a chef, barber or lounge singer — all with the help of products he picks up during Prime Day.
Even with Prime Day now running for four days, Amazon is stretching the savings to multiple other days. For instance, Prime members can shop deals on Amazon brands on July 1 or save on gas when they fuel up at participating locations Fourth of July weekend, July 3-6. And deals from small- and medium-sized businesses start June 23 and run through July 6.
Also new this year is “Today’s Big Deals” — special themed daily offers that are exclusive to Prime members.
Prime memberships cost $14.99 per month or $139 per year.
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