Amazon Kicks Off the Holidays with Exclusive Two-Day Prime Shopping Event

Amazon will host its first-ever Prime Early Access Sale from October 11-12, a two-day holiday shopping event featuring thousands of exclusive deals across popular categories like electronics, fashion, toys, home goods, and more. Similar to the annual Amazon Prime Day in July, the October mega-savings event is expected to rake in record sales for brands that sell on Amazon, like Hasbro, KitchenAid, Beats by Dr. Dre, and more, as millions of shoppers look to get a head start on their holiday shopping. 

Amazon will host its first-ever Prime Early Access Sale from October 11-12, marking the first time Amazon offers two mega-sales in the same year. 

With this news, Amazon joins Target, Walmart, and other major retailers in rolling out holiday deals and seasonal promotions earlier than ever this year.

The Christmas creep isn’t a new retail phenomenon, though shopping events like the Prime Early Access Sale and Target Deal Days serve as tentpoles to the holiday season, with consumers now anticipating holiday promotions to run from October through December. 

This will be the first time Amazon offers two mega-sales in the same year, though it’s not the first time Amazon has hosted an October event. In light of pandemic-related challenges in 2020, Amazon rescheduled its annual Prime Day to October. Despite dampened consumer sentiment and supply chain challenges, Amazon Prime Day broke online sales records, with the 2020 mega-sale dubbed the “two biggest days for small and media businesses ever,” significantly outperforming 2019 sales figures. In the years since, Amazon Prime Day has only grown more popular, with more than 300 million products sold during the 2022 July event, making this summer’s Amazon Prime Day the biggest in Amazon’s history. According to Insider Intelligence, Amazon competitors benefited from halo demand during Amazon Prime Day, as “nearly a third of consumers” shopped at Walmart, and 24 percent made purchases at Target during the two-day event. Analysts expect the Amazon Prime Early Access Sale in October to be just as big, if not bigger, than July’s Amazon Prime Day. 

“The timing of the event suggests that Amazon is looking to create and capture buying intent in a year where demand has been less predictable, which, as we know, worked very well for the company in 2020,” said Julianne Manoogian, senior principal of consulting at PMG. As part of the October mega-sale, Amazon will feature a Top 100 list, a curated selection of the best deals, and the season’s most popular products, available exclusively to Amazon Prime members. According to their press release, Prime members will also score “additional savings on Alexa-enabled devices and top products from LEGO, adidas, Furbo, Ashley Furniture,” and more. Coupled with holiday gift guides and Amazon’s Toys We Love List, Amazon’s Top 100 list will improve the holistic shopping experience on Amazon, making it easier than ever for shoppers to “discover, shop, and save” this holiday season. 

Amazon joins Target, Walmart, and other major retailers in rolling out holiday deals and seasonal promotions earlier than ever this year. At Target, for example, the first holiday Deal Days will take place October 6-8, earlier than Target’s 2021 Deal Days. Last week, Walmart announced improvements to the holiday shopping experience, including steeper discounts and early returns options starting October 1. Walmart is said to be making “significant investments in key categories,” offering customers thousands more cost savings to provide “even deeper savings on the hottest gifts, including toys, home, electronics, beauty, and more.” Last year, supply chain disruptions led shoppers to spend early and skirt the risk of empty shelves, while this year, excess inventory and rising prices have put additional pressure on retailers to encourage shoppers to get a jumpstart on their holiday shopping and spend early. 

“In 2022, the landscape has shifted in favor of the consumer, with consumer expectations quickly adapting to news that retailers are planning to promote early and deeply to clear inventory,” said Tim Lardner, client strategy partner at PMG. “As of late September, holiday browsing has started in earnest. We’re observing strong traffic trends to ecommerce sites by customers who are on the hunt for value and softer conversion for full-priced messaging. Retailers that are in a position to capitalize early by taking advantage of lower media costs and delivering value to customers—in messaging, via loyalty, or via discount—starting in early October may have a leg up on this year’s holiday push.”

While the Christmas creep isn’t a new trend or retail phenomenon, shopping events like the Prime Early Access Sale and Target Deal Days serve as tentpoles to the holiday season, stretching it out even further, with consumers anticipating holiday promotions to run from October through December.