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A report from a major sales manager Tuesday found early Amazon Prime Day sales were down nearly 14%—but this might just mean customers are spending less in the early hours after Amazon doubled the length of its landmark sales event to four days this year, according to experts.
A Momentum Commerce researcher said the slow start could indicate “evolving consumer behavior” after ... More
Momentum Commerce, which manages Amazon sales for popular retailers accounting for $7 billion in spending on the online platform, said early spending was down nearly 14%, Bloomberg first reported—a major shift from past years, when customers spent considerably more on the sale’s first day.
In its own preview published in June, Momentum previously estimated Prime Day sales would grow by 14% from last year.
Andrew Waber, the director of market research at Momentum, told Forbes he still feels confident in the 14% growth prediction, noting the dip might be explained by Amazon offering four days of sales instead of the usual two this year, leading to less rush in the early hours.
Customers might be taking advantage of this extended time frame, as “shoppers strategically time their purchases across the extended event window to capitalize on new deals being released each day,” a representative from the company said.
The company said it would provide comprehensive sales analysis Wednesday for the first full day.
Amazon’s stock price quickly fell as far as 1.8% on Tuesday morning around the same time the early sales numbers were reported, before leveling out around a 1.4% decline Tuesday afternoon—despite a relatively flat day for markets.
Jed Ellerbroek, the portfolio manager at Argent Capital, agreed that customers likely just have less urgency this year with the extended sales dates, and that the stock price was likely also impacted by other factors.
“Amazon is probably the most impacted among the large technology group by tariffs, and those have taken center stage again this week,” Ellerbroek told Forbes in an email, but added he was still optimistic about the tech giant, calling it “our favorite large cap idea long-term.”
Amazon said it did not have a comment on the record at this time.
Amazon’s stock price is down since its $242.52 peak in February, missing out on recent all-time highs for many stocks, and it was heavily impacted by the slump following President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcements. Amazon announced earlier this year it would extend Prime Day into a four-day sales event, up from two days of rapid deals. Amazon is also facing steeper competition this year from competing events on the same days from other retailers, including Walmart, Wayfair’s “Four Days of Sales” and Target’s “Circle Week.”
$23.8 billion. That’s how much Adobe Analytics predicted Amazon customers would spend during the four day event—about $9.6 billion more than they spent during the event last year. The largest spending increases would come from customers shopping for school supplies—backpacks and lunchboxes, children’s apparel and office supplies—Adobe predicted.