Amazon Prime Day Discounts Indicate Cautious Consumer Spending this Holiday, According to New Impact Analytics™ Report

Overall Smaller Discounts Seen on Essentials with Bigger Discounts on Higher Value Categories

/EIN News/ -- NEW YORK, July 19, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Prime Day discounts indicate a need for retailers to prepare for cautious consumers for the coming Holiday season, according to a new report by Impact Analytics™, the pioneer in AI-powered planning and pricing solutions for the retail, grocery, manufacturing, and CPG industries. The data shows low discounts, of less than 10% on average, in essential categories including Grocery & Gourmet Food; Pet Supplies; Appliances; Baby Products; and Patio, Lawn & Garden. Non-essential and High-Value Categories had significant discounts on Prime Day as well as the highest increase in discounts leading up to prime day. These categories include Electronics; Cell Phones & Accessories; Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry; Tools & Home Improvement; and Sports & Outdoors.

“Given the current macro-economic conditions, Prime Day appeared to strike a delicate balance between maintaining margins and stimulating demand,” said Prashant Agrawal, CEO of Impact Analytics. “Our data shows a high concentration of lower discounts on everyday essentials, indicating that pricing might not have a strong impact on buyer behavior for these items, which may reflect ongoing inflationary pressures and stable demand in these segments. Retailers must start preparing now to navigate these conditions effectively not only to serve a cautious consumer this holiday but also to ensure they are ready to weather future market dynamics and uncertainty.”

Significantly, 81% of last month’s best selling items in Grocery & Gourmet Food were not included in the Prime Day Sale. On the opposite end of the spectrum, only 41% of bestselling Electronics, 45% of Cell Phones & Accessories, and 50% of Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry were not marked down.

The report also shows that Prime Day 2024 had deeper promotions compared to previous years’ events across most categories. The top categories with the steepest increase in promotions compared to Prime Day 2023 include Appliances +8% (24% vs 16%); Cell Phones & Accessories +6% (28% vs 22%); Electronics +4% (34% vs 30%). The categories with the steepest decrease in promotions include Beauty and Personal Care -5% (29% vs 34%); and Grocery & Gourmet Food -1% (23% vs 25%).

Comparing 2024’s Amazon Prime Day with Walmart Deals, the discounts offered by both events were similar for categories including Appliances; Electronics; Grocery & Gourmet Food; and Sports & Outdoor. Walmart Deals offered significantly deeper discounts in the Home & Kitchen category at 36% compared to Amazon Prime’s 27%.

Read the full report here.

ABOUT IMPACT ANALYTICS
Impact Analytics offers a holistic suite of AI powered solutions to help brands future-proof their businesses using predictive analytics. The company has been pioneering and perfecting the use of AI in retail forecasting, planning and operations for nearly a decade, serving the retail, grocery, manufacturing and CPG industries. With tools for planning, forecasting, merchandising and pricing, Impact Analytics enables retailers to make smart data-based decisions rather than relying on last year’s figures to forecast and plan this year’s business. The company also offers tools to automate functions the industry has long managed manually by spreadsheet and to unify and streamline reporting, so executives can rely on a single source of truth when making decisions. Impact Analytics was founded and is led by Prashant Agrawal, a former senior consultant at McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group and current Adjunct Professor at Columbia University who teaches about the use of AI in retail.
To learn more, visit Impact Analytics and follow us on LinkedIn.

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