Amazon Promotes Early Holiday Shopping as ‘Prime Big Deal Days’ Return

Amazon is resuming “Prime Big Deal Days” next month before the holiday shopping season.

The eCommerce giant’s semi-annual sales event returns Oct. 8 and 9, with Amazon offering early holiday deals, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 17) press release.

“Whether Prime members are hoping to cross items off their gift lists early, looking forward to hosting joyful gatherings or scoring something special for themselves, Prime Big Deal Days is here for all their holiday needs and more,” Jamil Ghani, vice president of Prime Worldwide, said in the release.

Among the deals are discounts of up to 55% on Amazon devices, early deals from small businesses, and deals on travel offerings from companies like Carnival and Avis.

While this holiday shopping season is expected to be slower compared to last year, it will be driven by eCommerce sales, according to consulting firm Deloitte. The company projected last week that eCommerce sales will increase between 7% and 9% this season, to the tune of $289 billion and $294 billion.

“Our forecast indicates that eCommerce sales will remain strong as consumers continue to take advantage of online deals to maximize their spending,” said Michael Jeschke, principal at Deloitte Consulting, and the firm’s retail and consumer products lead.

Meanwhile, the August installment of PYMNTS Intelligence’s “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report,” the “Higher Perception of Inflation Drives Paycheck-to-Paycheck Consumers to Trade Down” edition, examined consumers’ deal-seeking behavior. It found that 63% of consumers live paycheck to paycheck, and their spending power is waning.

“Specifically, 60% of those who live paycheck to paycheck without issues paying bills and 72% of those who do so with issues paying bills said their income has not increased to offset inflation at all,” PYMNTS wrote in September. “As such, these shoppers are making more conservative budgeting decisions. Ninety-two percent of paycheck-to-paycheck consumers in the former category and 97% of those in the latter said they have taken actions to cope with price increases when buying retail products. Plus, 94% and 96%, respectively, have done so for grocery products.”