Amazon Prime Day Discounts Indicate Cautious Consumer Spending this Holiday, According to New Impact Analytics™ Report
July 19 2024 - 6:30AM
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 ANALYTICSImpact 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.
Media ContactBerns Communications GroupDanielle
Poggidpoggi@bcg-pr.com