Will Prime Early Access Sale bite into Black Friday?

Data conflicts over just how much holiday shopping took place during the recent Amazon Prime Early Access Sale promotion.

Initially announced in September 2022, the Prime Early Access Sale offered Prime members hundreds of thousands of deals. 2022 marks the first year that Amazon essentially hosted two full-blown versions of its members-only Prime Day promotion. As more data from and analysis of the event becomes available, it is worthwhile to review the latest findings:

Blue Yonder – Consumers get a jump on holiday shopping
Although analysis of the entire 48-hour sales event from Numerator indicates that only 29% of surveyed Prime Early Access shoppers said they bought holiday gifts, new data from Blue Yonder suggests consumers took a more holiday-centric focus. According to Blue Yonder, 53% of more than 1,000 surveyed consumers made purchases that were part of their holiday shopping.

In addition, 40% of surveyed shoppers said they will shop less on Black Friday this year because of the additional Prime Day. This figure includes 17% of respondents who will shop significantly less on Black Friday, and 23% who will shop slightly less.

However, Blue Yonder analysis also indicates Prime Early Access shoppers were less satisfied with this event than they were with the annual Prime Day sale held in July 2022. Two-thirds (66%) of surveyed shoppers were pleased with the deals they found during the October event, compared to 73% during the July event.

Other Blue Yonder findings include:

• Four in 10 (41%) surveyed shoppers spent more during the October Prime event compared to the July event.
• Roughly half (49%) of surveyed consumers surveyed shopped the October event, compared to 59% for the July 2022 Prime Day and 61% for the June 2021 Prime Day event.
• Fewer surveyed consumers shopped competing deals with Target, Walmart, and Best Buy, compared to the July event – 45% shopped Walmart in October 2022 compared to 49% in July 2022, 31% shopped Target in October 2022 compared to 40% in July 2022, 20% shopped Best Buy in October 2022 compared to 26% in July 2022. 

Salesforce - Discounts up, purchases down

Meanwhile, Salesforce analyzed discounting purchasing trends during the Prime Early Access Sale. Findings include:

• The average discount was just over 21% during the October 2022 Prime event — a 25% increase in year-over-year discount rates. Outside of Cyber Week, this is the deepest discount rate seen Salesforce has tracked since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Despite the return of deep discounts, Salesforce data indicates consumers were still paying much more than they were last year and 2 years ago. The average retail selling price observed by Salesforce during the October 2022 event was up 8% over 2021 and 17% over 2020.
• With their buying power hindered by inflation, Salesforce says consumers ended up purchasing 5% fewer items over the same two-day period in 2021 and 8% fewer items compared to the 2020 shopping event. Even the strong growth Salesforce tracked in pre-Prime event weekend sales were driven by higher prices, as consumers purchased 2% fewer items than they did in 2021 over the same weekend.