$35.49
Target
How did Amazon Prime Day start? Here’s everything you’ve ever wanted to know, plus 2025 updates
In 2015, the record-breaking mega sale shook the core of the retail industry — over a decade later, it still does so today.
$35.49
Target
There’s an inaccurate stereotype about shoppers during huge sale events like Prime Day, says Steinman. “The perception is that somebody’s going to get swept up in excitement and engage in a number of impulse purchases,” he says. “But by and large, that’s not what happens on Prime Day.”
For the most part, Prime Day shoppers are savvy — they’re conscious about using the sale to their advantage and spending strategically, says Steinman. Many compare prices across retailers to determine whether a deal is worth taking advantage of, and save their bucket list-type purchases for Black Friday. That’s not to say shoppers ignore deals on luxury or “non-essential” items, however. There’s almost always an uptick in spending on cosmetics, apparel and tech during Prime Day, which is balanced with spending on household basics and pantry staples, says Pandya.
Shoppers don’t know exactly what Amazon is discounting on Prime Day until the sale starts, which is part of the event’s allure. Prime Day bestsellers vary from year to year and from country to country, which isn’t just the result of different buying habits — deals in one country aren’t always reflective of another. But factors like a discount being well-advertised or well-priced can contribute to a product becoming a bestseller, as can Amazon’s agenda of selling as many of its devices as possible. Brands also use Prime Day to slash prices on soon-to-be out-of-season or out-of-style merchandise.
Some of the best Prime Day discounts are Amazon’s Lightning Deals, flash sales that give shoppers a short window to purchase limited quantities of specific products. Lightning Deals put shoppers in a competitive mindset and add what Steinman calls a “gamification” aspect to the sale. Shoppers don’t have time to think about whether they need the item being sold as a Lightning Deal, so they impulsively buy it because they don’t want to miss out.
By hosting Prime Day in July, Amazon permanently altered the retail calendar. It created the blueprint for a member-exclusive flagship summer sale, and proved that it’s powerful enough to create a halo effect on e-commerce by driving purchases to other sites as well as its own. That forced competitors like Walmart, Target, Macy’s and Best Buy to respond, says Galak.
Since the first Prime Day in 2015, many retailers have changed the timing of their biggest sales to align with Amazon’s, or created new ones, like the Walmart Deals event and Target Circle Week. Amazon’s competitors hope that shoppers will spill over onto their sites and make additional purchases, which happens often. In 2025, 35% of Prime Day shoppers either shopped or planned to shop Target Circle Week, 49% shopped the Walmart Deals event and 11% shopped Best Buy’s Black Friday in July, according to Numerator.
“Amazon is in the driver’s seat, but retailers acknowledge that this is a real opportunity for them to capitalize on, so they need to employ all forces to help enable spending,” says Pandya.
For the first time in 2022, Amazon hosted two Prime Day-level events in one year: Prime Day in July and the Prime Early Access Sale in October. Amazon has followed that schedule ever since but changed the name of the fall event to Prime Big Deal Days, which is coming up on Oct. 7 and 8.
Although hosting a second Prime Day-level event in October takes away some of the novelty July’s sale became known for, it’s Amazon’s attempt to kick off the holiday shopping season, experts told me. Many of the retailer’s competitors now start their early Black Friday promotions in October to give shoppers extra time to buy gifts, so Amazon responded with a sale of its own. Adding another mega sale to the calendar is also evidence that Amazon is trying to drive more membership sign ups, says Steinman. “It plays on shoppers’ fear of missing out on a great deal by creating the idea that member-exclusive events can take place at any point,” he says.
Amazon doesn’t disclose sales figures, so we don’t know exactly how Prime Big Deal Days compares to Prime Day from a revenue standpoint. Typically, however, discounts during the October event are lackluster compared to July, and people don’t feel the same level of pressure to shop, experts say. The summer isn’t filled with opportunities to take advantage of sales beyond Prime Day, which works in its favor. But shoppers know that Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals start as early as October across dozens of retailers, so they usually don’t approach Amazon’s fall savings event with urgency.
Prime Big Deal Days 2025 marks the fourth time Amazon is running two member-exclusive savings bonanzas in a single year. Since the October event is two days long rather than July’s four, it’s now even more distinct from Amazon’s summer sale. It’s also on consumers’ radars in a new way: they’re very price sensitive right now due to concerns around tariffs, inflation and job security, which is exponentially increasing their appetite for sales. That means shoppers who usually skip Prime Big Deal Days and wait for Black Friday might take the October sale more seriously this year.
“When consumers have the opportunity to take advantage of deals, we’re seeing them really over-index their spending,” says Pandya. “They understand that pricing dynamics are more favorable for them during one of these sales periods versus outside of them, so that’s why we’re expecting some really strong growth for this Prime event.”
As he did during Prime Day, Pandya is keeping an extra-close eye on how Amazon is engaging influencers to reach shoppers on social media, and promoting AI integrations like its Rufus shopping assistant. He believes both trends will contribute to increased mobile spending this year, like it did in July. During Prime Day in July 2025, mobile was the dominant transaction channel, drove the majority of sales (53.2%, to be exact) and contributed $12.8 billion in online spend, according to Adobe.
“When you have consumers spending so much time on their smartphones, the question becomes how much impulse buying can happen when deals come through in an email or pop up on their social feeds,” says Pandya. “We usually see consumers take action relatively quickly.”
At NBC Select, we work with experts who have specialized knowledge and authority based on relevant training and/or experience. We also ensure that all expert advice and recommendations are made independently and with no undisclosed financial conflicts of interest.
I’m a reporter at NBC Select who’s covered Amazon Prime Day for five years. I’ve written about Amazon Prime Day’s history, Prime memberships and what to buy and skip during the retailer’s major sale events. For this article, I interviewed three experts about Amazon Prime Day and its impact on the retail industry.
Catch up on NBC Select’s in-depth coverage of tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to stay up to date.
