Amazon's Prime Big Deal Day is back this week. The popularity of October sales means next month's Black Friday could become the main shopping day for discounts.
During Big Deal Day, which runs from October 8th to October 9th, Amazon sellers saw a significant increase in sales as Prime members had access to exclusive discounts and sales on a variety of products.
Jay Kamhi, the creator of some of Amazon's best-selling toys such as Mr. Predict, said the toy store's total sales soared during the past two-day event.
Last year, his store's revenue was more than $47,000 during the Big Deal sale, compared to about $16,000 just before or after.
“Everyone wants a deal. When that day comes, there will be a lot of selling,” Kamhi told the Post.
Gabe Ray's company, Evolved Commerce, manages about 300 customers each month, ranging from small mom-and-pop stores to Fortune 500 companies, many of which sell on Amazon.
Ray told the Post that the average Amazon vendor overall saw a 250% to 350% increase in sales during the two-day event.
The October sale was a success, especially as more consumers turned to e-tailers during the pandemic.
“More and more older generations are embracing online shopping, especially as Amazon has improved its same-day delivery options, making it easier for them to do so,” Ray said.
The e-commerce boom begs the question: Is Amazon's October Prime event the new Black Friday?
Experts say it's not always perfect.
Black Friday's popularity has declined in recent years, going from being the top-selling day in 2019 to second in 2021 and 2023. According to Bain & Company sales forecasts,.
But it looks like the frenzied shopping days are returning.
Bain expects U.S. retail sales during Black Friday and Cyber Monday to reach a record $75 billion, representing 5% growth over last year.
About 8% of total holiday sales are expected to come from Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the largest share of the period since 2019, Bain said.
While Big Deal Day is popular in its own right, it won't replace Black Friday or Cyber Monday in terms of sales, Ray said.
But Amazon continues to take share of Black Friday customers from brick-and-mortar stores, Ray said.
“I think they’re taking away a lot of people who don’t want to go fight the crowd or sit and wait all night,” Ray told the Post. “It’s like a brick-and-mortar transaction, which is becoming less popular.”
To encourage customers to return to stores, retailers have begun offering exclusive in-store sales.
And other big retailers are rushing to compete with Amazon's October event. For example, Target recently announced Circle Week. This will run from October 6th to October 12th and overlap with the Prime event.
Amazon will see a surge in sales thanks to sales during the holiday season, but vendors often don't get the benefit, Kamhi told the Post.
Although sellers expected total sales to soar during the two-day event, profits took a hit as customers refrained from making purchases before and after the sale, he said.
In some cases, those two days of sales are enough to make up the difference, but vendors have been facing increasing fines from Amazon this year, Kamhi said.
Vendors have traditionally had to pay a fee to participate in special sales like Amazon's Lightning Deals. But Kamhi said Prime-only deals have long been an option for vendors who don't want to pay extra.
Currently, Amazon forces vendors to pay $50 for each item they want to include in the Prime-only sale, he said.
Longtime Amazon vendors say Amazon creates an environment where vendors become dependent on online marketplaces before raising fees and imposing additional fees.
Most recently, Amazon offered to help vendors with distribution costs, he said.
Previously, vendors handled shipping of goods from factories in China to third-party warehouses. Vendors then had to pay to have their products transferred from their warehouses to Amazon's warehouses.
Amazon now offers to bring sellers' products to its centers, and many vendors are turning to this cost-saving service, he said.
“I think prices will go up in the next few years because we are stuck,” Kamhi told the Post. “We are, in a sense, a captive customer.”
