Amazon’s summer Prime Day could be light on deals as sellers don’t want to quickly sell through the inventory they stocked up on before tariffs hit.
Three agency heads told Retail Brew that instead of going all-in on Prime Day, some Amazon sellers are being pickier and more strategic about how they discount their catalogs. In the last few months, some Amazon sellers have also had to raise prices by 15%–20% due to costs tied to tariffs.
Put together, the Amazon experts said many brands are hesitant to commit to even Prime Day sales, because the market feels unpredictable and sellers are worried about running out of inventory too quickly.
“In general, we are seeing less deal submissions this year as clients handle their pre-tariff inventory like gold,” Ryan Craver, founder of commerce agency Commerce Canal, told Retail Brew in an email. “They all have enough stock now but several are seeing light inventory in Q4 and the tariff relief from Amazon has been mixed at best.”
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy recently said the company is “maniacally focused” on keeping prices low for shoppers.
However, with tariffs driving up product costs, brands are in a tough spot, Kyle Olson, VP of client services at Amazon seller agency Podean, wrote in an email. Brands can’t afford to both pay more for their products and offer big discounts, he added.
“We have heard that Amazon has had fewer submissions than prior years in their marquee placements (Top Deal, Lightning Deal) which reinforces this perspective as most brands take a more conservative and sensitive approach,” Olson said. “Many of our brands have been leaning into other areas that still offer reach but are more nimble or less directly impactful to the bottom line.”
Amazon said it will concentrate on offering the lowest prices to shoppers. “As always, Amazon continues to focus on consistently providing customers the lowest prices as well as fantastic extra savings during our deal events across the widest selection of products, with fast, reliable delivery,” wrote Jessica Martin, Amazon’s senior manager for public relations, in an email. “We’re working with our broad, varied range of valued selling partners in our store to support them while maintaining low prices and broad selection for customers.”
Katya Constantine, CEO of e-commerce consultancy Digishopgirl Media—who attended Amazon’s recent Prime readiness event in Seattle, meant to prepare sellers and agencies for Prime Day, last month—said one of the big changes to Prime Day this year is that Amazon is expected to run the sales event for four days instead of two, although there has been no official word from Amazon about this. Martin did not respond directly to our question about the possible four-day sale, but stated that Amazon has not yet announced the dates of the event.
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“[Amazon is] being very cautious about sharing dates,” Constantine said, because rivals tend to match those dates with Prime Day-like sales events. But Digishopgirl Media is forecasting the second or third week of July for the event.
Constantine said that consumers are eating up online deals in this environment: “I think Amazon is trying to capitalize on that behavior. The verbiage that a lot of people use right now is that they’re comparing this to the start of the pandemic of 2020.”
She added that Amazon also seems to be putting in some limitations on inventory ahead of Prime Day to free up space in its warehouses. “They’re removing surcharges for aged inventory, so they’re encouraging people to remove old inventory. They’re definitely trying to make up space in the warehouses right now,” Constantine said.
In this tough year for e-commerce, Amazon is also pushing brands for bigger discounts on Prime Day compared to previous years. “If you want to participate in the Lightning Deal or some of these other merchandising slots, you have to be at a deeper level of discount,” Constantine said. “So they have provided more aggressive tiers of discount suggestions for Prime Day than they have in the past.”
But, for brands, maintaining inventory levels is becoming non-negotiable. “In general there has been a greater focus on inventory preservation and margin this year given larger macroeconomic factors,” Olson said.
Despite these challenges, Amazon seems to want to make Prime Day bigger and better and spread the event out longer so it can beat last year’s performance. “They’re really trying to make it a bigger moment,” Constantine said.
“Every single Prime Day that Amazon has done has been bigger than the previous one,” she said. “They really don’t want to go and have a Prime Day that was softer than the one last year in the summer or last year in the fall.”
Amazon’s e-commerce competition with Walmart is also heating up. “I think sellers have more options today than they did two years ago. And Amazon wants to make sure they own the customers,” Constantine said.