Some sellers say Amazon’s June Prime Day might be good for business

Amazon is reportedly moving its Prime Day shopping event from July to June for the first time.

The summer deals event that typically happens in mid-July is expected to take place closer to the last week of June, Bloomberg reported. Amazon has been tweaking its Prime Day playbook over the years to expand everyday purchases on its marketplace.

Last year, it held its longest Prime Day—four days, from July 8 to July 11—for the first time. In 2022, the e-commerce giant soft launched hosting a second Prime Day in the fall, which started as an experiment on Amazon’s part to get rid of Covid-era excess inventory sitting in its warehouses. However, the company has continued to host similar sales events in October ever since which it dubbed “Prime Big Deal Days.”

Brands selling on Amazon said the decision to move Prime Day to June this year could benefit their sales, as July is traditionally considered slower with people taking time off for vacations. Merchants are preparing by shipping products early and moving up their product launches.

Seller beware: “[Amazon is] trying to be out there first,” Phil Masiello, founder and CEO of Crunchgrowth, which handles Amazon stores for roughly 100 brands across food, apparel, and electronics, told Retail Brew. “That’s why they’re playing around. That’s why they’re changing the rules.”

“The second thing is they’re a logistics business, so they’re trying to move products, so there’s something else that they’re seeing,” he added.

Meanwhile, makeup brand Grande Cosmetics is betting the June timing could work in its favor and help capture consumers before peak vacation season. Grande Cosmetics did not share specifics about the exact product it is launching with Retail Brew.

“We had to be more proactive with [inventory] forecasting, making sure we have all product in-house and ready to go a full month earlier than we’d normally be planning for,” Sabeen Mian, president of Grande Cosmetics, told Retail Brew in an email.

Mian said Grande Cosmetics, known best for its eyelash- and eyebrow-enhancing serums and tinted gel, has decided to move up one of its new product launches to June instead of July to ensure it goes live well ahead of Prime Day, allowing the company sufficient time to build reviews and drive traffic to its product page.

Brand with a plan: “Brands can’t rely on deep discounts alone,” Mike Black, chief growth officer at digital commerce research firm Profitero+, previously told Retail Brew. “They must deliver lasting value and use content and reviews to drive loyalty in a more price-sensitive market.”

“The earlier timing does require a more strategic approach to discounting, given the proximity to other promotional moments across our retail partners that have been planned out prior to Amazon’s news of the shift in dates,” Mian said. “It did however encourage cross-functional alignment earlier in the year, which has been a positive shift for overall execution.”

Ultimately, Masiello said, Amazon wants to control the shopping calendar and these changes help the e-commerce giant keep everyone guessing. “When people know that Prime Day is coming, they stop shopping everywhere [else] for the deals on Prime Day. That’s what Amazon wants,” he said. “They’re constantly going to do things to make sure that the competitors don’t nail them down to a specific date.”