Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Sale has kicked off with consumers ditching premium item purchases for value products.
According to Attain, a research firm that collects data from credit card transactions, consumers kept their shopping to an average of roughly US$38 during the first eight hours of the shopping bonanza, up 2% from last year.
Deprioritising big-ticket items reflects data that Amazon released, which found 76% of surveyed Australians are anxious about the cost of the upcoming holiday season and that 83% surveyed are trying to make their dollars stretch this holiday season.
To capitalise on shopper’s spending habits and budget constraints, Amazon has gone one step further in scrutinizing customers’ browsing activity to customize deals they may want for later in the season.
“This is a master class of how to have foresight into the consumer ahead of the season,” Brian Mandelbaum, Attain’s chief executive officer of Chicago-based Attain, said.
“Each shopper will have their own symphony of offers heading into the holidays.”
In the U.S., online sales in November and December are expected to rise 4.8% to $222 billion, according to Adobe Inc., topping last year’s growth of 3.5% growth.
The current sales have seen roughly 60% of products costing less than $20, with 3% costing about $100, according to the research firm Numerator, which collected data from 890 shoppers who made 1,379 orders.
“We’re just getting started, and so far, we’re really pleased with what we’re seeing and hearing from our customers, with Prime members shopping top deals across electronics, toys, home, fashion, beauty and Amazon devices,” company spokesperson Maria Boschetti said.
According to a survey by RetailMeNot, 64% of shoppers said they’d start buying in October this year, up from 53% a year ago.
“People are definitely out there looking,” RetailMeNot editor Kristin McGrath said.
“How well these sales do, and how much people actually buy, remains to be determined.”
