<\/p>\n
Amazon created Prime Day to reward its most loyal shoppers.<\/p>\n
More than a decade later, the event has grown far beyond Amazon.<\/p>\n
Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Kohl\u2019s, and other major retailers now routinely launch competing promotions around Prime Day, turning a once Amazon-centric sale into one of the biggest shopping periods of the summer.<\/p>\n
U.S. shoppers spent a record $26.4 billion online during Amazon\u2019s four-day Prime Day period from June 23 through June 26, according to Adobe Analytics.<\/p>\n
That was up 9.3% from a year earlier.<\/p>\n
But beneath the record spending, new data reveals a more complicated picture for Amazon.<\/p>\n
Amazon shoppers spent less per order and per household than they did a year earlier, while competing retailers experienced significant increases in store traffic during the same promotional period.<\/p>\n
The shift suggests consumers remain willing to spend when discounts are strong, but are increasingly spreading those dollars across retailers rather than concentrating their shopping on Amazon.<\/p>\n
That trend is emerging just as Amazon prepares to report second-quarter earnings on July 30.<\/p>\n
Amazon shares fell about 4.6% on July 23 to $233.66 as technology stocks came under pressure following Alphabet\u2019s latest earnings report and renewed concerns about the cost of artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The stock has declined 6.35% over the past five days and 8.26% over the past three months, while remaining up about 1.4% over the year.<\/p>\n
Amazon Prime Day spending hits record, but growth slows<\/p>\n
Prime Day continues to generate enormous consumer spending.<\/p>\n
Adobe Analytics said U.S. retailers generated $26.4 billion in online sales during the four-day 2026 Prime Day period, up 9.3% year over year.<\/p>\n
That set another record for the summer promotional period. However, the pace of growth was substantially slower than a year ago.<\/p>\n
More Amazon:<\/p>\n
Bank of America doubles down on Amazon shares after Prime DayAmazon\u2019s $8.3 billion Prime Day sends Wall Street a warningAmazon Prime Day gives Wall Street a $22B reason to take notice<\/p>\n
During the comparable four-day Prime Day period in 2025, U.S. consumers spent $24.1 billion online, according to Adobe, representing 30.3% growth from the comparable four-day period a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Although the 2024 comparison should be used within context.<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s official Prime Day event lasted only two days in 2024, compared with four days in both 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n
Adobe reported $14.2 billion in U.S. online spending during the two official Prime Day days in 2024, up 11% year over year.<\/p>\n
The more recent figures nevertheless show that industrywide spending continued to reach records in 2026, even as growth slowed sharply from the previous year.<\/p>\n
Amazon stock is up 1.4% year to date.<\/p>\n
Peter Dazeley / Getty Images<\/p>\n
Amazon shoppers spend less per order<\/p>\n
Numerator, a consumer data firm, found that the average Amazon Prime Day order in 2026 was $47.66, down from $53.34 in its comparable year-earlier analysis.<\/p>\n
Average household spending also declined to about $143.45 from $156.37 a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Nearly two-thirds of households that shopped during Prime Day placed at least two separate orders, suggesting consumers remained engaged with the event.<\/p>\n
But they spent less each time they checked out.<\/p>\n
In May, Bank of America Consumer Spend Collective data showed U.S. e-commerce spending increased 13% year over year, while online shopping penetration rose 1.8 percentage points to 29.8%.<\/p>\n
The latest BofA data suggests that momentum continued into the second quarter.<\/p>\n
In a July 22 research note shared with TheStreet, Bank of America analyst Justin Post said aggregated credit- and debit-card data showed online spending growth accelerated by 2 percentage points from the first quarter.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the bank said the Prime Day sales-growth bump appeared more modest than in previous years.<\/p>\n
The figures point to a consumer who remains willing to spend online but is becoming less loyal to any single promotional event.<\/p>\n
Walmart, Target, Best Buy gain from Prime Week<\/p>\n
When Amazon held Prime Day from June 23 through June 26, several of its biggest retail rivals launched overlapping promotions.<\/p>\n
Placer.ai found that all four major chains it analyzed experienced increased store traffic during the promotional period compared with their typical day-of-week traffic.<\/p>\n
On June 23, the opening day of Prime Day:<\/p>\n
Visits to Kohl\u2019s were 18.4% above the retailer\u2019s year-to-date day-of-week baselineBest Buy traffic increased 18.1%Target visits rose 16.3%.Walmart recorded a more modest but still positive increase of 4.7%<\/p>\n
All four retailers continued to experience elevated traffic through the promotional period, according to Placer.ai.<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s competitors are increasingly using the event to capture consumers already in a deal-seeking mindset.<\/p>\n
Placer.ai characterized the behavior as evidence of a pressured but engaged consumer who is increasingly willing to wait for promotional events before making purchases.<\/p>\n
For Amazon, that creates both an opportunity and a challenge.<\/p>\n
Prime Day can stimulate enormous consumer demand, but Amazon no longer has that demand all to itself.<\/p>\n
Amazon earnings preview points to stronger retail growth<\/p>\n
Despite more modest Prime Day growth, Bank of America expects Amazon\u2019s broader retail business to accelerate when the company reports second-quarter earnings.<\/p>\n
BofA maintains a Buy rating on Amazon, with a price objective of $310, ahead of the earnings.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the firm forecasts Amazon will report total second-quarter revenue of about $198.8 billion, above the roughly $196.8 billion Wall Street estimate the bank cited.<\/p>\n
The firm expects operating income of approximately $24.1 billion, also slightly above Wall Street\u2019s $23.6 billion estimate.<\/p>\n
North America could be a strong contributor: BofA expects North American revenue of about $116.3 billion, representing roughly 16% year-over-year growth.<\/p>\n
Wall Street is expecting about $113.9 billion, according to estimates cited by the bank.<\/p>\n
The stronger outlook reflects continued strength in online consumer spending and Amazon\u2019s decision to move Prime Day from July to June.<\/p>\n
This timing gave Amazon an additional sales boost in the second quarter, but the benefit will reverse when the company reports third-quarter results.<\/p>\n
BofA expects North American retail revenue to decline by roughly $1 billion sequentially in the third quarter because Prime Day sales were pulled forward into June.<\/p>\n
The timing could create an approximately 4-percentage-point headwind to year-over-year North American growth comparisons.<\/p>\n
AWS expectations remain high<\/p>\n
Investors will also be closely watching Amazon Web Services.<\/p>\n
AWS revenue increased 28% year over year to $37.6 billion during the first quarter, its fastest growth rate in 15 quarters.<\/p>\n
Bank of America raised its second-quarter AWS growth estimate to 33% from 31%, which would put revenue at roughly $41 billion.<\/p>\n
Wall Street is expecting about $40.5 billion and approximately 31% growth, but investor expectations may be higher.<\/p>\n
BofA said its conversations suggest investors could be expecting AWS growth of around 34%, meaning Amazon may need to outperform published consensus estimates to impress Wall Street.<\/p>\n
The bank expects AWS growth to accelerate further to approximately 36% in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Amazon faces increased retail rivalry and AI costs<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s growth outlook raises another question: how much the company will need to spend to sustain it.<\/p>\n
Amazon has said it expects approximately $200 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, much of it tied to cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Bank of America believes the figure could increase to around $210 billion, partly because of higher memory costs and continued demand for computing capacity.<\/p>\n
For the second quarter alone, BofA expects capital expenditures of roughly $49 billion.<\/p>\n
That level of spending has increased investor scrutiny across Big Tech, particularly as companies race to expand AI infrastructure before the investments generate clear returns.<\/p>\n
For Amazon, however, the upcoming earnings report will also reveal something more fundamental about its original business.<\/p>\n
Prime Day still generates record levels of online spending, but shoppers now have more places than ever to chase the same deals.<\/p>\n
Amazon\u2019s challenge is no longer simply getting consumers to spend during Prime Day, it’s making sure enough of that spending still happens on Amazon.<\/p>\n
Related: Mark Zuckerberg backs Elon Musk Silicon Valley decision<\/p>\n
#Amazon #stock #slides #Prime #Day #data #reveals #shopper #shift #ahead #earnings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Amazon created Prime Day to reward its most loyal shoppers. More than a decade later,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[259],"tags":[839,291,569,3716,1308,2498,1107,1953,2946,3411,91],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}