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July 3, 2025
Is Early Summer Becoming a Bigger Retail Sales Opportunity?
Retailers ranging from Dollar General to Dick’s Sporting Goods and Aldi have launched summer savings events to spur sales in what is typically a quieter time for retail business.
The arrival of Amazon Prime Day, which extends this year from two to four days, from July 8 to 11, has put more attention on the month of July for retailers. Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Kohl’s have already announced sales alongside the event.
However, more retailers are introducing summer savings campaigns this year at a time that traditionally focuses on summer clearance deals ahead of back-to-school selling. The deals may be countering inflationary concerns.
Dick’s, Dollar General, Meijer, Aldi, and Sam’s Club All Pushing Summer Sales
Dick’s on Wednesday announced its inaugural DICK’S Deal Days promotion — running from July 7 through July 10 — supporting summer activities with deals on swimsuits and kayaks, as well as the start of the travel and youth sports season. Said Melissa Christian, VP of global brand and category marketing at Dick’s Sporting Goods, in a statement: “This time of the year is packed with games, getaways and everything in between, and we know our athletes love to save on the gear they need.”
Meijer in mid-May announced it was reducing prices on more than 70 “summer grocery staples” as part of a new 10-week promotion. Don Sanderson, chief merchandising and marketing officer, said: “Meijer understands customers are looking for value now more than ever before, especially during the summer months of cookouts, camping and kids home from school.”
Dollar General is running a “7 Days of Savings” summer sales event (July 6-12) with discounts of up to 50% off one featured item each day. Prices have also been lowered on more than 1,000 items through Labor Day. Emily Taylor, Dollar General’s EVP and chief merchandising officer, said, “With kids home from school, there’s often additional meal prep and a desire for additional activities. Our discount offers are designed to enhance affordability on the items our customers need and want.”
Sam’s Club announced on June 17 that it was locking in prices on more than 1,000 “summer favorites” through July 22 amid threats of higher prices tied to tariffs. The wholesale club stated, “From grilling gear and coolers to pool floats and fresh-cut fruit trays — members can count on consistent value for the season’s must-haves. No surprises. Just confidence.”
Aldi announced in early June it was lowering prices on more than 400 products to “help shoppers celebrate summer without sticker shock.” Aldi U.S. CEO Jason Hart said, “While customers may see higher prices at other retailers, we’re working hard to unlock even more value for our shoppers, just in time for summer’s lineup of holidays and gatherings where food takes center stage.”
Discussion Questions
Is the apparent increase in summer-themed campaigns due to inflation concerns, Amazon Prime Day, retailers recognizing a bigger summer selling opportunity, or another reason?
Do you expect summer deals will receive a bigger focus in coming years?
Poll
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Do sales seasons even have any meaning anymore? Black Friday became a weekend, various themed sales now routinely start not weeks but months before the event, and don’t get me started on the perpetual “special one day sale”(s) – of any number of retailers – that seem to happen 363 days a year. The last step will be the “No Reason At All Sale”…tho whether it will start out as a parody or in desperation, I can’t say.
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Amazon has made early summer a tent-pole event with Prime Day. That, in turn, has sparked a competitive response from many other retailers, all trying to cash in on consumer spending with their own discounts and deals. Over recent years this has also been exacerbated by inflation fatigue and pressure on household finances. Don’t forget, retailers aren’t just competing with each other – they’re also competing with leisure and travel spending which tends to ramp up come July and into the summer months. That’s why, historically, there has always been some activity around this time of year.
Adjusting promo and big sales to better fit consumer travel plans and busy summers is a smart move, but especially if Amazon has found earlier traction well before back to school sales. In the case of competing around Amazon Prime Day, you either create a sale beforehand in June while heading into the 4th, or compete head-to-head (dangerous), or you have a sale following, hoping there is still money left in shoppers wallets.
Unintentionally, Amazon created a summer tentpole event with its first Prime Day in 2015, celebrating the company’s 20th anniversary of launching its website. There’s a competitive FOMO here, masquerading as strategy, with retailers compelled to play defense. Retailers need to craft value by means other than adding discount events and artificial seasonality. Despite that reality and the recognized deal fatigue among consumers, retailers will continue to add summer deals as they chase Amazon’s playbook. Winning retailers will create value through micro-moment marketing for relationship-building, rather than relying on discount delivery mechanisms. The future belongs to those who solve consumer problems, not those who manufacture sales events.
Why? Amazon 100%. Amazon customers are trained to shop on Prime Days, so we encourage our independent clients to host sales at the same time. When customers are in the mood to spend money, there’s no better time to give them a reason to buy.
This is not new. There were always sales to lure people off the beach and into stores. Now we make more noise about everything because it’s all 24/7 . I can remember one of my gigs when the CMO told me they didn’t want a full sell-thru of spring goods because they needed “bait” in the summer months
Amazon started it. Pre-summer Prime Day then turned to early summer Prime Day. This forced other retailers to follow suit to compete.
Like any exciting event or limited time activity, it loses impact when its frequency increases. Repetitive or recurring sales are no different.
Keeping “limited time” to a limit would reinvigorate the excitement of a sale.
I regret to inform everyone, but summer sales events are not really “new”. “Christmas in July” events date back to the 80s and even before, when retailers sought to add life to the slowest part of the retail promotional calendar. Amazon’s creation of Prime Day(s) and other retailers meeting them with their own events was a natural evolution of the concept to create an exciting event during a slow-selling season. A new spin, perhaps, but not a new concept.
Which came first, peak demand windows or promotions and discounts? There was actually a time when Black Friday was highly promotional but not heavily discounted. The dicounting started December 26th. Shocking, I know. Literally in the prior century. Now Black Friday promotions start in mid October AND are deep discounting events. So now the same thinking is applied to the first half of the year. And yes, it took Amazon creating the umbrella event to get the ball rolling. Peak demand windows used to be great for selling products at full margin. Now it’s all about market share grab or protection.
This summer’s results and promo strategy is a reaction to a soft market overall rather than a trend in strategy. For retailers, the primary way they can generate incremental short-term revenue is through increased promotion, so no surprise that all of those listed in the article are retailers.