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Will Amazon’s Big Spring Sale Be a Boon to Spring Retailing?
Amazon announced plans to introduce its first-ever Big Spring Sale running from March 20 through March 25, becoming the platform’s third major strategic selling event of the year.
The two other events — summer’s Prime Day and fall’s Prime Big Deal Days — last two days each and are reserved for Prime members. The six-day Big Spring Sale event is available for all shoppers, although Prime members get exclusive offers.
In its press release, Amazon promised significant savings on “seasonally relevant” items, including up to 50% off select beauty, sports, and outdoor products as well as up to 40% off select home products, spring apparel, and electronics. Savings will also be offered on Amazon devices like Echo and Kindle. New deals will be released each day over the six-day event.
News of the Big Spring Sale earned wide media coverage ranging from NBC News to GQ, People, and Travel & Leisure.
The Big Spring Sale could boost sales in a slow period for retail. Major spring shopping days around late March include St. Patrick’s Day and Easter, with U.S. spending expected to reach $7.2 billion and $22 billion this year, respectively, according to the National Retail Federation.
Prime Day, which debuted in 2015, is seen as a way to prop up sales during slow summer months, while Prime Big Deal Days, which first took place in 2022 under the name Prime Early Access, helps jumpstart holiday selling.
The additional shopping holiday could also be an opportunity for third-party sellers on the Amazon Marketplace. Other stores may also offer deals around the Big Spring Sale in the future should the event continue, as expected. Several retailers regularly offer competing sales during the summer and move up sales in October to align with Amazon’s Prime Day and Big Deal Days events.
One risk is that a third shopping holiday could dilute the impact of Amazon’s other events, although Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days continue to outperform.
Adobe reported that last year’s Prime Day Sales event, held July 11 to 12, netted a record $12.7 billion in the U.S., up 6.1% year over year. Amazon said that the first day of Prime Day last year was its single largest sales day ever. Numerator reported that last year’s Prime Big Deal Days event, held Oct. 10 to 11, was Amazon’s second most successful sales event ever, behind 2023’s summer Prime Day.
Discussion Questions
Is Amazon’s Big Spring Sale much of an opportunity for Amazon and spring selling overall?
Will other retailers likely be able to capitalize on the event in the years ahead?
Is three too many major sales events for Amazon?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Mark Self
President and CEO, Vector Textiles
Gary Sankary
Retail Industry Strategy, Esri
Amazon has found that its sales events are really good at driving volume, which is why it’s holding another one during a time when there’s a slight down in retail. This will be great for Amazon, but it will also pull a lot of other retailers into the discounting orbit. Quite whether this becomes a tent pole event remains to be seen. I think the likely evolution is for the main Prime Day and the pre-holiday Prime Day to be permanent pictures, with some other more casual occasions around at other times.
To answer the specific questions: No, I don’t think “three” is too many major sales events – is this question even serious (when some retailers seem to have 3 sales events every month)? – and yes, think it can be effective, if it targets (what for want of a better word we’ll call) “spring-ey” merchandise. The problem of diminished efficacy would be if it becomes “just another sale” by dumping in all kinds of unrelated merchandise…which, unfortunately, sounds like they what may be doing (Kindle…electronics…how are either of these seasonal?) How effective Amazon various “events” are is a good question: even with a conventional retailer – i.e. physical stores and (at most) slowly growing sales – it can be hard to differentiate between true sales gains and simply shifted sales; if you’re a company like Amazon which is used to double digit gains each year, the picture is even more unclear.
No doubt this will serve as another sales push during a lighter retail time of year. It remains to be seen whether this will become a permanent fixture in the rotation for Amazon, but certainly seems like a possibility.
Spring has always been a big retail season driven by Easter and changing weather. Why should Amazon not take advantage of the buying mood? Other retail is already out there, and when the Easter Eggs go away, the Spring Flowers will pop up in displays.
This is event #3. Too much? I beleive four would be just right. For most retailers, every day is one event or another. Does anyone buy off the price tag anymore?
I don’t know. Do we need more boxes on our doorsteps? First, there are too many sales in general. How many more emails do we need to get (from the same merchants) stating this is our final offer! ..blah blah blah.
I should not be pessimistic-it is Amazon so it will probably be a success, especially in driving consumers to be prime members. But I am having a hard time with a “Black Friday comes to Spring” vision.
Gosh…shocker. Amazon added a Spring sale event. This should have been a gimme on every single retail bingo card out there. Zero surprise. And of course it will be repeated year after year. What are they going to do, not comp a successful event…??? The real question is about the effect on what would have been regular priced sales and what would have been normal margins. At what point do customers just stop buying at regular price and wait for the next sale? Shall we ask Macy’s, or JCP, or Gap, or…??? And of course other retailers will ride this wave. They have to. But for most other retailers this will be a repackaging of some kind of existing promotional activity that they are already comping. Here it is 9:40 in the morning and my inbox already has “spring sale” emails from Orvis, Gap, J.Crew, Lands’ End, Staples, Pottery Barn, Banana Republic and Eddie Bauer. The day is still young. What other “sale” emails should I be breathlessly waiting for?
Deals and discounts are always in style, so consumers likely won’t view three sales events per year as excessive.
Amazon and consumers will benefit from the Big Spring Sale, as will overall spring selling. Rivals are likely to announce concurrent sales rather than passively watch Amazon ring up new sales records.
These competitive moves will shift consumer habits to expect and participate in seasonal sales events.
Will this event drive business for Amazon? No doubt. Will it become a fixture in the retail calendar? Not very likely. Consumers are getting numb to the hype. They have come to expect to pay sale prices on almost everything. I expect this event will fade over time and get lost in all the noise from other events.
This is good for both the retail world and customers. As they typically do for the Prime sales, other retailers will jump in and have their promotions. At the same time, customers will benefit from another opportunity to save money. All of this is common sense, but consider the overall impact on retail. Promotions don’t have to include drastically reduced pricing. A small incentive that justifies the promotion can be a reason to get in front of a retailer’s customers. Keeping a retailer “front of mind” is a benefit, even if the customer doesn’t take adavantage of the sale.
Three big sales events aren’t likely too much for Amazon. They continue to test outcomes and wouldn’t be diving into a new spring event without ample data to know it will result in an expected range of lifted sales and profit.
The topic of balance in major sales events is fun to discuss. At one end of the spectrum, Nordstrom for years has only had about 3-4 events total, well done and within brand. While Macy’s over the years has run major sales events seemingly every other week, customers becoming numb or dismissive of it all.
While Amazon’s Big Spring Sale offers an opportunity for increased sales during a typically slow period, the decision to introduce a third major sales event raises questions. While it may benefit Amazon, the saturation of such events could potentially dilute their impact. Other retailers might indeed capitalize on the concept, following Amazon’s lead. For instance, Walmart and Target have historically launched competing sales during Amazon’s Prime Day. However, the proliferation of major sales events could lead to consumer fatigue and decreased excitement over time, challenging retailers to innovate and maintain the allure of their promotions.