Shoppers are likely to spend roughly $14 billion during Amazon’s Prime two-day shopping event this week – up 10.5% from last year – according to projections from Adobe Analytics, a firm that studies e-commerce transaction data.
Amazon began holding Prime Day nearly a decade ago in 2015. The online retailer turned July, what is otherwise a slow time for retailers, into a season when shoppers look for bargains, especially on back-to-school clothing, electronics, uniforms, backpacks, dorm decorations and supplies.
But Amazon’s self-proclaimed customer celebration comes at a cost. While Prime members can purchase goods with the ease of a few clicks year-round, getting those millions of products to arrive at their doorsteps in just a day or two is far more challenging for the warehouse workers and delivery drivers that Amazon relies on. The speed and scale is worse on Prime Day, when even more customers are buying even more items.
On July 15, the eve of Prime Day, a group of former and current Amazon workers showed up to the corporation’s New York City office to deliver stories from workers about injuries and deaths on the job and to request a meeting with the Vice President of Amazon’s Global Workplace Health and Safety, Vox reported.
Rivals Walmart and Target are also launching July discounts and marketing events in a bid to beat Amazon at its own game, and capture some of the $38.8 billion that the National Retail Federation trade group projects Americans will spend on back-to-school shopping this summer.
Following years of high inflation, shoppers have delayed purchases of non-essential goods and retailers are tempting shoppers to break that habit with aggressive discounting.
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