CCTV Script 10/07/25

CNBC

11-07-2025

This week, Amazon kicked off its annual shopping promotion event, known as Prime Day. Similar to China's "618" online shopping festival, Prime Day is a limited-time sales event offered exclusively to Prime members, typically lasting for several days and covering millions of products. This year, Amazon extended the event from two to four days, and amid Trump's tariff threats, it is seen as a key window into U.S. consumer spending willingness.
Prime Day runs from July 8 to 11 local time. Some consulting firms have already released preliminary sales data. Momentum Commerce, a company that advises brands on Amazon sales, manages 50 brands on the platform—including sandals, headphones, and massagers, reported that sales on the first day of Prime Day were underwhelming, with client revenue down 41% compared to the same period last year.
Analysts point out that Trump's tariff policies are impacting both sellers and consumers on Amazon. On the seller side, Amazon typically requires merchants to offer at least a 20% discount during the sales event. But this year, some sellers said they were unable to offer significant markdowns.
Although Amazon's CEO recently told CNBC that tariffs have not caused noticeable price increases on the platform, data from independent pricing analysts suggest otherwise.
Commerce IQ, an e-commerce analytics firm, analyzed more than 50,000 products on Amazon. The results showed that the average price in May rose by 2.3% compared to April.
The impact of tariffs has been particularly significant for third-party sellers on Amazon. These smaller merchants face rising costs and shrinking profit margins, making it difficult to avoid raising prices.
In contrast, Amazon—as a tech giant with a market value in the trillions of dollars—has a much stronger capacity to absorb pressure. Its cloud computing business and other segments can help offset losses in e-commerce profits, allowing Amazon to accept lower profit margins on its own products and continue offering attractive discounts to consumers. The result is a notable shift: in previous years, about 60% of Prime Day orders were fulfilled by third-party sellers. This year, the trend has reversed.'Everybody we talk to, and every all the all the data we analyze are showing and Amazon is selling more this year than the third party resell.'
On the consumer side, a recent survey by e-commerce software company Akeneo found that 25% of U.S. respondents said they planned to skip Prime Day this year due to tariffs. Another 57% said they are paying closer attention to prices when shopping.
Indeed, on the first day of Prime Day, consumers leaned toward purchasing lower-priced items such as dish soap and protein drinks. Data analytics firm Numerator tracked more than 7,000 orders from 3,855 U.S. households. The data showed that nearly two-thirds of the products purchased on day one were priced under $20, or roughly 143 yuan. Only 3% of items cost more than $100.
One final trend worth noting is the growing use of generative AI chatbots by U.S. consumers for price comparisons and purchase decisions. Adobe expects that during this year's Prime Day, traffic driven by generative AI tools will rise 3200% compared to last year. We will continue to monitor this trend closely.