6 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Amazon gave Prime Day shoppers more time to browse. Many went to Walmart
Inc. executives doubled the length of their summer Prime Day sale this year to give customers extra time to browse the vast selection of deals and discounts. There was a downside. With rising prices top of mind, shoppers surfed the web comparing deals, and a lot of their dollars went to Walmart Inc. instead.
Walmart's weeklong 'Deals' event that ended July 13 outperformed Amazon's longest-ever Prime Day by several metrics. Spending on grew by 24% from its comparable deal period a year ago, six times faster than Amazon Prime Day's year-over-year growth, according to credit and debit card transaction data compiled by Bloomberg Second Measure. Walmart's web traffic increased 14% while Amazon's was flat, and Walmart's app use grew by 22% compared with Amazon's 3%, according to consumer research firm Similarweb.
Amazon still dominates the $1.3 trillion e-commerce market in the US, capturing an estimated 40 cents of every dollar spent online, and Walmart's online metrics are growing from a smaller base. Amazon's 403 million web visits during its four-day sale didn't grow from a year earlier but were still nearly six times those on Walmart for the same period.
But Walmart's online momentum shows loyal Amazon shoppers can be lured away with discounts. Second Measure, which gathers data from a panel of 20 million US consumers, captured this phenomenon — showing that 8% of Amazon Prime Day customers also shopped online at Walmart this year, up from 5% in 2024.
Competing sales give shoppers a greater sense of control during economic uncertainty, encouraging them to spend, said Deborah Weinswig, chief executive officer of Coresight Research in New York. 'Shoppers are more willing to do the work and navigate across multiple websites,' she said. 'We saw people spending a lot more time browsing and comparing prices.'
In an emailed statement, an Amazon spokesperson said: 'These third-party data do not accurately reflect the highly positive customer response to this year's Prime Day, which saw meaningfully stronger growth and customer engagement than suggested and delivered record-breaking sales and savings that surpassed all previous Prime Day events.'
Amazon launched its summer sale in 2015 to attract new Prime members who pay $139 a year for shipping discounts, video streaming and other perks. Before long, rival retailers started offering competing events. In an effort to capture the surge in spending, Adobe Inc. began measuring sales for all US retailers during the Amazon event. This year, over the four-day period ending July 11, those sales increased 30.3% to $24.1 billion, according to the firm.
Walmart is Amazon's biggest online threat thanks to its size and ability to negotiate low prices. Five years ago, the company launched its own membership program to rival Amazon's. Called Walmart+, it offers similar perks to Amazon Prime for $98 a year. Walmart has also been beefing up its marketplace business, which hosts third-party merchants. The company said almost three times as many sellers participated in its sale than a year ago, helping the retailer boost its product assortment.
Shantel Bew, a 52-year-old project manager at a telecommunications firm, shopped both Amazon and Walmart during their sales.
'I was surprised by the cost of things at Amazon,' said Bew, who splurged on apartment essentials for her daughter's move to law school. She dropped $1,600 on Walmart for a couch, mattress and bed frame, cocktail table, barstools and other furniture. She spent $378 on Amazon for pots and pans, a dish rack, cutlery and other kitchen items.
Measuring spending on Amazon during Prime Day is a tricky endeavor. The dates shift, and the company doesn't consistently release key performance metrics about the sale. Amazon said this year's Prime Day was 'bigger than any previous four-day period that included a Prime Day event.'
Firms that work with online merchants can provide a window into what's happening during the sale. Momentum Commerce, a brand adviser that tracked $750 million in US Amazon transactions across a variety of product categories and price points, said spending rose 4.9% during this year's event. After the first day of the sale, Momentum had projected 9.1% growth. Second Measure arrived at a similar estimate of 4%. Both firms compared the Prime Day 2025 sale to last year's two-day event plus the following two days.
Analysts and investors watched this year's Prime Day especially closely for hints of consumer sentiment amid a trade war that has clouded the economic outlook. Tariffs tend to be inflationary because they push up the cost of imported goods. But because tariff negotiations are ongoing, it's difficult to know where prices will settle — making shoppers skittish but willing to splurge if they spot a deal on something they need.
Amazon Prime Day shoppers favored everyday essentials like dish soap and paper plates over more expensive televisions and luxury goods. Walmart sold a lot of socks and underwear, and benefited from an earlier-than-normal back-to-school season, with shoppers snatching up crayons and glue sticks.
'Consumers saw it as a chance to stock up,' said Katherine Black, a partner at consultancy Kearney.
Soper, Kang and Barkley write for Bloomberg.
