E-commerce spending jumps at Target, Walmart, others around Amazon’s Prime Day | Insights | Bloomberg Professional Services

Functions for the Market

Background

The success of Amazon Prime Day sales event has spurred multiple retailers to launch copycat sales in the weeks ahead of Amazon’s deep discounts. Walmart and Target each held two separate events that garnered attention and improved sales, while ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok got in on the action with its Deals For You Days in early July.

Spending around and on Prime Day increased year-over-year for many brands and the online market as a whole with industry-wide discounts becoming the standard for this second digital peak season.

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The Issue

Copycat sales events from major retailers are preceding Amazon’s Prime Day and yielding successes for many digital storefronts. Walmart and Target are among the top brands seeing returns on these early sales events, while Temu and TikTok also expanded with contemporaneous events.

Ahead of Prime Day (July 16-17), Target held Target Deal Days (June 20-22) and Target Circle Week (July 7-13), while Walmart ran its Walmart+ Week (June 17-23) and Walmart Deals Sale (July 8-11). US consumer sales for both companies were up 5% year-over-year in the week ending June 23 and 3% in the week ending July 14.

On its own, Amazon Prime Day 2024 saw a 6% increase in US consumer sales compared to the 2023 event.

This year, the Prime Day event helped online sales across all US retailers rise 11% compared to those two dates in 2023. Adobe estimates US consumers spent $14.2 billion during those 48 hours.

Other copycat techniques are also proving their value for established brands. Gap — expected to see ecommerce growth in fiscal 2025, its first growth in four years — and TikTok are improving their sales outlooks by copying Shein Group Ltd.’s sales push around social-media-inspired fast fashion.

Tracking

Run Bloomberg’s Alternative Data Company Analysis function (ALTD) to monitor observed US consumer sales and transaction analytics. Use Break Out by Subtab to compare observed online vs in-store sales breakdowns.

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