The timing of Amazon (AMZN) Prime Day this year marks “the unofficial official start to holiday shopping — which is pretty smart,” says Jessica Teich, Good Housekeeping’s products and reviews editor.
”This is definitely going to be the longest holiday shopping season we have seen,” Teich told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade.
The sales event for Amazon shoppers typically happens in July. However due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was pushed out to October 13 and 14 — ^ weeks ahead of Black Friday.
“Is Prime Day the new Black Friday? One thing is for sure, that Prime Day is absolutely changing the way that we're shopping,” she added.
Shopping in October rather than up against the holidays avoids massive clog-ups surrounding the shipping windows towards the end of year.
Other retailers like Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Best Buy (BBY) and Overstock (OSTK) are holding their own special deals this week to compete against the e-commerce giant.
For struggling retailers with clunky websites, the event could “vacuum out” sales from the market. Prime Day is expected to garner nearly $10 billion in worldwide sales this year, according to new data from eMarketer, an impressive 43% year over year increase.
The technology for shopping has gotten become even more advanced and personalized.
“What Amazon has done this year is they've curated a lot of different gift pages. So not only can you shop by price range and by personality, but Amazon also has those great landing pages now where you can drill down by small businesses in your area,” said Teich.
Shoppers have a host of tips and tricks for the best deals at their disposal.
“The best thing that you can do going into a sale, whether it's Black Friday or Prime Day is make a wishlist ahead of time. And Amazon has the capability that you can be alerted when the item that you want is on sale,” said Teich.
“In years past we have seen that Prime Day sales, even though it's marketed as a two-day event, have extended further into the week,” said Teich.
Home items and electronics are expected to be big hits.
“In the kitchen, small appliances like instant pots, which are 50% off today, air fryers, which we've seen great deals on ... for 30% off today,” said Teich.
“People are starting to buy AirPods, which are $50 off today. Apple watches at the $200 off today. And we're really seeing people make investments on bigger ticket items that are going to improve their day to day,” she added.
Ines covers the U.S. stock market. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre
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