Amazon is launching a new two-day shopping event six weeks out from Black Friday. The event, the Prime Early Access Sale, will be held on October 11 and October 12 in 15 countries including the UK.
Amazon says the event, offering exclusive deals to members of its Prime subscription scheme, will give shoppers a chance to start their festive shopping early. It is offering a range of deals from brands including Shark, Nespresso, Philips, Samsung and more.
“Across the UK, our Prime members will get the opportunity to start shopping some of the season’s top deals before anyone else with Amazon’s new Prime Early Access Sale,” says John Boumphrey, UK country manager of Amazon. “You may not be ready for Panto and mince pies but with fewer than 90 days until Christmas, it’s not too early to start planning your shopping for the festive season ahead, and this exclusive 48-hour sales event will help people save money and shop smarter as we head into the festive season.”
The launch of the new event marks the ever earlier arrival of the formal peak trading season. It comes at a time that shoppers are expected to want discounts, amid the ongoing cost-of-living crisis. It will also be earlier than Singles Day on November 11 – previously seen as the first peak trading event. However it’s likely that Amazon will be bidding to grow its share of the cash shoppers have available to spend this Christmas. Last Christmas there were reports of shoppers bringing Christmas spending forward to October in order to ensure their purchases arrived in time for Christmas amid widespread supply chain issues that were then affecting the market. Analysis out earlier this week, from cart.com‘s DataFeedWatch found that more than a quarter of products advertised on paid online channels were already on sale.
Parcel comparison website ParcelHero says that shoppers may not be in the mood to buy this year, following the impact of last week’s mini-budget – which has hit the value of the pound against the dollar hard, and has led to rises in the cost of government borrowing which are now set to feed into higher interest rates, including on mortgages.
David Jinks, head of consumer research at ParcelHero, says predictions of an autumn event came during the summer Amazon Prime Day event. “Back in July, a “Prime Fall” event seemed a clever idea. July’s retail results were encouraging. Brits had spent 1.3% more in stores than they had the previous month and 5.3% more online. It seemed likely Prime punters would be in a good position to make the most of a bonus sale at the beginning of the run-in to the holiday season.
“What a difference a few months makes. The Chancellor’s ‘KamiKwasi’ mini-budget has now sent the pound into freefall, prompting the likelihood of soaring interest rates and a steep hike in mortgage payments, on top of already rising domestic energy bills.
“Shoppers who opened their wallets only a week ago may well now keep them tightly closed during October as they wait and see how the chips fall after the Chancellor’s huge gamble.”
Amazon is ranked Elite in RXUK Top500 research.
