This year’s holiday shopping season will once again kick off early with consumers motivated to avoid shipping delays and out-of-stock items. But this year will lack last year’s singular early season tentpole event: Amazon punted on hosting an October Prime Day. Still, the ecommerce behemoth found other ways to prime shoppers for an early start:
- “Holiday Beauty Haul.” This debut event for the cosmetics category kicked off October 4.
- “Black Friday-worthy.” This cross-category promotion of early season deals also went live October 4.
- Amazon Fire TV Omni Series. The company’s first-ever line of full-screen TVs will be available in late October.
Even without the fanfare of an official Q4 Prime Day, consumers anticipate ramping up their holiday spending early. A recent survey from Jungle Scout found that 31% of US consumers expected to start their holiday shopping in October or earlier, and 55% expected to start before Thanksgiving.