Amazon Brings Back Big Deal Days to Kick Off Holiday Shopping

Amazon is bringing back its Prime Big Deal Days shopping event early next month.

The event will return Oct. 7 and 8, the eCommerce giant announced Thursday (Sept. 15), characterizing it as the kick-off of this year’s holiday shopping season.

“Starting October 7 at 12:01 a.m. PDT, Prime members can shop seasonal savings across Amazon’s wide selection—from beauty must-haves and top electronics to deals on some of the most anticipated gifts of the season,” the announcement said.

The company noted that the event is open solely to Prime subscribers, while also promoting the involvement of Amazon’s artificial intelligence (AI) assistant Rufus in this year’s event.

The announcement follows a recent CNBC report on the early beginnings of the holiday shopping season. That report said that consumers had begun their holiday shopping as early as July, aiming to avoid higher prices and take part in sales events like Amazon Prime Day.

Bankrate said in July that nearly half of all consumers had already started their holiday shopping or planned to do so before Halloween, with 41% of consumers saying they think gifts may be more expensive this year.

“While some consumers shake their heads that holiday shopping seems to start earlier each year, the early start gives you more time to spread out your cash flow and find the best deals,” Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, said in a press release last week.

Meanwhile, recent research by PYMNTS Intelligence has tracked the rise of the “dual-event shopper” or those who took part in both Prime Day and Walmart’s Walmart+ week, a Walmart+ members-only event,  in the spring.

The PYMNTS Intelligence report “Speed Versus Spend: Who Shopped Amazon and Walmart’s Deal Days and Why” showed that shoppers who participated in both Prime Day and Walmart+ Week, fueled the bulk of the growth in participation.

“That means the most valuable customer isn’t just loyal to one ecosystem but is engaged in many. Smart retailers are learning how to play that flexibility to their advantage,” PYMNTS wrote in July. “The evolution of Prime Day and Walmart+ Week signals a broader trend that summer discounts are no longer about sales alone. Instead, they’re becoming about recalibrating loyalty. These events are carefully, and increasingly, choreographed moments of consumer reprogramming.”