Amazon Prime Day prompts retailers to release back-to-school deals early

While American kids may wish summer vacation would never end, retailers want the back-to-school season to start earlier than ever — preferably now — and are timing their promotions ahead of Amazon’s Prime Day.

With deals on sneakers, computers, kids’ clothing and backpacks, Walmart, Target and Shein are hoping to entice parents to start back-to-school shopping and cash in on dollars that could otherwise go to Amazon, which is holding Prime Day on July 16 and 17.

Although schools in many communities do not resume until late August or September, campaigns are launching this week and next, on average two days earlier than in previous years.

“Retailers are looking to increase their market share,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. “It’s not a good idea to have bigger discounts. You need them before your competition.”

Target kicked off a weeklong event on Sunday, two days earlier than last year, offering 30% off school uniforms and backpacks, including from its Cat & Jack brand. Walmart is holding its “biggest deals event ever” Tuesday through Thursday, also two days earlier than last year.

Shein is holding a seven-week back-to-school sale starting July 15, two days before its sale last year and one day before Amazon Prime Day. Bytedance is holding a TikTok Shop sale from Tuesday to July 17.

Brian McCarthy, retail strategy consultant at consulting firm Deloitte, said the firm last year saw more families planning to spend the majority of their back-to-school budgets by the end of July.

Julia Stanley, 32, of Tampa, Florida, expects to spend $1,200, at least $300 more than last year, on back-to-school supplies for her three children, including clothes from Chinese retailers Shein and Pinduoduo’s Temu, uniforms from Walmart and supplies from Amazon.

Stanley’s most expensive purchase will be shoes from brands like Nike or New Balance, which can cost anywhere from $99 to $250 a pair.

Back-to-school spending last year reached a record $41.5 billion for kids in kindergarten through 12th grade, and the figure rose to $135.5 billion when college students are included, according to the National Retail Federation.

Prime Day, Amazon’s huge summer event, lasts two days. In an effort to keep competitors on their toes, the company pushed the event back five days from last year. But Amazon also launched early Prime Day deals on Tuesday on Sony speakers, T-shirts, phone cases and other merchandise.

When it launched a decade ago, Prime Day reshaped a traditionally slow period of the year for retailers. Sales boomed, and competitors had no choice but to follow suit.

Last year, Amazon had its biggest single-day sales in the company’s history on the first day of Prime Day, with online retail sales in the United States hitting $12.7 billion during the event.

Prime Day attracts shoppers looking for all sorts of deals, not just on laptops and lunch boxes. The event is expected to generate between 1% and 2% of Amazon’s full-year net sales, which totaled $574.8 billion in 2023.

The early start to back-to-school sales has precedent in a similar strategy by Walmart and Amazon before the holidays. They launched their end-of-year sales in October of last year, well before Black Friday and Christmas.

Last year, shoppers bought 375 million individual items on Amazon Prime Day. “Our members are looking to save,” said Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime worldwide. “The economy has been tough for the past five years, and everyone is looking to stretch their money.”

—Ariana McLemore and Siddharth Kaval, Reuters