How shoppers plan to spend on Prime Day—and the rest of the summer: Adobe survey

Amazon’s annual (bi-annual?) Prime Day has consumers excited…for the most part.

More than three-quarters (76%) of Prime Day shoppers plan to spend more or the same as they did in 2021, according to an Adobe Commerce survey of 1,115 consumers that was released today.

• For reference, the average order value last year was $47.14 during the first 32 hours of the event, per Numerator.
• In total, consumers spent $11.2 billion during Prime Day 2022, which was up 7.7% from $10.4 billion in 2020.

This year, the motivations to shop vary: 56% said they shop to save money on Prime Day, while others said they’re getting a head start on holiday shopping (32%), or back-to-school shopping (23%).

Forty-three percent of consumers plan to shop for clothing and apparel during “summer holiday sales,” which “screams back-to-school,” Tory Brunker, senior director of product marketing at Adobe, told Retail Brew.

• Other top categories included home goods and home improvement (29%) and health and beauty (26%).

“The other things on here are very necessity-based, which I think speaks to how folks are feeling about the economic situation and the types of things that they’re going to leverage and spend their money on.”

Hold on: Even though some shoppers are willing to spend, the survey found that others are pessimistic given inflation and the economy—and some don’t think they can land deals if they do.

• A majority (64%) of those surveyed said they believe discounts will shrink this year, despite retailers like Target saying they’re offering steep discounts to shed inventory.
• Almost 24% of consumers said they don’t plan to shop on Prime Day because of less discretionary money to spend and higher costs.
• Others said they aren’t planning to shop on Prime Day because they are worried about the economy and their financial circumstances (21%), are shifting spending to necessities (20%), or want to save up (15%).

“Perhaps consumers are concerned that those deeper discounts are going to be on things they don’t want,” Brunker said. “There’s a bit of a mismatch in expectation versus what we hope to see in reality based on what the retailers are saying currently,” Brunker Said.

Now what? Consumers expect personalized, new experiences when shopping, according to Brunker, and that’s where retailers might be able to bridge the gap. More than two-thirds (67%) of respondents said when shopping in-store or online they want to receive personalized promotions based on how they spend.

• Sixty-one percent said those promotions would increase the likelihood of making a purchase. The same percentage said they prefer promotions to be emailed after a visit to a store or website.

“In order for retailers to survive, they really have to deliver that level of personalization all the way through the purchase process, and even after the sale,” Brunker said. “It even has to do with, ‘How do I return my items? How easy is it for me to do that? And do I have multiple ways of doing that as well?’”