Amazon Prime Day Kicks Off Holiday Shopping Season for Prime Members

Amazon Prime Day 2021 is just around the corner, and according to recent polling from The Harris Poll on behalf of Ad Age, many consumers are planning to start their holiday shopping during the popular shopping event — while also treating themselves.

See below for key findings from the Ad Age-Harris Poll survey:

• Amazon continues to be popular with consumers, and they’re mostly okay with the timing of its June sales event. 
  • Of consumers aware of the retail behemoth, only 37% say they try not to shop there.
  • Less than half, 46%, say they’d prefer Prime Day to be held in another summer month — and only 13% strongly agree they’d prefer shifting the timing of it
  • However, consumers were more evenly divided about the seasonality of it overall: 50% agreed they’d prefer the sales event to occur during another season (and 50% disagreed).

• Amazon Prime Day draws a lot of window shopping, but when it comes to actual purchases, most Prime members have their eyes on the prize and know exactly what they’re looking for.
  • 57% of current Amazon Prime members say that during Prime Day, they tend to browse deal without making a purchase
  • 66% say they’re hoping to find a deal on a specific item this year
  • 55% say they put off purchases until Prime Day to get a deal

• Among Prime members, Prime Day kicks off the holiday shopping season — and in fact, Prime Day may be edging out traditional and competing holiday shopping events.
  • 53% of current Prime members say they start their holiday shopping during Prime Day
  • 61% say they prefer to shop during Prime Day than during other major sales events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Wayfair’s Way Day

• The majority of Prime members say they keep their membership active to get access to Prime Day deals, but they are divided on the actual value of the deals
  • 56% of current Amazon Prime members say they keep their membership active for access to Prime Day deals
  • 47% agree that most Prime Day discounts aren’t worthwhile; 53% disagree

• The majority of current, prospective and former Prime members took advantage of Amazon Prime Day last year, and even more so plan to this year — potentially indicative of increased consumer optimism
  • 55% said they did last year; 61% of current members did
  • 67% said they plan to this year; 71% of current members do

• In another potential indicator of increased consumer confidence, almost 40% of Prime members plan to spend more with Amazon during Prime Day than they did last year.
  • 40% of current Prime members plan to spend more
  • 48% plan to spend about the same
  • Only 3% plan to spend less

• Most 2021 Prime Day shoppers are planning on treating themselves — and their households. And more than a third are getting a head start on holiday gift shopping.
  • 66% of current Prime members say they’ll buy a treat for themselves (e.g. new clothes, personal electronics, etc.)
  • 62% plan to buy household goods or appliances (e.g. furniture, groceries, kitchen appliances)
  • 36% plan to buy winter holiday gifts

Methodology:

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Ad Age between June 4-7, 2021, among 1,055 U.S. adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.