[eMarketer] Retailers bet on dedicated sales days to revitalize consumer demand

As ecommerce sales begin to soften, retailers in the US and China are leaning on shopping events to spur consumer spending.

Amazon may host an additional Prime Day this year to mitigate the effects of excess warehouse and logistics capacity. Alibaba, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are some of the Chinese platforms looking to 618, the country’s second-largest shopping event, to revitalize growth amid sluggish demand.

Walmart is using members-only shopping events to boost Walmart+ subscriber numbers and take share from Amazon.

These events don’t just generate sales for retailers; they’re also an opportunity to gain market share and convert shoppers into subscribers.

eMarketer posits that retailers’ ability to take sales away from Amazon depends partly upon their ability to make shoppers aware such deals are available.

Without a dedicated event to market against, it’s much harder to drive sales at anywhere close to the scale of a Walmart+ Weekend or Prime Day.

That said, the mere existence of a shopping event doesn’t guarantee shoppers will respond: Only 33% of the people who shopped on Walmart+ Weekend knew about it beforehand, per Numerator. By contrast, 94% of Prime Day shoppers in 2021 knew about the event in advance.

Most retailers are probably better off leveraging Prime Day for their own benefit by offering competing sales. We expect competitors to generate $5.22 billion in sales this Prime Day—up 17.8% year-over-year (YoY).

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