Amazon’s annual Prime Day 2021 took place from June 21–22, 2021, kicking off summer shopping as restrictions are lifting and consumers are looking forward to a new post-COVID-19 world. As in years past, Prime Day also prompted other retailers such as Best Buy, Target, and Walmart to hop on the summer sale bandwagon.

To get a closer look at what other retailers did during Prime Day, we reviewed 48 retailers’ home pages, spanning numerous categories. Among other highlights, we found that:

  • Overall, sales events at other retailers were not as expansive as expected. Much like last year, over half of the retailer sites we reviewed had some form of promotion, but few offered sitewide discounts or allowed free shipping with no minimum. Category-specific and product-specific discounts were by far the most popular promotion. Based on the 25 retailers that included free shipping with a purchase minimum, the average threshold purchase amount hovered around $48.

  • Fashion, home, and beauty retailers were among the most engaged in the Prime Day frenzy. Twenty fashion retailers, six of seven home retailers (including furniture, décor, and home improvement), and six of nine health and beauty retailers ran some form of promotion. On the other hand, less than half of the direct-to-consumer brands we reviewed offered promotions.

  • Not surprisingly, multicategory retailers that often directly compete with Amazon were among the most engaged. That included Target’s Deal Days event and Walmart’s Deals for Days.

 

Now that summer 2021 has officially kicked off, stay tuned for back-to-school and holiday shopping prep advice for retailers and brands. And clients can schedule inquiries with Forrester analysts to learn more about holiday strategies and tactics as we head into the latter half of 2021.

 

Co-written with Taylor Hansen, research associate.