Amazon’s Prime Day steals rivals’ Black Friday spotlight

Bloomberg

Amazon.com’s two-day Prime Day sale kicked off on Tuesday, which is expected to give the world’s largest e-commerce company an early advantage over brick-and-mortar rivals still contending with pandemic-spooked consumers wary of battling Black Friday crowds.
With Prime Day delayed to October from July this year, Amazon single-handedly could yank the pivotal holiday season forward — a long-predicted “Christmas creep.” More than three in four consumers plan to shop earlier this year than a year ago, with a third citing health and safety concerns, according to an International Council of Shopping Centers survey released. Meanwhile a Harris Poll conducted with Bloomberg found that almost half of consumers plan to do most or all of their shopping on the web.
It’s a winning combination for Amazon, which earlier this year hired more than 175,000 people for its sprawling network of fulfillment centres after a spike in online orders briefly overwhelmed the company, forcing it to delay some deliveries. Amazon reported record profits last quarter, and investors have pushed the shares up some
85% this year, giving the company a market value of about $1.7 trillion.
“This is unprecedented demand,” said Andrew Lipsman, an analyst at eMarketer Inc who expects online spending of almost $10 billion over the two-day period, with more than $6 billion spent on Amazon.
Amazon’s delivery machine, conceived for convenience, now offers the added benefit of safety compared with in-store shopping. Consumers initially turned to the company to stock up on toilet paper and hand sanitiser in April. Then they needed electronics to help families work and attend school from home. Summer became a season of patio furniture and swimming pools ordered online for staycations.
Now come the holidays, Amazon’s busiest time of year, with Covid-19 cases spiking yet again. That means Amazon could continue to generate double-digit sales growth despite a weak job market and congressional gridlock over further stimulus packages such as $600 weekly unemployment assistance that expired this summer.
Prime members who didn’t lose their jobs could actually have a little extra to spend and feel the urge to splurge since most households have cut back on travel, eating out and other expenses, said Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the National Retail Federation.
Amazon competitors who still get most revenue in stores have to balance drumming up business with protecting public health. Eight in 10 shoppers say they’re concerned packed stores could spread Covid-19, meaning retailers that aren’t offering deals online could lose out.
The industry for weeks has been trying to coax consumers to spend earlier.