By Ananya Mariam Rajesh and Arriana McLymore

(Reuters) – Shoppers are likely to spend roughly $14 billion during Amazon’s Prime Day two-day shopping event this week, according to projections from Adobe Analytics, a firm that studies e-commerce transaction data.

Spending at Amazon on Tuesday and Wednesday could rise 10.5% from Prime Day 2023, Adobe said.

The online retailer began holding Prime Day a decade ago, typically in July. Prime Day accounts for 1% to 2% of Amazon’s net global sales, according to CFRA Research.

Amazon started advertising pre-Prime Day deals in early July on clothes, back-to-school gear, wellness products and electronics, though it moved Prime Day back by five days on the calendar this year.

Amazon said that Day 1 of its two-day Prime Day 2023 earned its biggest sales day ever, although it doesn’t disclose total sales for Prime Day.

The $12.7 billion shoppers spent at Amazon last year during Prime Day was 6.1% more than what they spent during the 2022 event, according to Adobe.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Amazon’s Prime Day has turned July, an otherwise slow time for retailers, into a season when shoppers look for bargains, especially on back-to-school clothing, electronics, uniforms, backpacks, dorm decorations and supplies.

Rivals Walmart and Target are also launching July discounts and marketing events in a bid to beat Amazon at its own game, and capture some of the $38.8 billion that the National Retail Federation trade group projects Americans will spend on back-to-school merchandise this summer.

Following years of high inflation, shoppers have delayed purchases of non-essential goods and retailers are tempting shoppers to break that habit with aggressive July discounting.

KEY QUOTES

“We are expecting really strong momentum for back-to-school,” said Vivek Pandya, Adobe’s lead insights analyst.

Shoppers are now more willing to spend and have started to use Prime Day as a back-to-school shopping opportunity, he said.

BY THE NUMBERS

Shoppers could spend $7.1 billion at Amazon on Tuesday alone, up 11.3% from a year earlier, Adobe said. Day 2 is expected to bring $6.9 billion in online sales, up 9.2% from a year earlier, it said.

Adobe expects Amazon to dangle discounts of 22% on electronics, 20% on clothing, 17% on home goods and furniture and 11% on sporting goods.

Adobe’s projections are based on its analysis of data measuring transactions from previous Prime Days.

(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru and Arriana McLymore in New York City; Editing by Rod Nickel)