Amazon Prime Day returning in 2022

Amazon has confirmed the timing for the 2022 edition of its Prime Day omnichannel sales extravaganza.

As part of its first quarter 2022 earnings report, Amazon announced that Prime Day will take place in July in more than 20 countries. Amazon’s annual Prime Day extravaganza has become a significant sales driver not only for the company, but for numerous other retailers that have launched their own competing events.

Adobe estimated that total U.S. online spending across retailers surpassed $11 billion during Prime Day 2021, which was held June 21-22. This represents 6.1% growth compared to $10.4 billion in total Prime Day 2020 online revenue, which sharply grew 45% from the 2019 edition of Prime Day. The 2020 event was held in October during peak COVID-19 pandemic conditions.

While Amazon has not specified the exact dates it will hold Prime Day, this year marks a return to July, which is the month Prime Day was hosted every year from its initial launch in 2015 through 2019. Amazon says members of its paid Prime subscription program will be able to save on products from national brands and small businesses across every category.

In years past, Amazon has enabled consumers who sign up for a free, one-time, 30-day trial Prime membership to participate in Prime Day savings. The company is also hosting its first-ever Amazon Pet Day on Tuesday, May 2, 2022. This 24-hour event will feature deals and savings on pet-focused products across categories including pet care, treats, home, toys, travel, small business, and electronics.

Amazon also announced some other interesting technology-related developments, including:

• Amazon View in 3D, which enables customers in the U.S. and Canada to digitally view a shoe at any angle.
• The Drop, which provides customers worldwide with access to limited-edition, size-inclusive clothing collections by fashion influencers globally.
• Amazon has also launched Style Feed, a shoppable stream of influencer-curated content on the Amazon shopping app for customers in the U.S. and India to shop fashion, home décor, and beauty items.
• Amazon Business launched Punch-in, a procurement tool that is designed to simplify the buying experience for businesses. With Punch-in, businesses can start their purchasing directly on Amazon Business and submit their cart to their e-procurement system for purchase order creation and reconciliation.
• Amazon also launched new Alexa experiences for customers. These include Alexa person and package detection announcements for Ring, Abode, and Google devices. With the new feature, customers can receive an announcement from Alexa, set up a routine such as turning on a porch light, and automatically view live video feeds on Echo Show, Fire TV, and Fire tablet devices when a person or package is detected by their smart camera or video doorbell.
• Amazon Care’s virtual health services are now available 24/7 across the U.S. Additionally, Amazon Care expanded its in-person services to Atlanta,  Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, and will add more than 15 other cities this year, including Houston, Miami, New York City, and Phoenix. The service provides immediate access to a wide range of urgent and primary care services, including COVID-19 and flu testing, vaccinations, treatment of illnesses and injuries, preventive care, sexual health, and prescription requests and refills.