How will Prime Day spending compare to last year?

A new survey reveals whether consumers plan to spend more or less on Prime Day than they did in 2021.

According to a new survey of 1,137 U.S. adults from online deals and savings platform RetailMeNot, the average Prime Day shopper plans to spend $388 on Prime Day 2022. This figure represents a 35% decline from 2021 when RetailMeNot recorded an average planned Prime Day spend of $594.

[Read more: Amazon sets official date for Prime Day]

However, the survey’s outlook for Prime Day isn’t all bad for Amazon. Of that planned $388 spend, respondents plan to spend $233 – roughly 60% – at Amazon and $155 at other retailers offering their own promotions during Prime Day. RetailMeNot estimates that in 2021, as many as 313 other retailers promoted sales around Prime Day; and that as many as 350 other retailers did so in 2020.

Close to half (47%) of respondents say they will wait until Prime Day to make their biggest purchases of the year. Almost nine in 10 (88%) plan to do at least some shopping on Prime Day. Of respondents who plan to shop for back-to-school this year, 85% say they plan to shop for school items during Prime Day.

Top Prime Day categories
While the list of top categories where respondents are planning to make Prime Day purchases is mostly unchanged, in general slightly fewer respondents intend to make purchases this year. Top Prime Day planned purchase categories are:

• Apparel (clothing/shoes) – 35% 2022/38% 2021.
• Home décor – 19% 2022/24% 2021.
• Kitchen appliances – 18% 2022/15% 2021.
• Cleaning supplies – 17% 2022/18% 2021.
• Laptops or computers – 17% 2022/18% 2021
• At-home fitness equipment – 8% 2022/13% 2021.

The two significant changes are kitchen appliances moving from fifth to third place and at-home fitness equipment losing more than one-third of its share of customers planning to make a Prime Day purchase. This may reflect the increased participation of consumers in out-of-home fitness activities as peak COVID-19 levels have eased.

According to RetailMeNot, Amazon’s Prime Day pricing has consistently matched or even beaten the most recent Black Friday’s prices on key items including smart home speakers, tablets, smart security technology, and robot vacuums. RetailMeNot expects this trend to happen again, even taking inflation into account.

Consumers reduce summer spend
The reduction in planned Prime Day spending may be reflective of a larger downward trend in planned spending for summer 2022 revealed in another recent RetailMeNot survey.

Six in 10 (61%) respondents to that survey said they are likely to reduce spending this summer due to inflation. Respondents cited these spending categories as areas they plan to cut back:

• Dining out: 69%.
• Personal shopping: 61%.
• Entertainment: 54%.
• Travel: 42%.
• Subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, etc.): 34%. 

Top reasons for reducing summer spending included concern about increasing prices (81%), the feeling that summer months are expensive (64%), and feeling overwhelmed with the costs they will be facing between May to July (53%). In addition, 60% of respondents said they expect a lot of deals, promotions and sales this summer.