Prime day 2025: re-capping the transformational trends shaping the future of retail

Table of contents

• Retail re-calibration: from monopoly to marketplace battle
• The rise of strategic "grazing" vs “impulse buying” 
• Technology-driven shopping: AI and influencers shape consumer choices
• Prime day goes global: a worldwide retail phenomenon
• Operational excellence: the backbone of prime day success
• Key takeaways for retailers and supply chain leaders

Prime Day 2025 has come and gone, leaving the retail world forever changed. 

Amazon’s extended four-day event didn’t just shatter sales records, it unveiled sweeping changes in consumer behavior and competitive strategies that will shape the industry for years to come. 

With U.S. online spending reaching a staggering $24.1 billion across all retailers, which is a 30% increase from 2024, Prime Day has evolved from an Amazon-exclusive sale into a retail-wide phenomenon. It is also to note that the event has moved from a “Day” to multiple “Days”. Once originally slated for a single- or 2-day event, it’s now moved into a period of 4 days. 

This blog explores five trends that emerged from this year’s event, offering vital insights for retailers and supply chain leaders alike.

1. Retail re-calibration: from monopoly to marketplace battle

Prime Day 2025 marked a major turning point in the competitive retail landscape. For the first time, major retailers didn’t just compete with Amazon, they thrived alongside it.

Here are some stats that showcase growth not just on Amazon but across multiple other shopping channels: 

• Walmart’s six-day “Deals” event boosted foot traffic by over 8%
• Target’s “Circle Week” saw a 10.9% surge in store visits on Prime Day’s opening day
• Best Buy’s “Black Friday in July” captured significant electronics market share
• TikTok Shop’s 13-day “Deals For You Days” proved that social commerce has shifted from experimental to essential.

This growing competition reflects what analysts are calling “The great retail re-calibration.”

While Amazon still led with record-breaking sales, the $24.1 billion, even more spend was spread across total U.S. online spending over that specific period. Over 53% of consumers actively shopped during Prime Day, signaling that deal optimization now outweighs brand loyalty. This number continues to fluctuate during these deal periods and will now, with the rise of other channel promotions, likely decline in the future. 

For supply chain leaders, this shift underscores the urgency of building multi-channel strategies. Optimizing for a single dominant platform is no longer viable in today’s retail ecosystem and it becomes increasingly important to diversify. 

2. The rise of strategic "grazing" vs “impulse buying” 

Window shopping was never the case for Prime day volumes. That has since shifted with more savvy shoppers being wary of deals. 

Consumer behavior during Prime Day revealed a fascinating shift: shoppers moved away from impulse buys and embraced a “grazing” approach; making smaller, calculated purchases over the four-day event. 

How calculated?

Nearly 63% of households placed two or more orders, with average order values falling from $58 in 2024 to $53.34 in 2025. 

However, total household spending remained consistent at $156, showing that consumers were stretching their budgets by prioritizing value over volume. Again, this is over a 4-day period vs 2-day periods of the past. 

Everyday essentials dominated sales, with 67% of all items priced under $20. Premier Protein Shakes, Dawn dish soap and Liquid I.V. hydration packets outperformed flashy electronics. This shift reflects a mature, value-driven consumer mindset focused on strategic stockpiling rather than splurging on luxury items.

For retailers, this trend demands a shift in inventory strategies. Instead of gearing up for big-ticket surges, the focus must turn to managing sustained demand for low-cost, essential goods.

For retailers, this trend demands a shift in inventory strategies. Instead of gearing up for big-ticket surges, the focus must turn to managing sustained demand for low-cost, essential goods.

3. Technology-driven shopping: AI and influencers shape consumer choices

Two technological forces reshaped shopping behavior during Prime Day 2025: generative AI and influencer marketing. Product discovery is now in a new era. Tools like ChatGPT have incorporated shopping elements and are able to blend lines between traditional commerce and AI powered commerce. 

Generative AI shopping tools saw a 3,300% spike in usage, with Amazon’s AI assistant “Rufus” helping shoppers navigate deals and make informed purchase decisions. While the number in usage looks big, the usage is still up for discussion broadly. This dramatic growth in AI adoption signals a profound change in how consumers will shop in the foreseeable future. 

Simultaneously, social media influencers played a pivotal role, driving nearly 20% of online sales during the event. The reason TikTok 13-day bonanza was successful was largely due to influencers driving up conversion. 

Similarly, Amazon doubled affiliate commissions for influencers, leading to a 10x higher conversion rate for influencer-driven content compared to generic social media posts.

The convergence of AI-powered recommendations and social proof has redefined the shopping experience.

Consumers will lean on trust built with traditional influencers on any platform, but choose to convert with AI enabled experiences that round out the overall experience. Embedding these two elements in to a shopper’s journey are key elements that will unlock higher average order values for retailers in the future. 

4. Prime day goes global: a worldwide retail phenomenon

By expanding Prime Day to 26 countries (up from 17 in 2024), Amazon transformed the event into a global shopping holiday.

This worldwide reach created synchronized consumer activity across time zones and cultures, generating a “summer Black Friday” effect on a global scale. Amazon has long wanted to be in lockstep with giants like Alibaba in China that hold multiple days of shopping – this is their answer to deepening their loyalty into customers wallets. 

Regional preferences emerged as key insights: European shoppers gravitated toward electronics and home goods, while Asian consumers embraced mobile shopping experiences. The four-day format allowed for localized optimization, with peak shopping times varying by region but collectively driving sustained global demand.

This international expansion also spurred local competition. Various retailers in participating countries launched their own promotions, creating mini ecosystems of competitive deals – from large format to local, small mom & pop formats.

For supply chain leaders, this trend highlights the importance of global visibility and agile fulfillment systems capable of managing simultaneous demand spikes across regions.

Placing promotions and inventory visibility during peak shopping periods when eyeballs are running amuck are opportunistic moments for any brand to grow share of wallet. 

5. Operational excellence: the backbone of Prime Day success

Beyond sales figures, Prime Day 2025’s greatest achievement was its operational execution. Managing $24.1 billion in online transactions across multiple retailers, with millions of shoppers placing multiple strategic orders, required unprecedented logistical precision. Amazon has long touted their execution capabilities – these types of events just continue to reinforce the importance of agile, resilient systems. 

Retailers handled traffic surges of 40-50% above normal levels while maintaining stability. The shift toward smaller, more frequent orders added complexity to fulfillment, requiring more packages, shipping decisions and customer touchpoints.

The number of customers seeing dog pages on Amazon – a long standing tradition of 404 error pages – was far and few in between. 

Amazon’s marketplace sellers alone moved over 200 million items, demonstrating the scalability of its infrastructure. Meanwhile, Walmart and Target seamless integration of online ordering with in-store pickup, solidified the importance of flexible fulfillment as a baseline expectation for major sales events. Fulfillment formats became ever more important during peak surges. 

Key takeaways for retailers and supply chain leaders

Prime Day 2025 highlights a retail future defined by multi-platform competition, value-driven consumer behavior, new era discovery, global reach and operational excellence through resilient systems. 

Retailers who excelled during this event shared common traits:

• they invested in scalable infrastructure,
• optimized for multi-channel customer journeys and
• combined AI technology with authentic human-in-the-loop connections to guide purchases. 

The message for industry leaders is clear: peak surges will continue to occur – likely in longer periods in the future (i.e. 2 days to 4 days to 8 days and longer).

The question isn’t whether your systems can handle the volume, but whether they can adapt to increasingly sophisticated consumer behavior in an evolving competitive landscape.

Those who see these trends as fleeting will fall behind. Companies that realize that systems that grow with them, adapt and stay ahead using new age technologies and meet customers where they are – will be enormously more successful in the future.