Amazon Prime Day launched with tricks few shoppers catch
Amazon’s 12th annual Prime Day is projected to generate $26.3 billion in U.S. online spending through June 26, Adobe Digital Insights forecasted. That total would surpass Cyber Monday and Black Friday 2025 combined, which generated $14.25 billion and $11.8 billion, respectively, according to the ...
Amazon Prime Day launched with tricks few shoppers catch
Overview
Amazon’s 12th annual Prime Day is projected to generate $26.3 billion in U.S. online spending through June 26, Adobe Digital Insights forecasted.
That total would surpass Cyber Monday and Black Friday 2025 combined, which generated $14.25 billion and $11.8 billion, respectively, according to the firm.
Red sale tags, percentage-off labels, and Lightning deal countdowns dominate the page, but some of the biggest opportunities to save may lie beyond the advertised discounts.
“Don’t treat the sale price as the final number,” Stephanie Carls, retail insights expert at RetailMeNot, told Yahoo Finance. “Because the number that matters is what you actually pay at checkout.”
Some Prime Day sale prices don't reflect genuine discounts
Retail analysts and price-tracking tool operators say a key step happens before checkout: verifying whether a sale price represents a genuine markdown.
A 2022 study by marketing professors at the University of South Carolina, the University of Florida, and Arizona State University examined Amazon’s pricing around sale events.
Researchers found that some third-party sellers inflated prices before sale dates, then advertised large discounts on those elevated baselines.
That pattern persisted recently, with a Washington Post reporter tracking close to 50 products during Amazon’s October 2025 Big Deal Days event.
The reporter found average savings of just 0.6%, meaning many items sold at roughly the same price or higher than their typical rate.
Related: Amazon is selling the Fitbit Charge 6 for 44% off on Prime Day
Serge Salager, CEO of Visualping, an AI-powered website monitoring tool that helps consumers track retail price changes, told Reader's Digest in November 2025 that artificial price inflation and fake discounts are the most common tactics shoppers face during major sale events.
Amazon now offers a built-in price history tool that displays up to 1 year of previous prices, accessible via a link near the listed price, Yahoo Finance reported.
Free third-party browser extensions like Keepa and CamelCamelCamel can also show how the current sale tag compares to an item’s recent baseline.
“The simplest thing that a shopper can do is know what the item cost last week before they buy it,” Carls told Yahoo Finance.
Stacking cashback portals and credit cards rewards unlocks deeper savings
The listed sale price is only the first layer, and stacking cashback portals, credit card rewards, and competitor promotions can push effective costs even lower.
Rakuten is offering up to 17% cash back at Best Buy and $5 cash back on Amazon during the event, Yahoo Finance reported. RetailMeNot lists 2% cash back sitewide at Target and 7% cash back at Walmart, giving shoppers multiple options for layering savings.
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On the credit card side, Amazon’s Prime Visa offers 5% cash back on all Amazon purchases for Prime members, with no annual fee attached.
Details
The card is also offering up to 25% back on select Prime Day items for eligible cardholders, Cord Cutters News reported.
Flat-rate cash-back cards like Citi Double Cash and Wells Fargo Active Cash provide a consistent 2% return on purchases. These cards are often recommended for shoppers who want easy cashback rewards at a variety of stores.
Rewards-card analysts at outlets including The Points Guy and CNN Underscored describe Amazon's "Shop with Points" checkout option as one of the least efficient redemption channels for transferable points.
American Express points redeemed at Amazon checkout yield roughly 0.7 cents per point, meaning 10,000 points return $70 instead of over $100 through other redemption channels, Yahoo Finance reported.
AI shopping tools are surging, but impulse spending still drives overspending
Adobe expects traffic to U.S. retail sites from generative AI sources to increase by 103% compared to June 2025, Chain Store Age reported.
Amazon is leaning into that trend with Alexa for Shopping, an AI assistant it recenlty lauched which helps shoppers compare products, check price history, and build custom guides.
Yet AI tools that surface deals faster do not solve the core challenge that trips up most shoppers during major online sale events.
About 72% of online shoppers have made an impulse purchase because of an advertised sale, according to Capital One Shopping Research.
Nearly half of planned Prime Day shoppers say inflation is making them more likely to hunt for deals, according to Numerator survey estimates.
The average household expects to spend about $187, and urgency cues like Lightning Deal countdowns can amplify unplanned spending, the survey data indicated.
Competing retailers are matching Amazon with their own promotions
A Prime membership is not required to take advantage of deals this week, as Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are running competing sales events through June 26.
Target’s Circle Deal Days offers discounts of up to 45% on select items, while Walmart is promoting savings of up to 50% on home products.
Best Buy has televisions listed at prices starting below $60, and all three retailers launched their promotions to coincide with Amazon’s four-day event.
Adobe projects retailer discounts of 12% to 23% off listed prices this week, with apparel and electronics commanding the deepest markdowns across categories.
“Consumers have been conditioned to wait for big promotional periods, to hit the buy button on purchases such as apparel, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, told Chain Store Age.
Related: Amazon is selling a $330 Ring alarm system for 40% off during Amazon Prime Day sales
Source
Originally published at www.thestreet.com.
