Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale Will Be Retail’s Inflationary Windsock

Amazon’s Prime Early Access sale — Prime Day part 2 if you like — runs Tuesday and Wednesday (Oct. 11-12). It will serve as a kind of retail windsock that will give clues to the wider sector on whether consumers — who are currently fraught with concerns over inflation and the economy — will be willing to let loose or feel the need to hold back on crucial holiday 2022 spending.

The second Monday in October has long been the domain of Columbus Day sales, which historically made it kind of a shopping holiday for department stores. But now, emerging from the pandemic, the day is being used as an opportunity for destination retailers — both online and off — to grab scant dollars before they get spent elsewhere, including comparable events hosted by Walmart and Target.

One thing that makes Prime Early Access different from Columbus Day sales or most other events of its kind is its focus on Prime membership as an all-access pass, tapping the power of subscriptions to keep more of the action within the self-contained ecosystem of Big Retail.

To that point, Amazon primed the pump Oct. 6, when it linked a promotional announcement to its Early Access landing page that introduced its Top 100 list of the season’s most popular and giftable items, including its own line of branded devices as well as other products from beauty, electronics, fashion, home, pets and toys.

Early Access borrows from Amazon’s own Prime Video playbook with plans to drop fresh deals every 30 minutes “Rings of Power” style, rather than put everything on display at once, in a bid to keep engagement high and Prime members checking in frequently.

In addition, a week earlier, Amazon announced Amazon Access, a deep deals hub where “customers will find information on options like payment with SNAP EBT, Amazon Layaway, and more,” including a Prime Access discounted Prime membership for qualifying consumers on government assistance.

“Eligible customers in the U.S. who sign up for Prime Access get all the exclusive benefits and perks of a Prime membership for just $6.99 a month — more than 50% off the cost of a full-priced membership,” the announcement stated.

Read more: Amazon Brings Layaway Online in Bid to Boost Affordability

How many new Prime members may be minted as the result of this positioning remains to be seen, but if the Prime membership bump from Thursday Night Football is any indication, consumers may find the membership worth it if the deals are enticing enough to spur spending.

Sweetening that bid is 20% off orders up to $10 from Grubhub for the two-day sale using code Prime20, and said “Prime members must be signed up for the existing free, one-year Grubhub+ membership trial, available at amazon.com/grubhub” to get the discount.

Recent patterns may bode well for 2022 holiday selling events. The study “New Reality Check: The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Report: Emergency Spending Edition,” a PYMNTS and LendingClub collaboration, showed some positive signals in an otherwise dim outlook.

The latest study in the series found that in July, 41% of consumers lived paycheck to paycheck without difficulty paying monthly bills, noting it’s “an increase of 9 percentage points from July 2021, and it matches the share of consumers who do not live paycheck to paycheck, which dropped approximately 5 percentage points. Fewer consumers are living paycheck to paycheck with issues paying their bills, which suggests that many have moved to the more stable category of living paycheck to paycheck without difficulty paying bills.”

Everybody in the Pool

Rival retailers are leveraging Prime Early Access excitement to get a piece of the early action.

Walmart is countering with its “Rollbacks and More” event running Monday-Thursday (Oct. 10-Oct. 13), giving itself four days of pushing deals rather than 48 hours, noting in a September press release that “More than half of Walmart customers will start their holiday shopping research in October.”

See more: Beneath Deal Days, Rollbacks and Early Access a Bewildered Consumer Hides

With almost 2,000 physical locations where it fulfills over 90% of its eCommerce with what many consider the most innovative curbside operation in Big Retail, Target announced Monday that 2022 seasonal discounting “starts three weeks earlier than last year with Weeklong Black Friday Deals and the return of the popular Deal of the Day.”

Target said that “both weekly and daily deals are available to shop now and feature the retailer’s best planned prices for the holiday season on the most popular national brands and only-at-Target exclusive brands.” Target has revived its “Deal of the Day” concept and is giving an 5% off to Target RedCard holders via Target Circle, it’s “free-to-join loyalty program.”

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