This year’s Amazon Prime Day is the most unpredictable ever thanks to tariffs and AI
Looking back at the first and originals for 10 years Amazon At the Prime Day Sales event, you can see an overview of today’s annual discount shopping extravaganza.
However, some details and many external environments have changed dramatically since then.
The 2025 Prime Day version is a 4-day event This is a day of events during the first day of 2015, beginning on Tuesday, July 8th, with two days of 2024 and, as the name still suggests.
Like many businesses these days, they are independent Amazon sellers account for around 60% of Amazon salesthe ongoing dilemma of how to handle the chaos of US-induced tariffs and how it will or should affect their Prime Day strategy.
Conversation with lucksellers are relaying two major strategies. Some people get discounts as usual to boost topline sales that can increase cash flow and drive Amazon rankings. Others plan to play safely amid the pressure of tariffs and profit margins, but know they are at risk of losing sales volume and gaining competitors.
Some sellers who stocked stock earlier this year ahead of the expected tariff hike will cut their regular prices in hopes of expanding Prime Day sales, while others will rather keep low stock, selling it at full price, and sell more profit cushions to banks before the price It could worsen customs costs.
Amazon customers also have new calculations. Some people may ponder whether this is the right time to win a deal if future tariff pressures could potentially lead to prices. President Trump said most “mutual” tariffs will come into effect in August instead of this month. This is the latest curveball for businesses that are waiting for some degree of stability and predictability and are looking forward to.
Other major customers may wait to search for deals or sit completely at shopping events. A company that manages the sales of brands like Amazon Crocs For example, Apple-owned Beat said Prime Day sales fell 14% year-on-year in the first four hours of last year. According to Bloomberg. Of course, consumer demand could simply spread over four prime-time days and two-day events last year.
Next is the AI equation. Amazon’s own site and app allows consumers to compare transaction prices and product prices over the last 30 or 90 days using Amazon’s Rufus Shopping Assistant. However, Amazon doesn’t seem to be pushing its assistants in a more aggressive way than usual. That said, more people are investigating transactions through generation AI chatbots and assistants such as ChatGpt and Prperxity. Adobe It says it expects that the Prime Day will increase by more than 3,000% year-on-year.
Overall, Adobe expects online sales on Amazon and later (many top retailers are running discount promotions online the same week as Prime Day) to increase by more than 28% from last year, from July 8th to July 11th. This is a notable sales bump for the US e-commerce industry, which is normally growing at under 10%.
However, with so much uncertainty hanging over consumer brands and consumer spending, Prime Day 2025 feels like the most unpredictable Prime Day ever.