Amazon's Prime Big Deals might surprise you this October

• Amazon's October Prime Big Deal Days include some non-traditional holiday offers, such as chainsaws.
• It shows how Amazon is expanding holiday sales — and trying to get Prime members to buy more.
• Other retailers, from Walmart to Lowe's, are also getting on the October sales bandwagon this year.

Many of the deals that Amazon is advertising for its Prime Big Deal Days this month aren't your typical holiday gifts.

To be sure, the company describes the sales event as "epic deals ahead of the holiday season" (note the "ahead" here). But with other retailers also offering discounts at the same time, it's hard not to feel like holiday shopping is just starting earlier than usual.

At Amazon, in addition to huge televisions and Apple Airpods, reduced-price items include camping gear, such as a tent and a pocket knife, chainsaws, and other seasonal tools that many people are storing in their garages as winter approaches.

Many are "things that we desire, but we would not necessarily think about as holiday gifts," said Luc Wathieu, a professor of marketing at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. "Nobody will think about buying a chainsaw for Christmas, right?"

But by holding a second annual Prime Day event on October 8 and 9 this year, Amazon can take those kinds of items, which might normally be sold at steep end-of-season discounts, and market them as early holiday deals. Prime Day started as a summertime sale, and Amazon held the event for the first time in July 2015. It added the fall version in 2022 (though Prime Day 2020 also took place in October that year due to delays from the pandemic).

"Things that didn't do as well during the July Prime Day can be cleared out so that they can then start focusing on the other goods that they want to sell during the holidays," said Sky Canaves, a principal analyst who covers retail and e-commerce at Emarketer, a sister company to Business Insider.

US consumer spending data and company earnings this summer suggested that shoppers are pulling back on their purchases to varying degrees.

While many low-income people are focusing on food and other essentials, more affluent middle- and upper-income consumers still have money to spend on clothing, home decor, and other small luxuries. But they are being more thrifty than they were a few years ago.

Amazon's Prime members tend to fit into the latter group, Wathieu said. They are willing to pay Amazon's monthly or annual fees for Prime, after all. "They're a little bit less price sensitive" than shoppers who have to delay their purchases until closer to the holidays, he said.

Offering outdoor gear, yard tools, and other out-of-season products during October's event is likely one way that Amazon is trying to get Prime members to spend more, Wathieu said. "You have to see this more as a strategic move from Amazon to leverage what their capabilities are, including having swayed everyone into Prime membership that they need to leverage," he said.

An Amazon spokesperson said, "Right now, we are focused on making this year's event special for our members and are excited to offer exclusive early savings this holiday season." The spokesperson did not comment directly on Amazon's strategy for sourcing the deals.

"We know saving is important to our Prime members, and we are excited to provide members deep discounts and millions of deals worldwide from top categories including electronics, home, toys, beauty, and apparel," and on brands like Dyson and Barbie, the spokesperson added.

Other retailers are offering their own October sales this year, giving Amazon some competition. Walmart's Holiday Deals sale starts on October 8, the first day of Prime Day, and runs through October 13. Target Circle Week kicks off on October 6 this year.

Even retailers outside the big-box sphere are participating. Home Depot started its Décor Days sale on Thursday, marking the second year for the sale. Rival Lowe's, meanwhile, will launch MyLowe's Rewards Week, the home improvement chain's first October sale, on Thursday.

But all those sales at once might be too much for shoppers. Sixty-seven percent said that they expect to "feel overwhelmed with marketing messages" from retailers about holiday sales by November 1, according to research firm Optimove Insights. The survey, conducted in July, polled 280 US shoppers over the age of 21 from households with incomes of $75,000 or more.

Even devout Amazon shoppers might feel burned out on sales, with the retailer's October sale coming less than three months after July's Prime Day, Canaves said.

"There is a risk of holiday marketing fatigue," she said.

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