Dive Brief:
- Amazon is holding its annual Black Friday Week and Cyber Monday sales events from Nov.19 through Nov. 30, the company said in a Tuesday press release.
- This year’s deals are slated to include a record number of Amazon exclusives, per the release, with the company promoting partnership deals with Swarovski, Caraway, Spicy Dan and Naadam alongside discounts from brands such as Le Creuset, HP, Google and Stanley.
- The events will feature 12 days of themed deals for toys, technology, fashion and beauty, as well as category-specific days focused on premium gifts and stocking stuffers. The company is also planning a first-time launch of twice-daily deal announcements on both Black Friday and Cyber Monday, at midnight and 8 a.m. PT, offering consumers discounts of up to 60%
Dive Insight:
The November events come just over a month after the company’s October Prime Big Deal Days, which brought nearly $10 billion in online sales for U.S. retailers, according to estimates from Adobe. The company also moved its Prime Day event from Q3 to Q2 this year, but did not release sales details after the event concluded. However, Adobe said the June event boosted online U.S. retail spend by about 9.3% year over year to $26.4 billion.
For this pre-holiday event, Amazon said it would be offering “millions of deals.” To help customers navigate that shopping overwhelm, the company is trying to tailor the discovery process with a holiday shop that offers “a fully personalized experience — surfacing gift recommendations based on customers’ shopping history, preferences, and family needs so the most relevant ideas appear first.”
For consumers who would rather let recipients find their own presents, the company is also offering new personalized digital gift cards, Talking Pets, which lets customers upload a picture of their pet and “bring it to life to deliver a holiday greeting.”
One of the keys to this personalized experience is Amazon’s artificial intelligence-powered Alexa for Shopping, which will allow shoppers to create product alerts, track deals and prices and auto-buy products “when the price is right.”
“Alexa for Shopping acts as a personal holiday shopping expert — creating lists, tracking prices, setting deal alerts, and doing the deal hunting,” Doug Herrington, CEO of worldwide Amazon stores, said in a statement.
Another focus this year is the company’s promotion of small and medium-sized businesses, with Amazon saying “more than 60% of sales in Amazon's store come from independent sellers.” The company also said consumers can tell Alexa for Shopping to "shop small businesses,” or look for a company’s Small Business badge.
Of course, big businesses are also well-represented, and Amazon announced dozens of discounts ahead of time for companies including Yankee Candle, Calvin Klein, Mario Badescu, Crayola and its private label Amazon Essentials.
Sports fans will also be able to watch and shop games aired on Amazon Prime using the company’s "Shop the Game" experience to buy merchandise shown during broadcasts airing on Nov. 25 and again on Black Friday.
Other event deals include promotional pricing on Amazon devices; special offers on Kindle, Prime Visa and Prime Store Cards; auto and travel discounts; and a Prime for Young Adults day on Nov. 24.
In its third quarter, Amazon’s online store net sales increased 2% year over year to $68.5 billion, with physical store net sales growing at the same rate to $5.7 billion. On the company’s Oct. 29 earnings call with analysts, CEO Andy Jassy said he thinks retail continues to be an important part of the company’s business, even as it devotes more energy to Amazon Web Services and the company’s AI investments.
“I’m not aware of another retail business approaching Amazon’s revenue size — hundreds of billions of dollars, with double-digit operating margins inclusive of ads — that’s growing at this pace,” Jassy said.
