Amazon Business already claims 6 million customers and $35 billion in annualized gross merchandise sales — and it launched just eight years ago. But market analysts figure it is far from reaching a sales plateau.

Colin Sebastian, an R.W. Baird & Co. investment analyst who has accurately forecasted Amazon Business’s sales growth in recent years, has projected $80 billion in gross sales, including many by third-party sellers, before the end of this decade.

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Amazon Business leads a B2B marketplace charge

Many buyers say they purchase from Amazon Business. The marketplace reported in April that it had reached “roughly $35 billion” in annualized gross sales. Nice growth for a marketplace that launched in 2015.

60% of buyers do more than a quarter of their purchasing on Amazon Business, a Digital B2B Buyer Survey found. And 28% say they do more than half. But another 12% say they “don’t buy anything” on Amazon Business — and 29% say they buy on other marketplaces.

Amazon Business is the dominant marketplace, the industry’s most influential marketplace, and by far the biggest, accounting for about one transaction of every four, Digital Commerce 360 projects.

Meanwhile, Amazon is also No. 3 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the top 100 online marketplaces. Amazon ranks No. 1 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s online retailers by web sales.

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Check back soon for more Charts & Data Stories, like our weekly B2B infographics. Here’s last week’s. We add new content regularly. 

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About one-third of that shopping will take place online, according to NRF.

NRF projects average spending per person to be $108.24, based on a survey of more than 8,000 consumers conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics. Per-person spending declined slightly in 2022, down to $100.45 from $102.74 in 2021. Now, it’s projected to grow about 8%.

Greater participation

Halloween participation is set to surpass pre-COVID levels this year, NRF says, after a dip in recent years. 73% of surveyed consumers plan to celebrate Halloween, up from the 2020 low of 58%.

“Spending will be modestly up on last year, but a lot of this will be driven by higher prices, especially in categories like candy,” says Neil Saunders, managing director at retail analysis firm Global Data. “In terms of categories, people are being a bit more frugal on decorations and costumes, but are being more generous with food and drinks to celebrate the occasion.”

69% of consumers celebrating Halloween say they plan to dress up, an increase from 67% last year. NRF projects that costumes will be the largest source of spending increases, making up $4.1 billion this year.

A larger number of respondents say they plan to decorate their homes in some way. More than three-quarters (77%) of consumers that are celebrating plan to decorate, leading to $3.9 billion in spending this year. 

Candy spending is projected to reach $3.6 billion.

Consumers look online for Halloween inspiration

The majority of Halloween spending still takes place in stores, NRF says, but consumers turn to online retailers for ideas. Online searches are the leading source of inspiration for costume ideas, according to the survey. However, online shopping is the third most common place consumers look for Halloween purchases, behind discount stores and Halloween specialty shops.

“Online is a much bigger part of Halloween than it used to be. Most candy and foods are still purchased in person, but online is used a lot more for things like costumes and home decoration as it is easier for consumers to research online and look for things like the best price points,” Saunders says. “That said, stores like Walmart and Target, which are convenient destinations, still do well at Halloween. They are easy for the consumer to visit and still benefit from impulse buying.”

Data from marketplaces software vendor Jungle Scout’s Halloween report indicates that more shoppers might be looking online for Halloween, especially in younger generations. One-third of Gen Z consumers say they plan to do the majority of their costume shopping on Amazon, according to Jungle Scout’s poll of 1,000 online shoppers. 29% each of Gen Z and Millennials plan to do the majority of all Halloween shopping online, the highest of any generation tracked by Jungle Scout.

Halloween spending starts early

Consumers also started their Halloween shopping earlier this year, according to Jungle Scout. Amazon searches for Halloween items picked up earlier in 2023 than they did in 2022. Specifically, searches for the major Halloween categories of decor, costumes, and candy were all more than 100% higher in August 2023 than in August 2022, according to Jungle Scout research.

“Younger consumers are eager to begin their Halloween shopping, with more than half of those ages 25-44 planning to shop before or during September,” Phil Rist, Prosper executive vice president of strategy, said in a statement from NRF.

That fits with early analysis of Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days sale, which unofficially kicked off the holiday shopping season. The October sales pushed holiday spending earlier in the year, says Kasi Socha, analyst at retail data research company Gartner.

Halloween spending doesn’t necessarily indicate much about the larger holiday season because it tends to drive less spending, Saunders says. However, if Halloween spending is especially robust, it could give retailers more confidence for the rest of the season, he says.

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“Big Deal Days was Amazon’s most successful fall sale to date,” analyst at market research firm Numerator Amanda Schoenbauer says.

Amazon says Prime Members bought hundreds of millions of items in its sale on Oct. 10 and 11. More than 150 million of those purchases were from third-party sellers, which make up the majority of GMV on Amazon’s marketplace.

Amazon ranks No. 1 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of North America’s online retailers by web sales. Amazon is No. 3 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the top 100 online marketplaces.

The second annual fall sales event was “a strong start to the holiday shopping season,” CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores Doug Herrington said in a written statement. Prime Members ordered more than 25 million items for same-day and next-day delivery, he said in the statement.

Most popular Amazon Big Deal Days products

Amazon says apparel, beauty, home and toys were the best-selling categories during the sales event. That lines up with results from market research firm Numerator, based on analysis of more than 70,000 orders and 137,000 products from 31,000 buyers. Numerator found apparel and accessories to be the most popular category, followed by home goods and home essentials. 

As usual, Amazon-brand products were highly popular during the sale. Prime members bought millions of Alexa-enabled devices, with Fire TVs and Echos being the most popular, Amazon said. 

Apple AirPods Pro (2nd Generation), Bissell Little Green Multi-Purpose Portable Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner, and Crest 3D Whitestrips rounded out the other top sellers, according to Amazon.

Numerator listed the top five Big Deal Days sellers as:

1. Premier Protein Shakes
2. Amazon Basics Batteries
3. Amazon Fire TV stick
4. Liquid I.V. Hydration Packs
5. Energizer AA Batteries

The top-selling products were similar to customer favorites from the larger July Prime sale, including apparel and electronics.

How does Big Deal Days compare to other Amazon sales?

“While nearly as many households participated in this week’s sale as did July’s Prime Day, households spent less on average during the Big Deal Days sale, placing fewer orders and purchasing lower-priced items,” Numerator’s Schoenbauer says.

The average order size for the Big Deal Days sale was $53.47, according to Numerator. That’s down slightly from $58.67 for the July Prime Day sales event. The average household spent $124.09, compared with $181.72 in July.

“This was the largest holiday sale we’ve seen this early in the season, but only about a quarter of participants said they used it to purchase holiday items, and very few actually completed a significant amount of their holiday shopping,” Schoenbauer says, based on Numerator data.

82% of a panel of 100 retailers in the Top 1000 online retailers held a promotion on Oct. 10, the first day of Amazon’s sale. That’s an increase from 72% during the control period two weeks prior to the sale, and from the 75% of retailers that held competing events with the July Prime sale.

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In Digital Commerce 360’s panel of 100 online retailers from the 2023 Digital Commerce 360 Top 1000, where Amazon is No. 1, 82.0% offered promotions of some kind on Oct. 10, the first day of Amazon’s Big Deal Days. That’s up from 72.0% during a control period two weeks prior. That’s also above the 75.0% of retailers running competing promotions on Amazon Prime Day, the summer shopping holiday that’s now nearly a decade old.

This is only the second year for Amazon’s fall holiday event, though Amazon Prime Day was pushed back to this time period in 2020. Last year, during an “Early Access” promotion, the same panel wasn’t so eager to compete with Amazon for a whole new shopping holiday — while 80.0% offered promotions last year, discounts were smaller with the median retailer offering up to 40% off compared to 50% this year.

Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. It ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV.

Big competition on Big Deal Days

While retailers were likely to offer site-wide sales to compete with Big Deal Days, few were willing to play into Amazon’s naming scheme. Of those offering promotions, 14.6% nodded to Prime Big Deal Days. Designer Brands (No. 77) promoted “40% off big-deal brands” on the DSW site, while Kohl’s Corp. (No. 23) called its sale the Deal Dash.

DSW.com offered discounts on “big-deal brands” in a playful reference to the manufactured shopping holiday.

Walmart, which sat out both Prime Days and Early Access Days in 2022, returned to compete during Prime Days this year. The mass merchant heavily promoted during Big Deal Days as well. A popup appeared on its homepage promoting the membership program Walmart+, along with plenty of nods to the savings it grants. The difference was that most of Walmart’s deals weren’t locked behind its paid membership, in contrast with Amazon.

Target ran deals during the week prior to Amazon’s shopping holiday. Circle Week matched its Prime Days strategy, but offsetting its sale was a new twist. Walmart attempted a sale before Prime Days last year but didn’t garner any similar sales from other retailers. Similarly, it doesn’t seem many retailers offered off-peak sales and instead hoped to ride in Amazon’s wake to capture consumers in the spending mindset.

The new start of the holiday season?

While Amazon ditched the idea that this shopping holiday is explicitly for early holiday shopping, many retailers used the manufactured holiday to kick off their Christmastime sales. 18.9% of retailers offering promotions tied it to Christmas, Black Friday or the holidays more generally. That’s up from 3.2% two weeks ago mentioning winter events. Despite Halloween right around the corner, just 5.4% of promotional retailers mentioned the spookiest holiday on their homepages.

Percentage off discounts reigned supreme, as they usually do, with 64.9% of promotional retailers offering a discount of a certain percent. 27.0% offered dollar-based discounts, while 14.9% offered free shipping promotions. Nearly half of promotional retailers offered more than one type of promotion on the homepage.

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And so far, based on data measured by consumer market research firm Numerator, online consumers shopped early and, for many, often. The average order size so far on Prime Big Deal Days is $54.00, down from July’s Prime Day sale but up slightly from last October’s Prime Early Access sale.

About a third (38%) of households shopping Prime Big Deal Days have already placed two or more separate orders, bringing the average household spend to roughly $89.32, says Numerator.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. It ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV.

Here is a look at who is shopping Amazon Prime Big Deal Days, what they are spending and where they are spending it.

Three key takeaways about Amazon Prime Big Deal Days (Day 1)

1. Where consumers are buying

The top items so far on are Amazon-branded batteries, Premier Protein Shakes and ThisWorx car vacuums. More than half (60%) of Prime Big Deal Days items have sold for under $20, while 4% are over $100 — the average spend per item is $27.85, says Numerator.

2. The face of the customer

The sales event’s typical shopper is a high income, suburban customer, says Numerator. The typical observed Prime Big Deal Days shopper is age 35 to 44. 93% of shoppers knew it was Prime Big Deal Days before visiting Amazon and making their purchase, and 79% say the sale was their primary reason for shopping.

3. Satisfaction may or may not be guaranteed

61% of Prime Big Deal Days shoppers say they were highly satisfied with the deals offered, says Numerator. But over half (55%) compared prices at other retailers before making their Amazon purchases.

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Amazon is betting that Prime members will spend heavily on deeply discounted items. It looks to lure web shoppers in with deals that range from seasonal decor starting as low as $6 to invitation-only deals like 60% off 50-inch smart TVs and savings on brand names such as up to 50% off Sony products and 30% off Lego items.

But exactly what Prime members are looking to purchase and how much they will spend will vary widely by age, income, and other factors, says new research from market research company Numerator and industry survey.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. It ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV.

Amazon Big Deal Days closely precede holiday sales period

Nearly one-third of all consumers are expected to shop online during Amazon Prime Big Deal Days. While those won’t be as big as the 37% of consumers that shopped and bought this summer during Amazon Prime days, Prime Deal Days will “bring a significant boost to ecommerce sales in general, “with the first day of the sale potentially surpassing Cyber Monday in online shopping,” Numerator says.

Other research firms also suggest that while Amazon Prime Big Deal Days will generate big business for Amazon and other big chain retailers this week, many budget-conscious shoppers will choose to shop later and closer to online retailing’s biggest days: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Nearly half (44%) of consumers who plan on shopping during the 2023 winter holiday season say they plan to do so during a preseason sales event like Amazon Prime Big Deal Days, says research firm Mintel.

Shoppers remain budget-conscious

But Black Friday and Cyber Monday remain popular (45%) as consumers’ budget-focused mindset continues, says Mintel.

“Over a quarter (28%) of winter holiday shoppers agree that it is even more critical to shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday because of inflation/rising prices,” Mintel says. “When asked how inflation impacts their spending, 42% of winter holiday shoppers say they purchase fewer gifts, while a quarter (24%) say they switch to lower-priced retailers.”

Even with Amazon and other retailers pushing big deals and deep discounts this week, consumers may remain more budget-minded than in earlier years, Mintel says. Three in five (59%) consumers who plan to do winter holiday shopping in 2023 say they want to spend the least amount of money possible, says Mintel.

“Consumers will participate more in preseason shopping sales, such as Amazon Prime Day, to take advantage of the deals and discounts,” says Mintel retail and ecommerce analyst Brittany Steiger. “They remain value-conscious and look to spend as little as possible.”

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The FTC seeks to stop the company from abusing its powers to raise prices for consumers and fees against sellers.

“Amazon violates the law not because it is big, but because it engages in a course of exclusionary conduct that prevents current competitors from growing and new competitors from emerging,” according to an FTC press release about the lawsuit.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000, Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest online retailers in North America. It is also No. 3 in the Global Online Marketplaces Database.

Khan: Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power

In the release, FTC chair Lina M. Khan said: “The complaint sets forth detailed allegations noting how Amazon is now exploiting its monopoly power to enrich itself while raising prices and degrading service for the tens of millions of American families who shop on its platform and the hundreds of thousands of businesses that rely on Amazon to reach them.”

“We’re bringing this case because Amazon’s illegal conduct has stifled competition across a huge swath of the online economy,” said John Newman, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition. “Amazon is a monopolist that uses its power to hike prices on American shoppers and charge sky-high fees on hundreds of thousands of online sellers.”

Amazon responds to FTC lawsuit

In response to the lawsuit, Amazon released a statement from David Zapolsky, Amazon senior vice president of global public policy and general counsel.

“Today’s suit makes clear the FTC’s focus has radically departed from its mission of protecting consumers and competition,” Zapolsky said. “The practices the FTC is challenging have helped to spur competition and innovation across the retail industry, and have produced greater selection, lower prices, and faster delivery speeds for Amazon customers and greater opportunity for the many businesses that sell in Amazon’s store. If the FTC gets its way, the result would be fewer products to choose from, higher prices, slower deliveries for consumers, and reduced options for small businesses — the opposite of what antitrust law is designed to do. The lawsuit filed by the FTC today is wrong on the facts and the law, and we look forward to making that case in court.”

Lawsuit widely anticipated, says analyst

Colin Sebastian, senior research analyst at financial services firm Baird Equity Research Internet, said the lawsuit “is a relatively benign scenario for Amazon.”

The lawsuit includes fewer charges than expected, including any call to break up the company. “Probably because the FTC realized this was unlikely to pass judicial scrutiny,” he said.

“At best, the FTC could hope for some modest changes to Amazon’s pricing policies, fewer requirements around Prime shipping, and presumably improved search results,” Sebastian said.

Small and medium-sized retailers say selling on Amazon is necessary

Amazon charges sellers a referral fee for products sold on its marketplace. Sellers pay either a percentage of the sales price or a set fee of $0.30, whichever is higher, according to Amazon. Fees range from 8% to 20% for most categories, and up to 45% for Amazon device accessories. Those fees are in addition to other seller fees of either $0.99 per item or $39.99 per month.

Sellers also pay to use Fulfillment by Amazon, the online marketplace’s shipping and delivery service. They pay by shipping weight and dimensions of the products. This ranges from $3.22 for small standard packages to $158.49 for oversize products.

Products priced under $10 are in a separate tier, starting at $2.66. That’s after the marketplace ended its small and light program and implemented new pricing in August 2023, blindsiding some sellers.

Pros and cons

But smaller retailers often feel the benefits outweigh the costs — especially when trying to stand out from the competition. Amazon sales drive profit for men’s grooming brand Huron, says co-founder and CEO Matt Mullenax. Consumers make different purchasing decisions on the marketplace than they do on the retailer’s DTC site.

“It’s pretty rare that you get a customer who is a subscriber or multi-time purchaser on usehuron.com that then reverts back to jumping on Amazon to buy [a single item],” Mullenax says.

Average order value is higher on usehuron.com, but the conversion rate is higher on Amazon, he says.

Plus, a large portion of consumers frequently purchase from online marketplaces. 44% of online shoppers said they make purchases from online marketplaces at least weekly, according to a May 2023 survey of 1,039 consumers from Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights. 76% of those respondents reported purchasing from Amazon in the past year. 46% of respondents said they’d purchased on Amazon without noticing if the product was sold by Amazon or another seller.

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The Walmart sales event will begin at 7 p.m. on Monday, October 9 with deals on electronics, home, apparel, toys and other products, the retailer says.

Both retailers are major players in the U.S. ecommerce landscape.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Walmart ranks No. 2. Amazon also ranks No. 3 in the Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces. Walmart is No. 9 in that database.

What to expect this year from Walmart during Amazon’s Big Deal Days

Walmart is promoting the sale as a time to start shopping for holiday purchases. Customers should expect “hyper-personalized content and a curated shopping experience” the retailer said in a press release. Unlike Walmart+ Week in July, this sale is not limited to Walmart+ members, and anyone can shop the deals.

Walmart highlighted some deals that will be included in the sale, including the Apple Watch SE, Mega Barbie The Movie Dreamhouse and various Keurig models. Consumers can also consult the deals coming soon page on Walmart.com.

Holiday Kickoff purchases can be ordered with curbside pickup, same-day delivery, two-day shipping or late-night express delivery, Walmart says.

Walmart has a history of competing with Prime Day

Walmart previously held sales events that overlapped with major Amazon Prime sales. In July, the first Walmart+ Week coincided with Amazon Prime Day in July. Both retailers held online sales across different categories of merchandise. Walmart sat out the event in July 2022, however.

2022 was the first year Amazon held a second Prime sales event in October, called the “Early Access Sale.” Walmart didn’t hold a full competing event last fall. The retailer highlighted “flash deals” on its website at the time, and promoted Halloween sales, Digital Commerce 360 previously reported.

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This year, the event will be called Prime Big Deal Days, according to a LinkedIn post from Doug Herrington, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Stores. Amazon sellers previously told Digital Commerce 360 that they’d been given an Aug. 11 deadline to submit deals for the event.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Amazon is also No. 3 in the Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces.

How many countries will Prime Day take place in?

Amazon Big Deal Days will take place in 19 countries, including:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Brazil 
• Canada
• China 
• France 
• Germany 
• Italy 
• Japan 
• Luxembourg
• Netherlands 
• Poland
• Portugal
• Singapore
• Spain
• Sweden
• The United States
• The United Kingdom

How much did Amazon make on Prime Day 2022?

Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale in October 2022 underperformed compared with the more established July Prime sale. The October sale generated 46% less revenue than the July sale, according to Similarweb data. For comparison, July Prime Days in 2022 led to $12.09 billion in sales, per Digital Commerce 360 estimates, up 8.1% over 2021. 

Prime members purchased more than 100 million items during the first iteration of the fall sale, Amazon said. That’s well below the 300 million products purchased during the July sale, Amazon said. Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, Apple AirPods (2nd Generation), Vital Proteins Collagen Peptides, and Crest 3D Whitestrips Professional Effects Teeth Whitening Strips were among the best-selling products in the U.S. 

Shoppers largely avoided big-ticket items in favor of smaller purchases. 58% of purchases in a period of the sale monitored by research firm Numerator cost less than $20, indicating consumer preference for inexpensive products.

The summer Prime Day sales event in 2023 grew less than in the previous year, up 6.7% to $12.9 billion, according to Digital Commerce 360 Research.

When is Prime Day 2023?

The next sale will be held on October 10 and 11. In 2022, it was held on October 11 and 12.

Amazon Prime Day 2023 was held Tuesday, July 11, and Wednesday, July 12. We’ll update this page regularly to reflect new information. 

Dates for Amazon Prime Day in the past:

• Ninth: July 11-12, 2023
• Eighth: July 12-13, 2022
• Seventh: June 21-22, 2021
• Sixth: Oct 13-14, 2020
• Fifth: July 15-16, 2019
• Fourth: July 16-17, 2018
• Third: July 11-12, 2017
• Second: July 12, 2016
• First: July 15, 2015

How often is Amazon Prime Day?

Until 2022, Amazon Prime Day was once a year in the summer. In 2022, the retail giant added another Prime Day event in October. So how many times a year is Prime Day? The answer used to be once. Now, Amazon has established a two-year pattern of two separate sales events. 

How do you sign up for a Prime membership?

You can join Prime or start a free trial at Amazon Prime Day. Amazon has recently faced a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission alleging the ecommerce giant duped consumers into signing up for its Prime membership service and deliberately made it hard to cancel. 

How to prepare to find deals on Prime Day 

The value of Prime Day to retailers both small and large is undisputed, as millions of shoppers visit the site in search of once-a-year deals.

• Sign up for the Prime Insider newsletter to hear about Amazon Prime member benefits and find updates on deals and events.
• Create deal alerts for recommendations. As an Amazon Prime Member, you can subscribe to receive deal alert notifications related to recent Amazon searches and recently viewed items. All you have to do is visit the Prime Day event page on the Amazon app before Prime Day to create deal alerts. Once Prime Day arrives, members will receive push notifications on any available deals.
• Get deal notifications from Alexa. Alexa can make sure you don’t miss any Amazon deals. Members can add products to their Wish List, Cart, or Save for Later, and then ask Alexa to notify them about the deal.
• Set a reminder so you don’t miss the multi-day event.
• Check back here to see the latest updates.

What are Big Deal Days, and how are they different from Prime Days?

Amazon is calling this year’s fall sale Big Deal Days, a new event. It’s still exclusive to Prime members. The online retailer also held a fall sale in 2022 for the first time, called the Early Access Sale. Amazon hasn’t shared specifics about how this year’s Big Deal Days might compare to the previous events.

Prime Day is now Amazon’s biggest sale of the year. It is usually held during the summer months. In 2023, it was July 12 and July 13. The annual two-day deals event is for Prime members only. 

Amazon said Prime members ordered more than 100 million items from merchants during the Early Access sale. The sale was held on October 11 and 12 in 2022, exactly three months after the summer sale.

Prime Day, which features deals on many products on Amazon.com, began in 2015 as a celebration of Amazon’s 20th year in business. It turned into a summer sales holiday designed to drum up additional business for Amazon — and the retailer’s marketplace sellers — before the holiday shopping season. In recent years, other large retailers have offered promotions on their own websites around Prime Day to take advantage of the additional online shoppers.

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