Seller Updates: Prime Day 2025’s Late Rally & Changing Consumer Priorities

Top Amazon Seller News This Week

This week’s Amazon FBA news roundup dives into the unprecedented four-day Prime Day 2025 event,  an extended sales bonanza that brought both highs and head-scratchers. 

• This year’s Prime Day started slow but ended with strong momentum: The first-ever four-day Prime Day was off to a sluggish start, with sales down more than 40% on Day 1 compared to 2024. However, shopper activity surged on Days 3 and 4, with Day 3 sales jumping 165% year-over-year (YoY), thanks to deeper discounts and delayed purchases.
• Prime Day 2025 drove record sales and AI-fueled traffic, but key data was missing: Amazon declared its biggest Prime Day ever, with $24.1B in US online sales and a 3,300% surge in GenAI-driven retail traffic (per Adobe), yet notably withheld the number of items sold for the first time since 2020.
• Walmart+ gains traction among value-conscious consumers: While Amazon Prime still dominates across income levels, Walmart+ is most popular among households earning under $50K per year. Meanwhile, higher-income consumers increasingly subscribe to both services, showing room for overlap when value is clear.

As we break down the full data, trends, and takeaways, one thing’s clear: Prime Day 2025 may have started slow, but it ended with a bang, and it’s reshaping the playbook for mid-year retail events.

Amazon Prime Day 2025: Bigger, Longer, and More Complicated than Ever

Amazon’s 10th Prime Day brought a new four-day format, AI tools, and cautious shoppers, making it the biggest yet. But beneath the hype, it revealed major changes in consumer habits, seller tactics, and retail competition.

A Longer Event, But a Tougher Sell

At first glance, Prime Day 2025 seems like a win. Amazon claimed record-breaking sales during its four-day event (July 8–11). But analysts were quick to question the headline. Rick Watson of RMW Commerce told Retail Dive that with double the sale days, “anything else would be a big disappointment.” 

Momentum Commerce supported that view, reporting that Amazon’s total growth was just 4.9% compared to last year’s two-day Prime Day plus the two days that followed. That’s modest, especially given the extended duration. NielsenIQ echoed this, noting that while total sales were higher, the daily average was lower. This suggests that Amazon’s record was less about surging demand and more about having extra time to generate both sales and ad revenue.

Big Gains Came Late in the Game

The momentum also didn’t come right away. Day 1 sales were actually down 41% YoY, per Momentum Commerce. But spending ramped up significantly on Days 3 and 4, thanks in part to slightly deeper discounts and brands adapting their promotional strategies in real time.

Luckily, the event ended on a high note, but the slow start suggests that shopper enthusiasm may be softening, at least at the outset.

Prime Day’s True Power Was Market-Wide

The real power of Prime Day this year wasn’t just on Amazon. Adobe Analytics reported that US consumers spent $24.1 billion online during the four-day period, a 30.3% YoY increase. That’s more than two Black Fridays combined.

Mobile shopping drove more than half of all purchases, and both generative AI and social influencers played significant roles in product discovery and conversions. In short, Prime Day has evolved beyond Amazon’s ecosystem. It’s now a major shopping moment across the entire ecommerce industry.

Final Thoughts

Prime Day 2025 may have delivered record sales, but the growth wasn’t explosive–it was extended. The modest 4.9% gain shows that simply adding more days doesn’t necessarily generate more demand.

What’s clear, however, is that Prime Day’s influence has outgrown Amazon. It’s now a catalyst for nationwide ecommerce activity, where mobile, AI, and social-driven discovery shape consumer behavior, and where every major US retailer wants a piece of the action.

Consumer Behavior: Prime Day Shoppers Get Strategic

A recent survey from Sales Factory found that two-thirds (66%) of Prime members made at least one purchase during Prime Day 2025, even amid tighter budgets. But this year’s shopping wasn’t about impulse buys or shiny gadgets.

Key Shopper Behaviors per Sales Factory

• 49% bought items they had already planned to purchase.
• 50% cited upcoming tariffs as motivation, indicating economic concerns played a major role.
• 64% shopped other sales too, with Walmart the top alternative (76% of cross-shoppers).

Essentials Over Extravagance

The extended format gave shoppers more time to browse, and they used it.

• Per Numerator, the average Prime Day order was $53.34, with average household spend at $156.37, driven by multiple smaller orders. 
• Numerator also reported that two-thirds of items sold were under $20, showing a clear focus on affordable essentials rather than luxury splurges.
• Adobe found that more shoppers leaned on Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) options, which accounted for 8.1% of online orders, up from 7.4% in 2024.

This points to a more price-sensitive, needs-based mindset. Consumers weren’t chasing deals blindly. They were focused on essentials and stretching their dollars wisely.

AI, Advertising, and Algorithmic Influence

AI-powered shopping surged this year, with Amazon’s Alexa+ and Rufus aiding deal discovery. According to Adobe, traffic from GenAI tools (e.g., chatbots and AI-powered browsers) to US retail sites rose 3,300% YoY, indicating that AI-assisted shopping is moving from novelty to norm.

Retailers benefited too:

• Brands could adjust discounts daily thanks to real-time data. Momentum Commerce found that while 25.6% of products were discounted (up 8% from 2024), the average discount was shallower: 21.7%, down from 24.4%.
• Discount depth increased slightly each day to maintain interest, suggesting a more measured and strategic approach to promotions.

Amazon, of course, extended its opportunity for ad revenue over four days, boosting visibility for sellers willing to pay to play.

The Missing Metric and What It Might Mean

Perhaps the most glaring question mark from the 2025 Prime Day record sales recap was what Amazon didn’t say.

Amazon touted record sales across 35+ categories and major wins for independent sellers, but for the first time since 2020, it didn’t reveal how many items were sold, a key stat used to benchmark past years (375M in 2023, 300M in 2022, 250M+ in 2021).

The absence raises questions about changing success metrics or weaker underlying performance. With Walmart and Target now running six- to seven-day events of their own, Prime Day has become less of a standalone event and more of a centerpiece in a broader, highly competitive mid-year ecommerce surge.

Walmart+ Finds Its Niche With Value-Conscious Households

While Amazon Prime remains the top retail membership, Walmart+ is quietly gaining ground among lower-income Americans.

According to PYMNTS data via eMarketer, Walmart+-only subscribers are most concentrated in households earning under $50K. Meanwhile, 29.1% of those earning over $100K subscribe to both services, suggesting high-income users see unique value in stacking memberships. Still, 44.7% of lower-income shoppers subscribe to neither, highlighting room for growth.

What Sellers Should Know:

• For Amazon sellers: Focus on utility and real needs, not just flash sales. Compete across Walmart (Walmart Deals), Target (Circle Week), and TikTok Shop (Deals For You Days) and address tariff concerns with price-lock messaging.
• For Walmart+ sellers: Highlight value and everyday convenience in your listings. For example, promotions or product bundles (e.g., skincare value sets or shampoo + conditioner bundle) can help attract budget-conscious Walmart+ shoppers. 

Bottom Line

Prime Day 2025 proved that shoppers are still spending. However, they’re doing so thoughtfully, prioritizing value and daily essentials. Brands that focus on everyday value, not hype, and that adapt across pricing, positioning, and platform, will come out ahead.

Other Amazon Seller Updates This Week

1. Stricter International Returns Requirements Effective August 11, 2025

Sellers fulfilling orders from outside Germany or the UK must now respond to return requests within three calendar days instead of four, or Amazon will issue a refund and charge the seller. To comply, sellers must provide one of the following: a local return address with a prepaid label, an international prepaid return label, or a returnless refund. Amazon is also enabling prepaid return labels via DHL and DPD to help streamline this process for cross-border returns.

2. New Global Demand Features in Amazon Product Guidance Tool

Amazon’s expanded Marketplace Product Guidance tool now includes a “Global demand for your product” tab, showing where your products are in demand across international stores with tailored growth tips. The Category Insights section also highlights top-performing products and successful launches to guide smarter product decisions.

3. Temporary Changes in FBA Inventory Reporting

Amazon is updating the Inventory Overview column for FBA sellers in the US to better reflect what’s actually available to customers. The new On-hand metric now includes both Available and FC transfer units, while Reserved will only show FC processing and Customer order units. These changes won’t be reflected in reports until mid-2026, so sellers may notice short-term mismatches between dashboard data and downloadable reports.

4. Improved Bulk Image Upload Process

The Bulk Image Upload tool has been upgraded to process all valid images in a zipped file while flagging errors separately. This eliminates the need to re-upload the entire file after fixing one issue, making image management faster and more efficient for sellers managing multiple SKUs.