Mid-summer sales have become important for the major retailers who fiercely compete with promotions to boost revenue in their summer quarters. This year, Amazon expanded Prime Day from two to four days.

Walmart and Target previously held week-long summer sales events timed to compete with Amazon’s Prime Day sales that last 48 hours.

Credit and debit card transaction data collected from Bloomberg Second Measure, a consumer analytics firm, indicated that Walmart’s promotion event posted sales growth of 24%, or six times faster than Amazon’s Prime Day annual growth. The report also found that 8% of Prime Day customers also shopped online at Walmart, up from 5% last year.

Adobe Analytics found that overall e-commerce sales rose 30.3% year over year during the four days, better than the forecast of 28.4%. Adobe reports sales at Amazon rose just 4.9%. Total online sales for the four-day event across retailers came in at $24.1 billion. Doug Herrington, CEO of Amazon Worldwide Stores, said this year marked its “biggest Prime event in history.”

Rachel Wolff, analyst with eMarketer, said Amazon shoppers exhibited calculated behaviors during the four-day event, waiting until later days to make purchases after comparing prices among retailers.

“I think the longer length of the event also helped with that because people had more time to compare prices,” Wolff said. “Maybe you put it in your cart, but you wait until the last day to make that purchase.”

Wolff said consumers also used Prime Day to stock up on household necessities, rather than splurging on luxury items. Economists have said consumers remain resilient, but spending patterns from the recent sales events indicate some resistance to splurges over stocking up on must-haves to save a few dollars, noted Zak Stambor, analyst at eMarketer.

Wolff said while Amazon is the anchor of July’s shopping event, competing retailers are capturing consumer attention with their sales. Numerator reports 49% of Prime Day shoppers also made purchases during Walmart’s event and 38% also checked out Target Circle Week.

Walmart may update the media and shareholders on its summer sales event and the back-to-school season in its upcoming earnings call slated for Aug. 21.

Retailers are looking at consumer spending behaviors in their summer events to gain insights into the upcoming holiday season, Wolff said. She said retailers will compete aggressively on holiday pricing, and value-focused shopping behaviors could intensify.

“I think being early is key,” said Wolff. “As we saw, Prime Day has been pulling forward back-to-school spending. Well, the October sales are pulling forward holiday spending.”

She said analysts expect Amazon’s October Prime event to take place over multiple days to give more sellers the opportunity to advertise, driving more overall revenue for the company.

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