This is not a shock to me
IMO, the big benefit of Amazon Prime Day is the discounts that every other retailer gives during that same time period. Saved us $200 on a computer bought at the local chain computer store.
I even saw an ad for cookware that mentioned “prime pricing” on their website this week (although no idea if it’s actually cheaper than normal pricing; not something I would buy anyway).
But Amazon; not so much…
Out stuff was at least 20% off…
In order to pull that off (if you aren’t Amazon selling it direct) - is to take a bath for at least 30 days just for a 2 day sale? That’s really dumb because the reality is, running these deals, and having a great couple days, there’s a big lag after and a little before. If you don’t jack your prices up 20% for at least 30 days, you can’t run the deal. Workflow won’t let a seller do that. If you jack your price to promote, there’s a good chance you’ll get stopped anyway by a high price error….
So with our discounts, we might have days that are 30-120% better than normal (depends on the event). But the weeks they occur in are only up 10-15%.
Unless you use these events as a customer acquisition tool, they really aren’t worth it.
We have a big reorder rate, so they work well for us.
If anyone is breaking the rules, it’s Amazon and who’s surprised about that?
with the racking up of fees, tariffs and yet another threat of trade escalations - why is this a surprise?
I have never found the Prime Day events to offer bargains.
The biggest price reductions are on Chinese merchandise destined for the liquidator because no one wants them.
As is usual, this event I took advantage if cut rate month on a video subscription. Unfortunately the Prime Video App on Roku has problems with subtitles on this service. So I am out $1.99 if I don’t find the proper work around, Might try casting from my phone.
Prime Video subtitles do not work right on my FIRE Tablet. 2nd line is buried. Hulu, YTTV, and Netflix all work fine though.
I found the Roku issue with Prime Video.
Must start the video, then pause it to be able to turn Closed Captions on.
Classic Amazon different to be different software.
Agree however, I think the issue is with sellers not Amazon. Don’t get me wrong, I think AZ treats customers very bad (I know we all think they get a pass, they still can NEVER deliver a package to us at the address we put on the envelope.)
I feel that the sellers (Read China Sellers) Raise prices to discount prices. Just sayin’.
I think it’s worth parsing a couple of the specific findings from the author and his crew:
Those products weren’t listed as “big deals” on the site, but we certainly didn’t expect their prices to spike during Prime Days.
This speaks to more than just sucky deals.
I pulled receipts for every non-grocery purchase I’d made on Amazon over the past six months — nearly 50 products. Then I calculated what those same items would have cost during Prime Big Deal Days on Oct. 8.
My overall potential Big Deal Days savings: a mere 0.6 percent. And that doesn’t include the $139 annual fee to be a member of Amazon Prime.
And this is where consumers need to understand that anything Amazon (and most sales channels) is excited about, is poised primarily to benefit themselves–not consumers, and certainly not Sellers.
It also speaks to the value of following preferred brands directly, and to Sellers fostering that brand trust with their customers.
As much as we savvy Sellers aren’t surprised by the tricks, most shoppers assume benevolence–or at least a “do no harm” goal–from Amazon (and most sales channels).
Let us not forget that many Amazon sellers have little margin let alone profit on their sales at any time of the year, That is often the result of the race to the bottom by sellers who if they were at all intelligent would realize they had nothing going for them and no chance at success.
The same thinking (or lack thereof) which made them sell on Amazon, leads them to try to participate in Prime Day.
This is not unique to Amazon, but more common on the internet than most retail. The barriers to entry are lower so that people who cannot afford to invest and lose are better able to lose.
I am constantly astonished at the booksellers who offer 10 pound books for 6.99 with free shipping. The megasellers with whom they are competing on price can eke out small profits utilizing USPS discounts, donated books, and cheap or free labor, but the small sellers are in the minus column every time they make a sale and ship a book.
Anything I think I may want to keep track of, I put in my cart and then Save For Later. Then Alexa is more than happy to tell me when there’s a price drop. It also shows the price change, up or down, on my cart page.
There are a lot of booksellers (my guess both newbies jumping in, and longtime B&M sellers who see Amazon as an “add-on” part of their business) who seem to be insulted when you imply that they should be running their business as a business.
(such as the one on the NSFE, who claims to have been selling here for 20 years, complaining that a threshold of 2.5% pre-order cancelation rate is too low; then proceeded to call April a “bot” because she said that she actually deletes offers when they sell on other platforms).
It appears to me that any new online booksellers have even less business sense than many of us old online booksellers.
The used book business has never met the requirement of having an acceptable business plan. Many of us who have entered it have done so due to our character flaws. Is there a difference between a drunkard, a junkie and a used bookseller?
BTW Ebay has a .5% precancellation rate metric to remain a Top Ranked Seller but 12 months is the duration of the black mark. More than 2% will make you Below Standard and lead to a limit on the number of listings you can have, being blocked from promoting, and an extra final value fee of 5+%. Which might be worse than being shut down.
^^This^^
I have mixed feelings towards this article. It feels like just another eye-catching article to gather impressions while saying “Hey dumbdumbs don’t get fooled! I’m smarter so I’ve done this to show you that the businesses were all scamming you.”
I am aware that there are businesses that intentionally raise prices to make the discount look more appealing. This would be a fair article if we were not in 2025, and this “test” was not carried out during this particular period, as I feel like the tariffs are playing a big part in it.
Let’s say a product was $100 before the tariffs.
When the tariffs were first announced and kicked in (exactly within the past six months!), businesses still had inventory that they could sell for the original price. It’s during the past six months that they had no choice but to increase the price to cover the increased cost.
So for example the product price gradually went up to $130, and it was 15% off during the Prime Big Deal Days, selling at $110.5.
Then we have this person here making a fuss about how they’re being played, hinting that the businesses are to blame.
No, this year you’re not being played by sellers or Amazon, you’re simply witnessing the aftermath of the destructive trade policies that you-know-who imposed.
Excellent point. Thanks for the reminder! (and I mean that not sarcastically)
Voldemort.