Longest-ever Prime Day to see Brits spend nearly £2bn on Amazon
A four-day-long Prime event is set to see Brits spend £1.9bn as consumers increasingly look to deals and discounts for their shopping.
Retailers are hoping the discount bonanza will be a boon after a tough first half of the year, and a chance to get ahead of what is expected to be a tough second half.
“There’s little doubt that both shoppers and sellers are set to gain from the midsummer madness of Prime Day, David Jinks, Parcelhero’s head of consumer research, said.
UK sales of £1.9bn and US sales of £20bn would represent a 60 per cent year on year growth rate for the event.
“The thinking is that a strong event now might help to offset a bumpy second half of the year,” Jinks said.
Online spending reached £49.7bn in the first half of the year, according to research from Adobe – a 1.6 per cent increase in what used to be a relentlessly-growing area.
Low confidence, inflation and high interest rates have discouraged spending; demand for discounted items has driven sales for nearly a year straight.
This is a particular issue for small traders, which rely on razor-thin margins and can’t afford to drop prices as much as bigger retailers.
Traders at risk from over-dependence and returns
Jinks warned, however, that as Amazon continues to grow its market share, even very successful smaller traders might be “at risk of becoming over-dependent on the platform”.
“If anything goes wrong with the relationship then that could be a big problem for sellers, especially if they have put all their eggs in the Amazon basket.
“Amazon can and will delist, suspend or even ban sellers who violate its policies,” Jinks said.
There’s also the issue of returns, which affects large and small sellers alike.
Over half – 55 per cent – of consumers will return purchases made on Prime Day, according to software platform Manhattan Associates, with a third of customers returning one to three items.
“The return-to-sender phenomenon is no longer a minor back-end issue… it’s a frontline challenge impacting customer satisfaction and profitability,” Martin Lockwood at Manhattan Associates said.
Retailers have been trying to minimise their losses from returns, but have had limited success: pushback from customers has been swift and threatens to force a complete rollback of more stringent return requirements.
Retailers look to AI for help
One way in which retailers are trying to claw back lost revenue from returns and cautious shoppers is by using AI tools.
Use is booming: Compared with August 2024, traffic to retail websites from AI tools in June 2025 is up 1,200 per cent, according to Adobe.
Consumers are increasingly using the service to compare prices, compile shopping lists and research products, giving retailers ample opportunity to swoop in.
There are ways for brands to show up Generative AI results – by measuring agentic traffic that retrieve and summarize content on owned channels, for example, or by receiving advice on how to be ‘discoverable’.
Crucially, consumer trust in the tools is growing. Conversion rates have doubled in the last two months, and shoppers spend 23 per cent more time on a site when directed there from an AI.
Historically, the success of an ad campaign has been defined by eyeballs and conversion rates – and increasingly, those eyeballs will be on GenAI tools.