When Amazon Prime Day was announced as a four-day event for the first time in 2025, even as tariffs showed signs of easing, Amazon started the clock on a test for the state of consumer sentiment.
By extending the Prime Day timeline in July from the traditional 48 hours to last from July 8 through July 11, Amazon ensured that the sales event will not be like it was in years past. However, that was already bound to be the case. A few key reasons relate directly to the current state of tariffs in the U.S.
Why Amazon Prime Day in 2025 could be impacted by tariffs
Tariffs have already set the stage for Prime Day in two key ways. The first can be seen through the lens of holiday shoppers’ behavior during the Cyber 5 (Thanksgiving and the four days that follow) in 2024. Ahead of Cyber Monday, online sales were observably restrained as consumers looked at the year’s higher prices from inflation and waited out Black Friday and the weekend that followed to take advantage of bigger deals and — ultimately — set an all-time single-day record of $13.3 billion in ecommerce. The week also set a new bar for the Cyber 5, which totaled $41.1 billion in online sales.
Prime Day in 2025 has the potential to play out in a similar fashion. In a May 2025 tariffs survey that Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights put before online consumers, 27.8% said higher prices as a result of new tariffs had already pushed them to seek out cheaper product alternatives.
June survey data from the research company Numerator highlighted an additional dynamic. 32% of consumers said they were delaying nonessential or big-ticket purchases as a reaction to tariffs. As a result, there may be a glut of demand waiting for Amazon and the other retailers who benefit from Prime Day.
Nevertheless, Amazon may have new challenges to overcome as well.
Third-party seller participation in Prime Day
Back in April, ahead of a May 23 deadline for sellers to decide to participate in Prime Day, Reuters reported that tariffs had created some disincentives to opt in to Amazon’s event. For one thing, new costs associated with imports from countries targeted by new U.S. tariffs could add expenses. Those costs, in turn, could make deep discounts less appetizing to merchants who sell on Amazon. Moreover, if those same sellers do not yet have certainty about their total tariff-related costs for the rest of the year, they could choose to sit Prime Day 2025 out, even if they had a positive experience in 2024.
Such reservations may or may not prove to be significant issues. Regardless, Amazon has already announced major brands offering discounts on this year’s Prime Day. Those include Buy with Prime users such as Steve Madden, JLab and Wyze.
How much will Prime Day shoppers spend?
Amazon did not release totals but announced that Prime Day spending set a new record in 2024. In July, it is not yet clear that a new record in 2025 will be guaranteed.
During this year’s Prime Day event, individual shoppers expect to spend $430, on average, according to June survey data published by the online coupon-finding site RetailMeNot. That total would be $38 less than they spent the year before, according to RetailMeNot’s past findings.
In addition, the company found that one in five shoppers planned to use Prime Day to offset rising tariff-related costs. That intent was more prevalent among the Millennial generation, where one in four expressed such sentiments.
Still, that same survey’s data contained reason for Amazon to stay optimistic. It showed that 84% of U.S. adults plan to participate in Prime Day 2025. That would be up year over year from 81% in 2024.
Amazon web sales by year
Amazon ranks No. 1 in Digital Commerce 360’s Top 2000 Database. The database is how Digital Commerce 360 tracks the largest North American online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales. Amazon is also No. 3 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces Database. That database ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces by third-party gross merchandise value (GMV).
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