For years, Amazon Prime Day was synonymous with big-ticket electronics, impulse purchases, and a frantic 48-hour rush, but the retail landscape is changing. As Prime Day and consumer behaviour continues to evolve, brands need to rethink their approach if they want to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
This year, Prime Day will run from 23–26 June, extending the opportunity for brands to sell. With CPCs having increased by 15–25% YoY in North America from 2024 to 2025 and 12–20% YoY in Europe, we expect this trend to continue and brands can no longer rely on simply increasing spend to drive performance. Success will come from smarter planning, stronger creative, and a more sophisticated understanding of the customer journey.
The New Reality of Prime Day
Prime Day has shifted away from being a showcase for premium tech products. Today's shoppers are increasingly focused on value, with everyday essentials and lower-cost household items dominating sales. At the same time, purchase journeys have become longer, with consumers researching and comparing options for over a week before making a decision.
The traditional 48-hour event window is also fading. Prime Day has become a four-day long shopping occasion, creating new opportunities for brands that plan strategically and maintain visibility throughout the event rather than exhausting budgets early.
AI Is Reshaping Product Discovery
Amazon's shopping experience is becoming increasingly AI-driven. Tools such as Rufus are moving consumers away from simple keyword searches and towards conversational shopping experiences, where AI actively recommends products and alternatives based on shopper needs.
This evolution means brands must think beyond traditional search optimisation. Product content, creative assets, and overall visibility need to work harder to ensure AI-powered shopping assistants understand and recommend their products.
Preparation Is the Competitive Advantage
Many of the most important Prime Day decisions happen weeks before the event begins. Brands should focus on:
- Reviewing creative assets, particularly Sponsored Brands Video, ensuring messaging communicates value and product benefits immediately.
- Establishing clear profitability targets and understanding break-even ACoS across all promoted SKUs.
- Creating dedicated Prime Day landing experiences within Amazon Stores.
- Aligning budgets, KPIs, and contingency plans well in advance of the event.
Off-Amazon activity also plays a critical role. Coordinated campaigns across channels such as Meta, TikTok, and email can drive valuable traffic to Amazon listings when supported by robust attribution tracking.
Don't Overlook Prime Day's Final Days
One of the most overlooked opportunities during Prime Day comes later in the event. By day three, many competitors have already depleted their budgets. Brands that remain active can often benefit from lower CPCs while capturing high-intent shoppers who are still researching and purchasing.
Rather than viewing Prime Day as a short-term sprint, marketers should treat it as a sustained performance window that rewards flexibility and disciplined optimisation.
Retail Media Is Bigger Than Amazon
Prime Day's influence extends far beyond Amazon itself. Retailers such as Walmart and Target typically launch competing promotional events during the same period, creating a broader retail media moment across the industry.
For brands, this creates additional opportunities to engage deal-seeking shoppers across multiple retail ecosystems. It also reinforces the need for an integrated retail media strategy that considers marketplace, social, programmatic, and owned-channel activity together.
Operational Excellence Matters More Than Ever
Marketing can only take a brand so far if inventory and logistics are not prepared. Brands should forecast significantly higher sales volumes, maintain contingency inventory where possible, and carefully manage fulfilment capacity. Out-of-stock situations during Prime Day can have long-term consequences, with ranking recovery potentially taking months.
At the same time, Amazon's evolving deal fee structure means profitability analysis is more important than ever before launching promotions.
The Takeaway
Prime Day this year is not only a bigger shopping event than years before, but it's fundamentally different.
Longer purchase journeys, rising competition, AI-powered shopping experiences, and increasing retail media complexity mean brands need to start preparing earlier and think more strategically than ever before. The winners won't simply be the brands spending the most, rather they'll be the ones combining smart planning, operational readiness, effective creative, and a connected retail media strategy.
