Prime Day has become the unofficial start of back-to-school shopping season. And this year, it started earlier than ever. Prime Day took place on June 23-26, a few weeks earlier than its mid-July slot. The timing is significant because it means that, essentially, back-to-school shopping has now become a summer- long event, with some parents now starting to look for deals in June, rather than waiting until July or even August.
Amazon’s push to move up Prime Day by several weeks has caused a ripple effect. Major retailers like Target and Walmart shifted their competing Prime Day sales back to the end of June and, in turn, used the opportunity to promote their back-to-school offerings. Smaller startups, meanwhile, increasingly thought about how to use their Prime Day sales to cater to deal-hungry parents, who increasingly want to check more things off of their lists toward the start of summer.
Last year, 67% of back-to-school shoppers started in early July, up from 55% in 2024, according to a National Retail Federation survey. Some of that appears to be due to consumers being more prepared than in previous years. The NRF survey shows that 44% of shoppers had already received school lists by early June, compared with 38% in the prior year.
