Think two days of clicking and impulse buying were exhausting? Amazon’s Prime Day just started, and it’ll last through Friday—its longest-ever event—the company hopes to hit $21.4 billion in sales, a 60% increase over last year. Why the shopping marathon? The issue isn’t just about subscriptions or sales targets; it’s about tariffs.
Amazon hopes shoppers will front-load big-ticket purchases now to avoid price hikes later. Meanwhile, Walmart is aggressively chasing Amazon, boasting same-day deliveries to over 90% of US households. Prime Day might boost sales temporarily, but whether Amazon can keep Walmart at bay—and finally get shoppers to use Rufus, its AI assistant—remains to be seen.
In Context: Global trade (back) in limbo. There are new import taxes on 12 countries.
