Amazon Prime Day sparks ‘halo effect’ on small and medium Aussie retailers

Amazon Prime Day kicked off this morning, a global shopping phenomenon that many Australians still don’t know about, new research has found. 

The two-day shopping event brings hefty discounts on hundreds of thousands of products, and runs until 11:59pm AEST tomorrow, Wednesday July 13.

Consumers can score deals — including up to 51% off — across various brands if they have an Amazon Prime membership, which costs $6.99 a month. 

Despite attracting Aussie consumers for the past five years now, commerce media platform Criteo has found the big discount event is still not a household name Down Under, unlike Black Friday or Click Frenzy sales. 

Amazon Prime Day has however grown in popularity since last year, when 73% of Australians admitted to not knowing about it at all. This year, that figure dropped to 59%. 

For the Aussies who are familiar with the event, 71% say they will purchase from Amazon during the sale period. 

This year, Amazon has also launched a new initiative encouraging Aussies to support small and medium businesses through the ‘Shop Local Businesses’ store on its website. 

Local businesses represented include Milkdrop, The DoggieBalm Co., Zenify, The Salt Box and more. 

As Criteo managing director Colin Barnard told SmartCompany, Amazon Prime Day opens opportunity for smaller local retailers to take advantage of the hype.

“Large events like this can create a wonderful halo effect for the retail industry.

“For example, while more than 7 in 10 (71%) of those Australians familiar with the event planning to purchase from Amazon, 49% will also be shopping on other sites that run promotions during this same period according to our survey this year.”

The ‘halo effect’

Research from PayPal found that almost half of Australian shoppers would prefer to hold out for a discount, waiting for items they find online to go on sale before they click buy. 

This consumer behaviour shows why events such as Amazon Prime Day can be so successful, and why small businesses choose to discount their own products over the sale period, too, as a way to ‘capitalise on the event without selling into the mega retailers’, Criteo reports. 

Finder shopping expert Tegan Jones says comparing deals across the web, and across various retailers, is the best way for consumers to go about partaking in the sales anyhow. 

“Other retailers are aware of the impact Amazon has had on the local marketplace,” Jones told news.com.au

“Don’t be surprised to see even more competitive prices on offer from other online stores during the Prime Day sale.”

“There is a great opportunity for Australian businesses around major sales events like this and with the right data and technology, [smaller] brands can put themselves on the map on their own grounds,” Barnard said.