Amazon announces another Prime Day in October

New York
CNN Business
—

Amazon is adding another Prime Day to the calendar.

The company announced on Monday that the sale, called the « Prime Early Access Sale, » will take place on October 11 and 12. The 48-hour event is only for members of its Prime subscription program and will offer discounts on « hundreds of thousands » of items.

“Prime Early Access Sale” will be available in 15 countries, including Canada, China, France, United Kingdom and United States.

Amazon is following its rivals to boost the holiday shopping season. Walmart announced last week that it would begin holiday sales as early as next month, and Target said its trade launch, called « Deal Days, » will be held Oct. 6-8.

According to Neil Saunders, retail analyst and managing director of GlobalData Retail, the launch of holiday shopping sales in October will help attract budget-conscious shoppers.

“Consumers will start holiday shopping earlier this year as they seek to spread the cost at a time when household incomes are reduced,” he previously told CNN Business.

Suspending all those early deals, however, may not trigger a buying frenzy during the most important selling time of the year for retailers, which historically begins in earnest on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Across the country, households continue to face persistently high inflation that eats into their budgets and savings, forcing them to cut back on spending.

Consulting firm Deloitte expects holiday retail sales for the key year-end gift-buying months of November, December and January (when Christmas gift cards are typically redeemed) from 4% to 6%, down sharply from a solid increase of 15.1% for the same period last year.

– Parija Kavilanz of CNN Business to this report.