The holiday deal season keeps stretching, and here’s what brands should do

This year, Prime Day moved forward to June. Prime Big Deals Days wrapped up in the first week of October, and Black Friday Cyber Monday is still on the way. Walmart and Target host their own promotions around each of these events, making the calendar especially crowded. The exact dates can shift from year to year, but the holiday shopping window is spreading across more of the season. 

The longer window reflects pressure on both sides: consumers are managing tighter budgets and retailers are competing for each purchase before that money goes elsewhere. Deloitte’s 2026 Holiday Retail Survey found that 22% planned to start earlier than last year and one in four had already made a holiday purchase during June promotions. Numerator found that 29% of Prime Big Deal Days shoppers were more cautious because of the economic climate; 28% limited spending because of inflation or cost-of-living concerns.  

For consumers, promotions create more chances to pace purchases and compare value. For retailers, each event is another chance to earn that spend on their site or in their store. 

Value is what makes one offer worth choosing 

When promotions overlap and recur, the lowest prices available are only one part of the consumer decision-making process. Numerator found that 56% of Prime Big Deal Days shoppers compared Amazon prices or products with other retailers during the Prime Big Deals Days event.  

Selection, member benefits, delivery, pickup, and ease of navigating the site and purchasing all shape the value of an offer, and when consumers are feeling economic pressure, value becomes a necessity. 

With pressure felt all around, promotional activity is unlikely to disappear. Brands need to make the advantage clear for the specific product and retailer, not assume a discount will do all the work.  

Events can play different roles by category 

With multiple deal events focused on capturing significant spend throughout the back half of the year, category trends by event will be worth watching. Prime Big Deal Days provides one useful read. According to Flywheel's data, in the U.S., Grocery and Gourmet Food grew 31.7% year over year during the event week, Health and Household 31.3%, Beauty and Personal Care 30.0%, and Pet Supplies 21.9%. 

Numerator’s post-event survey adds insight into what types of purchase missions occurred during this event: 45% bought something they had been waiting to get on sale, 28% shopped for everyday items, 25% stocked up, and 23% bought holiday gifts.  

Together, the results support a hypothesis that some events may be stronger for replenishment and planned purchases, and some remain major gifting moments. It will likely take a few years to pinpoint these trends, but *something about how brands shouldn't worry about needing to run discounts the whole end of the year. Transition to next section  

The total marketplace also grew during the Prime Big Deal Days event week, which signals that more deal events currently drive more sales growth. Our data shows that U.S. sales reached $14.1 billion, up 15.1% year over year, while Canada reached C$1.06 billion, up 8.5%. 

Build a promotional calendar around your products 

A crowded calendar can make it feel as if every event demands a major investment. It does not. Think of the calendar as a set of opportunities to evaluate, not a checklist to complete. Start with the product and the consumer: when are people buying, what moves them to purchase, and which promotions have changed units, margin, repeat behavior, or retailer share? Compare event results with longer-term trends and the value of the consumer relationship, not just the biggest sales week. 

One category may benefit from an early stock-up offer, while another may be better served by a gift-led promotion closer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Your own results should decide where to go deep, where to keep a lighter presence, and where a discount is unlikely to pay back. If a promotion mostly discounts purchases that were already going to happen, it may not be worth repeating. If it brings in new consumers who return, that event may merit more support. 

Over time, those choices build a calendar around when consumers buy your products, not simply when retailers announce a sale. The aim is not to be everywhere. It is to show up when the need, the offer, and the long-term value of the consumer relationship line up.