By Jared Smith, Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation
Amazon is holding its Prime Day event in June for the first time since 2021, running June 23-26. Arriving just seven months after October’s Prime Big Deal Days, it signals something bigger than a calendar shift: this June is shaping up to be a major commerce moment, and brands that maximize the moment and capture the learnings will have an edge heading into the back half of the year.
Consumer intent is high, with more than half of U.S. consumers planning to shop this Prime Day, up from 45% who shopped in 2025, and two-thirds expecting to spend the same or more than they did last year. With AI-driven search reshaping how shoppers discover products both on and off Amazon, this Prime Day is poised to draw traffic from entirely new sources, making the competitive dynamics more complex than ever. Prime Day is around the corner, and if inventory, messaging, and campaigns are not already in order, take these next two weeks to prepare.
Here is what retailers and brands can do to optimize for results this Prime Day:
For Amazon Retailers
Use this time to ensure your Amazon storefront is ready for the increase in traffic and purchases.. Make sure product pages have strong titles, high-quality images, and clear descriptions. Shoppers will be moving quickly and confusing messaging or thin listings can cost you the sale.
Stock levels are an important consideration to prepare for, and knowing your Amazon best-sellers and seasonal favorites are key to not only capturing Prime Day intent, but fulfilling the sale. Amazon data shows brands sell up to five times more units during Prime Day week compared to the week prior, and a stockout mid-event is not just a missed sale, but wasted ad dollars.
On the media side, Amazon recommends increasing budgets to two to five times your typical daily spend to keep pace with heightened traffic and competition. Rather than distributing that investment across an entire catalog, brands should prioritize their highest-performing SKUs and keep Prime Day campaigns separate from always-on activity to maintain cleaner performance data and tighter budget control.
Brands should also avoid cutting spend immediately after the event. Traffic often remains elevated for up to two weeks post-Prime Day, and shoppers who browsed but did not convert represent some of the highest-intent audiences of the year.
One area worth additional attention this year is Amazon’s Rufus AI, which now powers a meaningful share of product discovery on the platform. Rufus evaluates listings through natural-language queries rather than keyword matching, so brands whose pages are built around how shoppers actually describe products will have a visibility advantage over those still optimizing for traditional search alone.
For Non-Amazon Retailers
While Prime Day occurs on Amazon, the event pulls shoppers into deal-seeking mode across the board. Nearly half of Prime Day shoppers also shopped Walmart Deals, and more than a third shopped Target Circle Week during the same window, and both retailers run competing sales specifically to capture that spillover. If you are in a position to offer promotions, this is the time to do it, leaning into promotional ad copy and paid search terms that meet shoppers where their intent already is.
If matching Prime Day pricing is not feasible, an alternative is to scale back spend during peak days when CPCs spike and competition is fiercest.Then re-enter aggressively once the event ends. Some brands report up to 50% increased sales in the days following Prime Day, a “halo effect” that makes the post-event window a valuable opportunity for brands.
For brands not running promotions at all, set expectations accordingly. Consumers will be in a deal-seeking mindset, and going up against Prime Day without a competitive offer is a difficult position. Plan for softer performance during the event itself and focus resources on the days around it.
The Bottom Line
Prime Day 2026 is more than a sales event, it is one of the biggest shopping events of the summer, marking the moment consumers re-engage with discovery, new brands, and considered purchases after months of lower intent. For retailers and brands, Prime Day sets the tone for July 4th and Labor Day Sales, Back to School, and even Q4,representing a genuine opportunity to capture outsized market share heading into H2. The brands that will see gains are the ones that recognize the opportunity early enough to act on it, and keeping the momentum going following the event
