Shorter, sharper, and more strategically focused, Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days 2025 marked another major milestone in the ecommerce calendar.
The two-day October event offered a glimpse into how both Amazon and its sellers are adapting to a more competitive and cost-conscious retail environment.
From refined discount strategies and smarter audience targeting to evolving inventory and promotional structures, this year’s event reflected an industry learning to do more with less.
To unpack the results, we asked 6 of our retail media experts to break down the data, dissect the trends, and share insights on what worked, what changed, and what it all means for the months ahead.
- Ross Walker, Director of Retail Media
- Armin Alispahic, Team Lead - Retail Marketplace Services
- Gavin Farnan, Senior Account Manager
- Spencer Selden, Senior Advertising Manager
- Michael Childers, Retail Marketplaces Account Manager
- Carlos Sastre, Retail Media Specialist
Here’s what they found:
Why Did Amazon Big Deal Days Go Back to 2 Days?
Amazon made a deliberate decision to scale back its October Prime Big Deal Days event from four days to just two; a shift driven by a combination of consumer behavior, logistical constraints, and strategic experimentation.
One of the biggest factors was buyer fatigue. Shoppers had already participated in the extended four-day summer Prime event just a few months earlier, and another lengthy promotion so close to the 12-day Black Friday-Cyber Monday (BFCM) period risked oversaturating audiences.
Logistics also played a significant role. Amazon’s fulfillment centers were operating near capacity in October, putting pressure on both internal operations and sellers trying to restock.
During checkout, customers were even offered cash-back incentives for slower delivery options: 8% in October, up from 6% in July, signaling Amazon’s attempt to manage warehouse strain and smooth out shipping demand.
On the seller side, the reduced window also aligned with a broader focus on profitability and flexibility. Many brands were navigating tighter margins, higher storage costs, and fluctuating fulfillment limits. The condensed timeline reduced pressure on inventory turnover while encouraging participation in Amazon’s longer, 12-day BFCM event.
By trimming Prime Big Deal Days down to two days, Amazon made it easier for brands to plan across the season and align their promotions more strategically.
Ultimately, the two-day format reflects Amazon’s broader pattern of constant testing. The company continues to fine-tune the balance between driving customer excitement, supporting seller profitability, and optimizing fulfillment capacity, so we don’t expect this version of the retail calendar to be set in stone.
Brand Participation and Customer Demand
Overall Performance
Early data points to a strong performance across categories. Compared to the 2024 October event:
- Net sales increased by 72% year-over-year, reflecting significant growth potential.
- Sales distribution between the two days remained consistent, with day one accounting for 52% of sales and day two for 48%, mirroring last year’s 51/49 split.
Although July Prime Day still generated higher total sales, October’s event demonstrated growing importance for brands as an opportunity to capture early Q4 demand and test readiness ahead of Black Friday-Cyber Monday.
The Hypergrowth Playbook
Analysis of top-performing brands revealed several key characteristics:
- Full assortment participation in Best Deals or Prime Exclusive Discounts (PEDs) across both days
- Deal depth averaging 20–25%, the minimum threshold for competitiveness during the event
- Off-Amazon traffic investment, with 73% of top performers driving traffic from external sources
- Expanded exposure on unbranded campaigns, helping offset rising CPCs and capture new shoppers
This combination of strategic discounting and diversified traffic sources allowed these brands to outperform competitors, even as advertising costs rose across the platform.
Profitability and Selectivity
A notable shift this year was the heightened focus on profitability and margin protection. Many brands became more selective in what they chose to promote:
- Fewer full-catalog discounts; emphasis was placed on best-selling or high-margin SKUs.
- Margin analysis guided promotional decisions, influenced by tariffs, storage fees, and higher CPCs.
- Prime Exclusive Discounts (PEDs) remained the preferred promotion type, typically around 20%, though some brands with healthier margins opted for steeper cuts.
This data-driven approach reflected broader caution across the ecommerce landscape, where long-term margin sustainability took precedence over short-term volume.
Consumer Demand Trends
Consumer engagement during the two-day event remained robust and evenly distributed.
While demand did not reach July’s peak levels, shoppers responded positively to selective, value-driven deals. The consistent day-one and day-two performance indicated sustained interest throughout the event, rather than a single-day sales spike.
The Role of Brand Building
One of the most significant insights from this year’s results was the importance of year-round brand investment.
- Building awareness through off-Amazon advertising channels such as social media, influencers, and email marketing.
- Creating strong customer recognition so that, during major sales, shoppers already trust and seek out the brand.
- Maintaining visibility and engagement across all non-event days to ensure incremental growth during high-traffic periods.
The message was clear: success in Amazon’s tentpole events begins long before the sale starts, and extends well beyond the two days it runs.
Platform Glitches and Operational Challenges
Despite Amazon’s growing experience managing large-scale retail events, Prime Big Deal Days 2025 was not entirely free from operational hiccups.
While the event ran more smoothly than in some previous years, several platform inconsistencies and unexpected behaviors caused challenges for sellers in real time.
Promo and Pricing Disruptions
One of the most significant issues reported by the Acadia team this year involved sudden changes to Prime Exclusive Discount (PED) eligibility during the live event. Several brands experienced last-minute shifts in their approved discounts, even for promotions that had been validated by Amazon before launch.
For example, products that had initially been approved at a 20% discount were suddenly flagged as ineligible mid-event, with Amazon requiring higher discount percentages to retain their PED badging.
In some cases, hero products lost their badges entirely, only for others to drop off the following day.
Rather than waiting six hours for new coupons to activate, many brands opted to increase their discounts immediately to maintain visibility.
This unpredictability coincided with a noticeable rise in reseller activity, which further complicated pricing and Buy Box control. Competing third-party sellers listing the same products often undercut brands’ pricing strategies, leading to feature price losses and interrupted promotion eligibility.
Data Reporting Delays
Another challenge came from the business reports dashboard, which displayed a warning banner indicating that data might be delayed for up to 24 hours. This meant brands were often unsure whether their hour-by-hour sales data was accurate during the event.
Typically, advertisers are accustomed to lag in the ad console, where spend and performance metrics can take hours to update. However, this time, the lag appeared on the business reporting side, a new wrinkle that made it harder for teams to make real-time optimization decisions.
While the delay was resolved within a day, it introduced uncertainty into same-day performance tracking, potentially influencing ad spending and bid adjustments for several brands.
Overall, compared to previous years, when we experienced full access to the ad console being blocked or zero attribution for an entire event, the glitches in 2025 were more inconveniences than crises - manageable but frustrating for brands that depend on precise timing and visibility to execute high-stakes campaigns.
The AMC Advantage Continues
Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) continued to be a major differentiator.
What began as a niche analytics tool has now evolved into a core performance driver, enabling better targeting, conversion, and retention of customers throughout the event cycle, from the lead-in phase to post-event reengagement.
Key strategies included:
Using Pre-Built AMC Audiences for Sharper Targeting: Many brands relied on pre-built AMC audiences to enhance precision in their campaign targeting. These audiences, available directly within AMC, helped brands go beyond keyword targeting by identifying customers based on behavior and intent.
Using High-Interest Audiences (Non-Branded Campaigns): Used for campaigns targeting generic or competitor-related keywords, these segments identified shoppers with strong purchase intent by analyzing behavioral data. This allowed brands to reach customers who were already browsing or considering similar products.
Add-to-Cart and Click Audiences (Branded Campaigns): For branded campaigns, brands focused on shoppers who had already clicked on or added their products to their cart. People who had shown interest but hadn’t yet completed their purchase. Targeting these audiences helped brands re-engage warm prospects with a higher likelihood of conversion.
Expanding Add-to-Cart Audiences Beyond Branded Campaigns: Add-to-cart audiences aren’t limited to branded strategies. Some teams used them in non-branded campaigns as well, focusing on shoppers who had added similar products to their cart but were still browsing. This allowed brands to intercept high-intent customers and encourage them to purchase before they moved on to competitors.
Lookalike Audiences for Competitor Conquesting: Another effective use of AMC during Prime Big Deal Days was lookalike audience modeling. We built lookalike segments based on shoppers who had converted after being targeted through competitor-focused campaigns.
These audiences represented customers willing to switch brands, making them ideal targets during major sales events. To maintain sufficient audience size and reach, we typically create lookalike audiences based on multiple competitors, rather than focusing on one single brand, avoiding overly narrow targeting.
Halo Audiences for Cross-Selling: AMC also enabled brands to leverage halo audiences: customers who had purchased one product and were statistically likely to purchase a related or complementary product.
Targeting these customers during Prime Big Deal Days served as a reminder of the brand and its broader product ecosystem. Whether through sponsored ad bid adjustments or sponsored display campaign targeting, halo audiences provided a simple but effective way to drive repeat and cross-sell opportunities.
Inventory and Merchandising Shifts
Compared to previous Prime events, Prime Big Deal Days 2025 reflected a more deliberate, profit-focused approach to inventory and merchandising.
Brands entered the October event with greater caution, emphasizing margin protection, cost management, and selective participation over broad promotional coverage.
- Profitability and Selective Promotion Strategies
Profitability was top of mind for many sellers this year. With the impact of tariffs earlier in the year, increased storage fees in October, and rising CPCs across Amazon’s ad platform, brands faced mounting pressure on their margins.
As a result, many teams reassessed how they allocated their promotions:
- Brands were more selective about which products received Prime Exclusive Discounts (PEDs), focusing on items with proven conversion rates rather than discounting their full catalog.
- Some shifted to coupon strategies for lower-margin products, viewing them as a more cost-effective alternative.
- The emphasis moved away from maximizing top-line sales toward optimizing the bottom line, ensuring that every discounted unit still contributed to profitability.
- The Cost Impact of “Best Deals”
A major talking point was the updated cost structure for Amazon’s “Best Deal” promotion, now priced at $1,000 per ASIN for the two-day event.
At that rate, a product with a 10% profit margin would need to generate $10,000 in sales just to offset the deal’s entry cost.
This significantly influenced participation decisions. Brands became far more strategic, reserving Best Deal slots for top-performing or “hero” products rather than spreading spend across secondary SKUs.
Even with the higher cost, our experts noted that Best Deal badging remains highly valuable, often seen as “table stakes” for competitive visibility during Prime events.
- Inventory Capacity Adjustments
Earlier in the year, many brands saw their FBA storage capacities reduced, creating logistical challenges. For the fall event, however, inventory limits increased in most cases.
This expansion was likely tied to Amazon’s preparation for Q4 and holiday demand, allowing brands to rebuild stock levels ahead of the busiest shopping season.
- Inconsistencies in Pricing and Deal Badging
Another observation from the event was the inconsistency in Amazon’s “last 30 days’ lowest price” rule, which determines eligibility for promotional badges.
Some brands received badges despite offering prices that weren’t truly lower than those seen earlier in the month. Others, offering legitimate discounts, didn’t receive the same treatment.
Amazon may be referencing different baselines, such as average 30-day pricing versus list price, making the process somewhat opaque.
*Note:
While the mechanics behind Amazon’s badging system remain unclear, badges continue to play a critical role in consumer decision-making.
In our experience, most shoppers don’t distinguish between badge types, whether “Best Deal,” “Prime Exclusive Discount,” or “Lightning Deals.” Instead, customers tend to focus on perceived savings.
This means that visibility often comes down to whether a product is marked as a deal at all, regardless of the specific promotion type.
- Improved Visibility and Event Clean-Up
Finally, compared to last year, brands reported better visibility and stronger performance during this fall’s event. In 2024, the volume of promotions made visibility difficult to achieve, with nearly every seller running some form of deal.
This year, with the higher cost of entry and greater selectivity among brands, the promotional environment felt less crowded and more efficient.
This “cleaned-up” promotional landscape ultimately benefited both sellers and consumers, driving higher returns for those willing to invest strategically.
Lead-Out Strategies and the Road to Q4
The period after Prime Big Deal Days is not downtime; it’s an essential bridge to Q4 success.
The goal isn’t necessarily to drive immediate sales, but to stay visible, reinforce brand recognition, and keep high-intent shoppers within reach as they head toward the biggest shopping days of the year.
Here’s our plan for the next weeks:
- Brand-Tailored Promotions for Retargeting
One of the most effective post-event strategies has been the use of brand-tailored promotions, particularly for retargeting cart abandoners and past purchasers.
These promotions are private offers shown only to select customer segments, making them an efficient alternative to extending public discounts.
Brands found that these targeted audiences typically have higher purchase value and stronger brand affinity, having already purchased or shown intent to purchase. This makes brand-tailored promotions ideal for driving conversions without undermining profitability.
With Amazon Marketing Cloud (AMC) now available to more seller accounts, brands are beginning to experiment with pairing these promotions with ad-supported audience amplification.
By increasing ad investment behind brand-tailored promotions (using bid modifiers and AMC audience tools), you can expect to boost reach and performance without the need for broad discounts.
- Staying Top of Mind
If you’re already focusing on cart abandoners or detail page viewers who didn’t convert, another avenue can be lapsing customers who haven’t purchased in a while.
Even if shoppers aren’t immediately buying after Prime Day, their attention remains on Amazon, and they’re starting to plan for the holidays.
Maintaining consistent exposure, through low CPC campaigns and sponsored display ads, helps brands stay top of mind ahead of the major Q4 surge.
- Leveraging AMC Audiences for Upper-Funnel Retargeting
AMC also plays a key role in post-event strategy. Brands can retarget audiences who engaged with upper-funnel campaigns, such as DSP display ads, online video, and streaming TV during the Prime Day lead-in.
This tactic helps brands assign tangible value to their awareness investments, ensuring that upper-funnel campaigns contribute directly to measurable sales performance.
- Building Familiarity Beyond Amazon
Finally, off-Amazon brand awareness continues to play a key supporting role in post-event performance.
Even if external platforms generate lower conversion rates or less polished reviews, brand familiarity pays off. When customers already recognize a brand, thanks to exposure across social, video, or influencer channels, they’re more likely to trust it and convert once they encounter it on Amazon.
Closing Thoughts
Prime Big Deal Days 2025 felt quieter and more intentional: a reminder that growth in ecommerce doesn’t always come from doing more, but from doing better. Brands approached the event with focus, not frenzy, and that shift told its own story.
As we move into Q4, it’s clear this season isn’t just about chasing demand; it’s about understanding it.
The lessons from October will matter even more in the busy weeks ahead.
Give It a Listen
We also launched a new podcast episode to break down Prime Big Deal Day results.
You can tune in for the full interview on the Ecommerce Braintrust.