Holiday deal frenzy begins with Amazon’s Prime Day-like event amid soaring inflation.

With its second major sales event of the year, Amazon.com Inc. kicked off the holiday shopping season as rivals Best Buy and Walmart offered deals to entice customers who were struggling to stretch their Christmas budgets due to inflation.

Similar to the Prime Day summer marketing push, the two-day “Prime Early Access Sale” for Amazon members begins on Tuesday. It will compete with early discounts from competing retailers.

To compete with Amazon’s discount days, Walmart Inc. is organising a “Rollbacks and More” sale event from October 10–13, 2022, featuring discounts and deals on everything from luggage to Hot Wheels toys.

Target Corp. held its “Deal Days” between October 6–8, 2022, to avoid competing with Amazon. Best Buy Co., Inc. and Kohl’s Corp. also have 48-hour sales during Amazon’s event dates.

Retailers will likely compete more aggressively and early this year for potentially lower revenue, according to Carol Spieckerman, head of Spieckerman Retail Consultancy. He continued, “The idea is that the dollar is won by the early bird.”

Inflation and early discounting are also anticipated to reduce holiday spending in 2022. According to Adobe Analytics, US online holiday sales are predicted to increase in 2022 at their slowest rate since at least 2015 and climb at 2.5% to $209.7 billion.