Customers seeking deals gave Amazon’s Prime Day and competing sales a solid start

By ANNE D INNOCENZIO Associated Press NEW YORK AP The first day of Amazon s Prime Day event and competing retail sales that kicked off on Tuesday drove solid online spending compared to a year earlier according to two details sources Adobe Digital Insights which tracks visits to e-commerce sites published that U S consumers spent billion at online stores on Tuesday a increase from the comparable day last year Retailers offered discounts in the range of to on par with July sales events Adobe noted Shoppers appeared especially eager to take advantage of deals on appliances electronics and home improvement products the information company disclosed Online sales of appliances were higher than last month s daily average according to Adobe s content Back-to-school items also were popular Spending increased threefold on school supplies like backpacks lunchboxes and stationery and was two times higher for college dorm fixtures like mattresses mini refrigerators and microwave over Adobe mentioned Related Articles Could renting be part of the new American dream Musk s AI company scrubs inappropriate posts after Grok chatbot makes antisemitic comments Trump sends out tariff letters to more countries but he avoids major US commerce partners Trump s agreement blitz produces meager deals but lots of uncertainty Companies keep slashing jobs How worried should workers be about AI replacing them Amazon doubled the length of Prime Day to four days this year Walmart also added two more days to its summer deals event which started Tuesday as well Retail analysts are evaluating this week s sales for clues on whether President Donald Trump s contract program and unpredictable tariffs affect prices and consumer behavior Adobe noted that strong deals drove a large number of shoppers to business up to higher-ticket items Across all categories the company tracks the share of the majority of expensive goods increased by compared to average levels year to date According to consumer records company Numerator the average Prime Day order on Tuesday cost However the average household cost amounted to more than as of p m Eastern time because of households participating in Prime Day placed more than two orders the company explained Numerator tracks U S retail prices through sales receipts online account activity and other information from a panel of shoppers Physical stores in the U S may see spillover traffic from online sales events this week as budget-minded customers comparison shop in search of the lowest prices according to R J Hottovy head of analytical research at Placer ai The location figures company tracks people s movements based on cellphone usage We do still have a price-sensitive consumer that is actively monitoring price hikes and anything related to tariffs Hottovy mentioned Despite ongoing economic concerns Adobe stated it expected online sales to spur a record billion in spending from July to July which would represent improvement year over year Adobe s numbers are not adjusted for inflation However the company noted new demand not rising prices largely accounts for growing sales figures so far this year Seattle-based Amazon does not disclose how much it earns during Prime Day but declared it would share a few results from the four-day event on Saturday