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

NEW YORK — 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 data sources.

Adobe Digital Insights, which tracks visits to e-commerce sites, reported that U.S. consumers spent $7.9 billion at online stores on Tuesday, a 9.9% increase from the comparable day last year.

Retailers offered discounts in the range of 9% to 23%, on par with July 2024 sales events, Adobe said.

Shoppers appeared especially eager to take advantage of deals on appliances, electronics and home improvement products, the data company said. Online sales of appliances were 135% higher than last month's daily average, according to Adobe's data.

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 said.

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 trade policy and unpredictable tariffs affect prices and consumer behavior.

Adobe noted that strong deals drove many shoppers to ''trade up'' to higher-ticket items. Across all categories the company tracks, the share of the most expensive goods increased by 20%, compared to average levels year to date.

According to consumer data company Numerator, the average Prime Day order on Tuesday cost $58.37. However, the average household cost amounted to more than $106 as of 4 p.m. Eastern time because 42% of households participating in Prime Day placed more than two orders, the company said.

Numerator tracks U.S. retail prices through sales receipts, online account activity and other information from a panel of 200,000 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 data 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 said.

Despite ongoing economic concerns, Adobe said it expected online sales to spur a record $23.8 billion in spending from July 8 to July 11, which would represent 28.4% growth year over year.

Adobe's numbers are not adjusted for inflation. However, the company said 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 said it would share some results from the four-day event on Saturday