Amazon Prime Day starts today (Tuesday 16 July) and promises blockbuster deals for Prime members on big ticket items, as well as price reductions on back to school kit such as tech, fashion and stationery.
With Amazon fighting off competition from Chinese e-commerce giants Shein and Temu its Prime Day sale this year offers significant discounts across various categories including clothing, back to school items, wellness products and electronics.
With back to school worth about £1.2 billion at retail it is a key event in the stationery sector and one that is getting earlier and earlier each year.
Schools are only just finishing for the summer holidays, but all the grocers, department stores and multiples have already had back to school in stock for weeks and the promotions have already started to compete with the online giants like Amazon, Shein and Temu.
However, it’s all well and good having the stock and promotions now, but are customers actually buying so early? Sally Stephenson, whose shop The Pencil Case in Cowbridge in the Vale of Glamorgan stocks stationery and school uniform isn’t so sure. “This is my 11th BTS season and historically it starts for us in the last week of June. But we’re finding customers leaving it later and later to start shopping. Last year it went right to the end of the summer holidays and this year looks like it will be the same.
“We’ve been pushing messages like spread the cost, get it out of the way now so you can enjoy the summer, come sooner rather than later, beat the end of August rush, but none of it is persuading them to come in. We’re holding our nerve and hoping that they’ll all come in the next 6-7 weeks.”
When asked about the Amazon Prime day sales, Sally says: “I suspect a lot of the BTS deals on the market are just sales drivers to push people into shopping earlier, as sales are not where they should be at the moment. For us, there is no real demand coming from customers yet.”
Ray Williams of JPS Stationers in Chesham, Buckinghamshire is also ready for the back to school period and he is seeing customers already stocking up for September. “We do stationery starter packs for a few local school and were invited to the secondary school early this month. It was a good event. Many parents have already got stocked for September. The Legami back to school stand looks good and is attracting a lot of attention.”
