Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days return this week – and the popularity of October’s sales push could threaten next month’s Black Friday as the main shopping day for discounts.

Amazon sellers saw a sharp increase in sales during Big Deal Days, taking place October 8-9, as Prime members receive exclusive discounts and offers on a variety of products.

Jay Kamhi, the creator of top-selling Amazon toys such as the fortune teller Mr. Predicto, said his toy stores have historically seen an increase in sales during the two-day event.

Last year, his store earned more than $47,000 — compared to about $16,000 days just before or immediately after the big-deal sales.

“Everyone is looking for a deal and when that day comes there will be a lot of sales,” Kamhi told The Post.

Gabe Ray’s company, Evolved Commerce, serves around 300 customers a month – from small mom-and-pop shops to Fortune 500 companies, many of which sell on Amazon.

Overall, the average Amazon retailer sees between 250 and 350% increase in sales during the two-day event, Ray told The Post.

The October sale was a success, especially as more consumers turned to online retailers during the pandemic.

“More and more people of the older generation are adopting it and accepting online purchases more easily” — especially as Amazon has improved its same-day delivery options, Ray said.

The e-commerce boom raises the question: Is Amazon’s Prime event in October the new Black Friday?

Not quite, say experts.

According to a sales forecast from Bain & Company, Black Friday has declined in popularity in recent years – from the top sales day in 2019 to second place in 2021 and 2023.

But the crazy shopping day seems to be making a comeback.

Bain expects U.S. retail sales to reach a record $75 billion during Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday – representing 5% growth since last year.

About 8% of total holiday sales are expected to come from Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, according to Bain – the largest share in this period since 2019.

While Big Deal Days are popular in their own right, they likely won’t replace Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday in terms of sales, Ray said.

But Amazon is still stealing some of its Black Friday customers from brick-and-mortar stores, Ray said.

“I think they’re taking away a portion of the people who don’t want to fight the crowds or wait overnight,” Ray told The Post. “It looks like brick-and-mortar options are becoming less and less popular.”

To encourage customers to return to stores, retailers have begun offering exclusive in-store deals.

And other major retailers are rushing to compete with Amazon’s October event. For example, Target recently announced its Circle Week, which will take place from October 6th to 12th and overlaps with the Prime event.

While Amazon will see a sales boom thanks to the deals during the holiday season, vendors often don’t benefit, Kamhi told The Post.

During the two-day event, sellers see an increase in their gross sales – but their profits are reduced as customers hold off on purchases in the period before and after the sale, he said.

While sales from that two-day period can sometimes be enough to make up the difference, sellers are being fined by Amazon with increasing frequency this year, Kamhi said.

Vendors have always had to pay a fee to participate in special offers like Amazon’s Lightning Deals. But Prime exclusive offers have long been an option for providers who don’t want to pay the extra charge, Kamhi said.

Now Amazon is forcing vendors to pay $50 for each product to be included in Prime exclusives, he said.

Amazon is creating an environment in which providers are dependent on the online marketplace before it charges fees and incurs additional costs, said the long-time Amazon provider

Most recently, Amazon offered to help its suppliers with distribution costs, he said.

Previously, suppliers handled shipping goods from factories in China to a third-party warehouse. Then the sellers had to pay to transport the goods from their warehouse to an Amazon warehouse.

Now Amazon has offered to bring sellers’ goods to its own centers – a cost-cutting service that many vendors now rely on, he said.

“We suspect that in the next few years they will increase prices because we are stuck,” Kamhi told The Post. “We are, so to speak, captive customers.”