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Amazon is extending its annual Prime Day sales and offering new membership perks to Gen Z shoppers amid tariff-related price worries and possibly some consumer boredom with an event marking its 11th year.The e-commerce giant’s promised blitz of summer deals for Prime members starts at 3:01 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. For the first time, Seattle-based Amazon is holding the now-misnamed Prime Day over four days; the company launched the event in 2015 and expanded it to two days in 2019.Before wrapping up Prime Day 2025 early Friday, Amazon said it would have deals dropping as often as every five minutes during certain periods. Prime members ages 18 to 24, who pay $7.49 per month instead of the $14.99 that older customers not eligible for discounted rates pay for free shipping and other benefits, will receive 5% cash back on their purchases for a limited time.Amazon executives declined to comment on the potential impact of tariffs on Prime Day deals. The event is taking place two and a half months after an online news report sparked speculation that Amazon planned to display added tariff costs next to product prices on its website.White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced the purported change as a “hostile and political act” before Amazon clarified the idea had been floated for its low-cost Haul storefront but never approved.Amazon’s past success with using Prime Day to drive sales and attract new members spurred other major retail chains to schedule competing sales in July. Best Buy, Target, and Walmart are repeating the practice this year.Like Amazon, Walmart is adding two more days to its promotional period, which starts Tuesday and runs through July 13. The nation’s largest retailer is making its summer deals available in stores as well as online for the first time. Here’s what to expect: More days might not mean more spending Amazon expanded Prime Day this year because shoppers “wanted more time to shop and save,” Amazon Prime Vice President Jamil Ghani recently told The Associated Press.Analysts are unsure the extra days will translate into more purchases given that renewed inflation worries and potential price increases from tariffs may make consumers less willing to spend. Amazon doesn’t disclose Prime Day sales figures but said last year that the event achieved record global sales.Adobe Digital Insights predicts that the sales event will drive $23.8 billion in overall online spending from July 8 to July 11, 28.4% more than the similar period last year. In 2024 and 2023, online sales increased 11% and 6.1% during the comparable four days of July.Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, noted that Amazon’s move to stretch the sales event to four days is a big opportunity to “really amplify and accelerate the spending velocity.”Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights and strategy at software company Salesforce, noted that July sales in general have lost some momentum in recent years. Amazon is not a Salesforce customer, so the business software company is not privy to Prime Day figures.“What we saw last year was that (shoppers) bought and then they were done, ” Schwartz said. “We know that the consumer is still really cautious. So it’s likely we could see a similar pattern where they come out early, they’re ready to buy and then they take a step back.” Tariffs don’t seem to be impacting costs much (so far) Amazon executives reported in May that the company and many of its third-party sellers tried to beat big import tax bills by stocking up on foreign goods before President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect. And because of that move, a fair number of third-party sellers hadn’t changed their pricing at that time, Amazon said.Adobe Digital Insights’ Pandya expects discounts to remain on par with last year and for other U.S. retail companies to mark 10% to 24% off the manufacturers’ suggested retail price between Tuesday and Friday.Salesforce’s Schwartz said she’s noticed retailers becoming more precise with their discounts, such as offering promotion codes that apply to selected products instead of their entire websites. Shoppers might focus on necessities Amazon Prime and other July sales have historically helped jump-start back-to-school spending and encouraged advance planners to buy other seasonal merchandise earlier. Analysts said they expected U.S. consumers to make purchases this week out of fear that tariffs will make items more expensive later.Brett Rose, CEO of United National Consumer Supplies, a wholesale distributor of overstocked goods like toys and beauty products, thinks shoppers will go for items like beauty essentials.“They’re going to buy more everyday items,” he said. A look at the discounts As in past years, Amazon offered early deals leading up to Prime Day. For the big event, Amazon said it would have special discounts on Alexa-enabled products like Echo, Fire TV, and Fire tablets.Walmart said its July sale would include a 32-inch Samsung smart monitor priced at $199 instead of $299.99; and $50 off a 50-Inch Vizio Smart TV with a standard retail price of $298.00. Target said it was maintaining its 2024 prices on key back-to-school items, including a $5 backpack and a selection of 20 school supplies totaling less than $20. Some third-party sellers will sit out Prime Day Independent businesses that sell goods through Amazon account for more than 60% of the company’s retail sales. Some third-party sellers are expected to sit out Prime Day and not offer discounts to preserve their profit margins during the ongoing tariff uncertainty, analysts said.Rose, of United National Consumer Supplies, said he spoke with third-party sellers who said they would rather take a sales hit this week than use up a lot of their pre-tariffs inventory now and risk seeing their profit margins suffer later.However, some independent businesses that market their products on Amazon are looking to Prime Day to make a dent in the inventory they built up earlier in the year to avoid tariffs.Home fragrance company Outdoor Fellow, which makes about 30% of its sales through Amazon’s marketplace, gets most of its candle lids, labels, jars, reed diffusers and other items from China, founder Patrick Jones said. Fearing high costs from tariffs, Jones stocked up at the beginning of the year, roughly doubling his inventory.For Prime Day, he plans to offer bigger discounts, such as 32% off the price of a candle normally priced at $34, Jones said.“All the product that we have on Amazon right now is still from the inventory that we got before the tariffs went into effect,” he said. “So we’re still able to offer the discount that we’re planning on doing.”Jones said he was waiting to find out if the order he placed in June will incur large customs duties when the goods arrive from China in a few weeks. AP Business Writer Mae Anderson contributed to this report. Anne D’Innocenzio, AP Retail Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
Fast food giant McDonalds is rolling out two big additions to its menu this week, including an old crowd-pleaser and a new take on a 50-year-old breakfast sandwich. Heres what you need to know about the companys Spicy McMuffin breakfast sandwiches and the return of the Snack Wrap. McDonalds debuts new line of Spicy McMuffin breakfast sandwiches The McDonalds Egg McMuffin breakfast sandwich is perhaps the most iconic fast food breakfast item in the world. As a matter of fact, its so iconic that McDonalds has a page on its site dedicated to the history of the Egg McMuffin. The delectable breakfast sandwich was first invented in 1971 by Herb Peterson, a McDonalds owner in Santa Barbara, California. In 1972, the sandwich got its Egg McMuffin name and went on sale in test markets for just 63 cents apiece. And in 1975, McDonalds rolled out the Egg McMuffin nationally. Egg McMuffin 50th anniversary Yes, it has now been 50 years since the Egg McMuffins national rollout, and in celebration of this milestone, McDonalds is releasing a line of new Spicy McMuffin breakfast sandwiches. The Spicy McMuffin sandwich has the egg, cheese, and bacon we all love, with the addition of a Spicy Pepper Sauce. McDonalds is also releasing the Spicy Sausage McMuffin and the Spicy Sausage McMuffin with Egg to complete the lineup. What is the release date for the Spicy McMuffin? The Spicy McMuffin sandwiches go on sale today, Tuesday, July 8, and will only be available for a limited time. According to McDonald’s, they will be available at participating locations across the United States. The beloved Snack Wrap returns, too But what McDonalds fans seem most excited about is the return of the Snack Wrap. The wrap was originally introduced in the United States in 2006 and became a favorite among many due to its crispy chicken and burrito-like form factor, making it easy to eat on the go. The Snack Wrap featured white meat chicken, cheese, lettuce, and a choice of sauces. But in 2016, McDonalds discontinued nationwide sales of the Snack Wrap in the United States due to declining sales. Some locations still sold the handheld menu item until 2020, before it disappeared for good. But now the Snack Wrap is back. McDonalds has confirmed it will go on sale on Thursday, July 10. According to Axios, it is expected to be a permanent menu item and will cost $2.99. Will menu changes help McDonalds sales? McDonalds is bringing back the Snack Wrap and introducing new versions of a beloved classic at a time when consumers are increasingly conscious of the prices they pay for fast food, which was once seen as a reliable, low-cost meal option. In recent years, fast food prices have skyrocketed, causing consumers to question their value. Many fast food places have been trying to lure price-conscious consumers back with time-limited deals and special menu items, hoping that these will help boost their bottom line. As for McDonalds most recent quarter, fiscal Q1 2025, the burger chain reported a global comparable sales decrease of 1%. Sales were even worse in the United States, where comparable sales decreased 3.6%. Since the beginning of the year, shares of McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE: MCD) have been on a bumpy ride. After falling to a year-to-date low of below $277 per share in January, MCD stock bounced back to highs of over $321 in May. But since then, MCD shares have tumbled again to close at under $294 as of yesterday. Since the new year began, MCD shares are now up about 1.2%. Over the past 12 months, MCD shares have increased nearly 17%.
Category:
E-Commerce
Dolores Ballesteros, a Mexico-based mother of two, was getting desperate. Her 6-year-old son kept hitting his brother, age 3, and seemed angry at her all the time. No matter what she did, she couldnt get through to him. At her lowest moments, she says, I really thought he was acting like a psychopath. Last Mothers Day, she asked her husband for outside help: a subscription to the Good Inside parenting app and its AI chatbot. Ballesteros began using the chatbot to coach her through her sons temper tantrums in real time. It encouraged her to ask him about his feelings and embrace the most generous interpretation of his actions. That was really good for my relationship with him, she says. It also reminded her to set aside time for herself. The chatbot told me that I only have so much patience, she recalls. Today, Ballesteros feels more connected to her son and more confident as a parent, and she credits the companion in her pocket with the transformation. Launched last August, the Good Inside chatbot is trained on the teachings of Manhattan-based clinical psychologist Becky Kennedy, known to her 3.2 million Instagram followers as Dr. Becky. Kennedy had a thriving practice focused on helping parents through difficult moments with their kids when she hopped onto Instagram in 2020 to share her wisdom. She quickly found an audience, especially among parents who were struggling to manage their kids in COVID lockdowns. In her plainspoken videos, Kennedy coaches parents through common dilemmas (for example, difficult potty training, or how to speak with a teen who feels fat) with an emphasis on developing a healthy parentchild relationship. Often appearing in sweatpants and with messy hair, she films her videos between family therapy appointments or in the aftermath of a struggle with one of her own children, ages 13, 10, and 7. This makes Kennedy all the more relatable and equipped with actionable advice. She aims to create sturdy parentswho embrace their authority around their children but dont assert it too stronglyand she frequently reminds them that their kids are essentially good, even if they act out. Using this framework, which Kennedy calls the Good Inside method, she believes parents can tackle just about anything that comes their way. Her insights are now the basis of a growing business empire. In 2021, Kennedy and Erica Belsky, a fellow psychologist and the wife of investor and A24 Films partner Scott Belsky, cofounded the Good Inside company, which has 47 employees and plans to add an additional 18 this year. In June, Good Inside hired Daniel Shlossman, a former Uber, Sweetgreen, and Wonder executive, as its first president. Through the company, Kennedy has published a handful of books and launched a podcast. She and Belsky also created an online community where, for $23 a month or $279 annually, members can access live classes, online workshops covering everything from managing mom rage to building kids confidence, and the Good Inside appwith its OpenAI-powered chatbot, named Gigi, thats modeled on Kennedys writings and videos. The app currently has more than 80,000 members in more than 100 countries, and its on track to double its membership by the end of the year, according to Kennedy, putting the companys annual run rate in the tens of millions of dollars. Most of that growth is organic, through word of mouth and Kennedys social media presence. Good Inside raised $10.5 million in 2023 from G9 Ventures and Inspired Capital. The company is profitable, and Kennedy and Belsky have no plans to raise more money. The only thing that comes naturally in parenting is [mimicking] how you were parented, Kennedy says. But that approach doesnt work for everyone. Kennedy says theres no shame in enlisting tech for help. We already use AI to track our health, learn languages, and develop professional skills. Kennedys great insight was to deploy the technology in the service of healthy parenting. Good Insides app is taking off amid rising interest in chatbot-based therapy. A handful of startups, like Wysa, have introduced conversational agents trained on cognitive behavioral therapy and other methods. Slingshot AI, which has raised $40 million from Andreessen Horowitz and others, is creating a foundational model specifically for therapy. Users of apps like ChatGPT and Character.AI, meanwhile, have been experimenting with creating therapeutic chatbots of their own. Critics caution that theres little research to back up the efficacy of these chatbots, and that AI cant reliably provide accurate medical advice. (Indeed, Character.AI is facing lawsuits claiming its bots endanger children.) But since in-person therapy is more expensive than everaveraging between $100 and $200 a session in the U.S.and increasingly difficult to access as demand grows, the idea of harnessing chatbots to bring down costs and reach more people is appealing. Kennedy sees her companys chatbot as making accessible many of the lessons that she offers clients from her office. She says that the apps subscription fee is reasonable compared with the money that people might spend on traditional therapy. When you compare the price with anything else that involves mental wellness, the value you get far exceeds the value youre investing. (Parents must pay out of pocket for both Kennedys in-person practice and the Good Inside app.) Even so, Good Insides app is more of a coach than a full-blown therapist, offering advice without becoming too personal. According to chief product officer Tiffany Shi, the only customer information the company currently stores is the ages of children, most of whom are between 2 and 12. That keeps the chatbots advice fairly generic. In Fast Companys tests, many of its answers followed the Good Inside frameworkassuming good intent, setting boundaries, acknowledging a childs feelingswhile adjusting the language based on a childs age. The chatbot seemed to default to generating advice in a way that validates parents feelings, opening responses with lines such as That sounds hard. The app has additional layers. When the chatbot delivers a response, parents have the option to click a tab to access related content. The app also includes a section similar to a Reddit board that allows users to provide moral support to one another. And there are daily bite-size lessons, delivered via swipeable cards that feature videos and written tips. Both the lessons and the AI-generated answers often include scripts that parents can use when speaking to their children. We want parents to have a way to learn the language of parenting, Kennedy says. But the chatbot remains the centerpiece of the app, and Kennedy sees opportunities to bring the experience of using it closer to family therapy. Right now, the chatbot is purely responsive, reacting to parents queries, she says. But the best help a parent could get is if the chatbot anticipates things and answers questions they dont have yet. She gives an example of a parent whose child keeps throwing tantrums in the grocery store: If you always ask the chatbot what to do, it might feel like Groundhog Day. But what if the chatbot could say, Lets zoom out for a moment. Nothing is wrong with your kid, but I would love for you to jump into this four-minute video and this step-by-step guide, becaue this has happened a few times. To create these kinds of interactions, the company would have to harvest more information about users than simply their childrens ages. Mike Krieger, Anthropics chief product officer and a cofounder of Instagram, serves as a mentor to Kennedy. He envisions the app developing a memory component, with profiles of users and their kids, based on parents queries. There could be a situation where youve talked to [the chatbot] for long enough that you could ask it, What are the thought patterns I tend to get stuck in?” he says. (Kennedy says that data from parents chats would only be used to train the Good Inside chatbot.) Personalization is on Good Insides road map, though the company declined to comment on a timeline or whether it would introduce subscription tiers to support such features. And there are limits to how far therapeutic chatbots can go, says John Torous, director of the digital psychiatry division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Its possible to superficially customize a chatbot where it uses your name. But if youre really looking for deep personal patterns, it takes a lot of data, he says. You need billions or trillions of data points to get good at learning a person. For now, Good Inside makes clear in its terms of use that its chatbot isnt a therapy substitute. Thats a way to avoid liability, but its also a simple fact. The chatbot may not know everything about a parents situation, but it knows enough to offer assurances to its users that they are good parents and their children are good kids. And that might be good enough.
Category:
E-Commerce
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