Prime Day not just for Amazon — 250 retailers to offer deals

Amazon isn’t the only retailer preparing deals for Prime Day.

More than 250 retailers are predicted to take part in Amazon’s fifth Prime Day, according to a recent survey from RetailMeNot. That’s up from 194 last year and 119 in 2017. Amazon had little competition when it launched Prime Day back in 2015, when only seven retailers entered the fray.

In addition to being a sales extravaganza, Prime Day also marks the unofficial kick-off of the back-to-school shopping season, according to the RetailMeNot report. Eighty-four percent of surveyed retailers said that Prime week is the most important time for driving online sales during the entire back-to-school season. And 64%  of parents said they will participate in Prime Day, with plans to shop at an average of 11 retailers. (Amazon announced that Prime Day 2019 will run two days: July 15 and July 16.)

The back-to-school season spans nearly three months. In addition to Prime Day, it includes two other peak shopping periods: the first weekend in August and Labor Day weekend, according to the survey.