Three insights into Amazon’s Big Spring Sale

Springtime may never be the same in retail again.

Amazon finished hosting its first-ever Big Spring Sale Monday, March 25. The event featured price reductions as high as 60% in categories including electronics, lawn and garden, cleaning and organizing products, sports and fitness, kitchen appliances and cookware, beauty and haircare, and spring fashion, as well as its own devices.

Featuring a curated selection of warm weather and spring-related merchandise, the sale follows in the tradition of other seasonal Amazon events such as Prime Day. While it may never quite rival Amazon’s signature promotional blockbuster, the Big Spring Sale still shows some promising signs. Let’s take a closer look at a few key aspects: 

The flattery was sincere

As I previously predicted in an earlier column, while their spring sales were not heavily publicized or promoted (more on that in a moment), several other retailers offered their own seasonal events coinciding with the Big Spring Sale 

For example, Walmart ran its “Super Spring Savings Week” online and in-store, with thousands of new discount product drops on its e-commerce site. Similar to Amazon, Walmart did not restricting Super Spring Savings Week to members of its Walmart+ paid subscription plan.

Meanwhile, Target offered its own seasonal blockbuster, simply called "The Spring Sale," with discounts of up to 50% off home & patio items and kids’ toys and games, as well as up to 20% off seasonal warm-weather clothing and swimwear. The Spring Sale was also open to all shoppers and not just Target Circle loyalty members.

In an email to Chain Store Age, online technology product retailer Newegg Commerce Inc. announced an event it called the Super Spring Sale, offering deals on an assortment of computers, laptops, components and appliances for up to 60% off.

Home-oriented retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe’s and Wayfair also ran seasonal spring sales, but they all have been for at least the past several years to take advantage of seasonal home projects.

Publicity stayed low

Amazon certainly promoted the Big Spring Sale on its site with press releases, blog posts and a regularly updated list of special discounts. But there was no major omnichannel promotional blitz, and as of the time this column was posted the e-tailer had not released any detailed sales metrics, nor had there been significant third-party analysis.

"The Big Spring Sale was an opportunity for customers to save on seasonally relevant deals across a wide selection of products, including spring fashion, outdoor furniture, lawn and garden essentials, cleaning and organizing products, and more," Amazon said in an emailed statement to Chain Store Age. 

Amazon appears to be treating the Big Spring Sale as one of its quieter promotional events, like the Holiday Beauty Haul, rather than a campaign it puts heavy marketing behind, such as Prime Day, Prime Big Deal Days, or its Black Friday – Cyber Monday promotion.

Spring extravganzas are likely here to stay

While Amazon has not given any indication as to whether the Big Spring Sale was a one-off or the start of a new seasonal tradition, my money would be on seeing it return in 2025 (possibly with a new name and slightly different promotional strategy), and more competition sprouting up, as well. 

The retailer updated its online list of discounts throughout the event, suggesting sales were going well. And it’s hard to imagine other big-name retailers holding a major promotion at a time of year associated with renewal and shaking off the winter doldrums and not having at least some success. 

The number of rival events may not grow exponentially the way sales competing with Prime Day did, but don’t be surprised to at least a few more retailers offer their own spring promotions at the same time as Amazon next year. Why should home retailers have all the fun?