ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
It's the last day of a major mid-summer retail sales event - Amazon Prime Day, which this year, for the first time, has stretched to four days. Many other retailers now embrace the sale, and it offers a look at the state of selling and shopping in a tariff economy. NPR's Alina Selyukh reports on how it's done so far.
ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: Last year, Amazon seller Brandon Fuhrmann had a great Prime Day.
BRANDON FUHRMANN: You know, one of my products sold, like, you know, 6,500 units, which was amazing.
SELYUKH: His company, Cooler Kitchen, sells kitchenware. And that hot seller?
FUHRMANN: So we have a bamboo cutting board with plastic inserts.
SELYUKH: Last year, it was 20% off. This year, even cheaper. But Prime Day is now different. It went from two days to double that time, stretching Tuesday through Friday, giving shoppers a lot of space to poke around the website.
FUHRMANN: But, yeah. I'm just not getting the traction that we got last year.
SELYUKH: Early data show spending on Prime Day is up across online stores, but shoppers have been picky. They are hunting for just the right bargain. And for sellers, there's another gambit, which is deciding how to handle tariffs.
KATHERINE BLACK: The thing is, people buy well in advance, and people are also nervous about what's to come.
SELYUKH: That's Katherine Black, who tracks retail as a partner at the consulting firm Kearney. Many retailers are paying tariffs but choosing to eat that cost for now, waiting it out. And then there are many like Fuhrmann who had stockpiled in advance, and they are still working through products they had shipped from China before President Trump hiked the cost to import. But those stockpiles are running out, meaning the next shipments will cost more. Black says that has many sellers choosing to sit this Prime Day out.
BLACK: We're seeing some smaller suppliers in particular hold back. And many of them have said, you know what? I bought some inventory ahead, but I'm saving it for the fall. I need to not sell it at a deep, deep discount.
SELYUKH: Because it's not worth going on sale now if future shipments will mean those same items will have to increase in price to offset tariffs. Black says one reason Amazon launched a four-day sale instead of two could be to build a habit and loyalty, because loyal shoppers are more reliable when times get tough. Kitchenware seller Fuhrmann is banking on the long game to prove worthwhile.
FUHRMANN: We'll see how the four days plays out. I think there'll probably be a net positive, even if a lot of that urgency is kind of gone from it.
SELYUKH: He says Day 1 was OK, Day 2 was down, Day 3 was up, Day 4 is looking good, as he's betting on some last-minute deal-seekers. It's not the bonanza of last year, he says, but he wasn't counting on that anyway.
Alina Selyukh, NPR News.
SHAPIRO: We'll note that Amazon is among NPR's financial supporters and pays to distribute NPR content, but we cover it like any other company.
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