Prime Day Often Pushes Amazon Stock Price Down

Tuesday, July 11, and Wednesday, July 12, is this year’s two-day Amazon Prime Day event, featuring big discounts and promotions for Amazon (AMZN) Prime members, but shareholders rarely cash in on a big deal.

Since the sales event’s beginning in 2015, the average return during Prime Days is -0.34%, indicating that Amazon shares tend to post slight declines during the event. Of the eight Prime Days so far, just three (2017, 2018, and 2021) have yielded positive returns for Amazon shares, while five (2015, 2016, 2019, 2020, and 2022) have yielded negative returns.

Amazon Price Performance History

Below is an overview of AMZN price performance before and after each Prime Day (or days), calculated as the percent change between the closing price of the previous trading day and the closing price on Prime Day.

Prime Day 2022 (July 12-13, 2022)

• Close 7/11: $111.75
• Close 7/13: $110.40
• % Change: -1.21%

Prime Day 2021 (June 21-22, 2021)

• Close 6/18: $174.35
• Close 6/22: $175.27
• % Change: 0.53%

Prime Day 2020 (Oct 13-14, 2020)

• Close 10/12: $172.15
• Close 10/14: $168.19
• % Change: -2.30%

Prime Day 2019 (Jul 15-16, 2019)

• Close 7/12: $100.55
• Close 7/16: $100.50
• % Change: -0.05%

Prime Day 2018 (Jul 17-18, 2018)

• Close 7/16: $91.12
• Close 7/18: $92.15
• % Change: 1.13%

Prime Day 2017 (Jul 11-12, 2017)

• Close 7/10: $49.82
• Close 7/12: $50.33
• % Change: 1.02%

Prime Day 2016 (Jul 12, 2016)

• Close 7/11: $37.69
• Close 7/12: $37.41
• % Change: -0.74%

Prime Day 2015 (Jul 15, 2015)

• Close 7/14: $23.28
• Close 7/15: $23.06
• % Change: -0.95%

The 2023 premium subscription service’s sales event celebrates its ninth birthday since Amazon first introduced it in 2015 and the sixth consecutive two-day event.

Challenges and Successes

Amazon’s business has changed quite a bit in recent years, powered, in part, by the pandemic-induced shopping spike and supply chain challenges of 2020, 2021, and 2022.

Amazon rapidly expanded to meet the demand, which has tapered off more recently. Founder Jeff Bezos stepped down as CEO in favor of Andy Jassy. And the company has faced labor challenges such as unionizing efforts, high risk of injury for employees, and labor shortages. But none of that stopped the retail giant. AMZN stock has risen 55% so far this year.

Last year’s Prime Day was the biggest yet, with Prime members purchasing more than 300 million products. It’s a massive increase from the first Prime Day event in 2015, which sold 34.4 million products in only 24 hours.

However, this year could be a little different as many prime members contemplate scaling back their prime day spending. In a recent survey, shoppers said they plan to spend $250 during Prime Day and other summer sales, down from $388 and $594 in the most recent years.

While Prime Day has offered consumers around the world discounts on millions of items, and billions of dollars in cumulative savings, historic returns for Amazon shareholders have been less than impressive.