The big summer sales surge is about to begin, with Amazon Prime Day kicking off July 8-11, Target Circle Week (July 6-12), and Walmart Deals (July 8-13). It’s the big show that sellers have spent months prepping for: and now, deals are locked, inventory is in place, and the curtain is about to rise.
But for sellers in top-performing categories across Amazon, Walmart, and Target, the real work is just starting.
High-performing categories can be high-risk for sellers
We expect that apparel, electronics, and home goods will once again be the most competitive categories. If you’re managing those listings, errors in availability, pricing, or categorization could lead to missed sales in a high-traffic window.
This isn’t just about what sold last year. It’s about what every other brand is focused on now, and how well your team is positioned to compete in categories where margins are tight, consumer attention is limited, and mistakes can be costly. The strength of your listings, product feeds, retail media campaigns, and fulfillment operations will determine whether you break through or are overlooked during this peak sales event.
What we can learn from 2024 sales data
Clothing/shoes/accessories was the top-selling category for Amazon during Prime Day July 2024, up 16% year over year, according to Rithum data. This category is one of the most operationally intense, with large SKU counts, high returns rates, and customer expectations around fit, speed, and accurate presentation.
On the flip side, clothing/shoes/accessories category also top the list in overall return volume, according to Rithum’s 2025 Global Returns & Profit Impact Report. Common drivers include poor fit, vague sizing charts, or missing details in product images or descriptions.
The mix of strong sales and high return rates puts margin at risk. Listing accuracy is more than a conversion play. It protects post-sale margin. 33% of shoppers return items when the product doesn’t match the description or photos. In high-paced sales cycles, it’s even more important for product titles, images, size guides, and fulfillment settings to be locked in before traffic spikes. Rithum’s AI Magic Mapper helps automate setup and reduce manual errors across large, complex catalogs—especially in apparel and consumer electronics.
To avoid fulfillment at a loss, brands can also rely on Rithum’s Price Protection. This safeguard prevents costly pricing errors before listings go live, reducing the chance of cancellations, penalties, or margin hits during high-traffic windows.
Last year, consumer electronics/photo was the second-highest performing category globally. Its popularity is tied to high purchase intent, where shoppers arrive at Prime Day already prepared to buy TVs, headphones, tablets, and smart devices they’ve researched in advance, according to Wiser. These buyers come with high expectations. Listings often require exact specs, compatibility info, and current images. Inaccurate details can result in returns or negative customer reviews (electronics also ranked among the top categories for return volume, according to Rithum’s return report.
What to check before Prime Day begins
If you’re in one of the high-volume categories—or expecting to be—make sure your setup is solid. Use this checklist to prepare:
- Review listings for accuracy, detail, and compliance with marketplace standards
- Use listing error detection to flag and resolve content or formatting issues
- Check inventory levels across fulfillment partners and channels
- Confirm routing, delivery windows, and stock buffers
- Adjust retail media spend to align with margin and availability targets
With Prime Day running four full days from July. 8-11, brands need staying power across the event. Budget pacing, creative adjustments, and close monitoring of seller notifications and listing status will help maintain visibility and performance from start to finish.
Pricing and inventory decisions should be dynamic, especially with tariffs adding cost pressure and shoppers reacting quickly to price changes. Repricer automation can adjust pricing in response to competitor moves, inventory levels, and preset rules. These tools can also be reviewed after Prime Day to refine strategy ahead of back-to-school and holiday cycles.
Inventory alerts help protect both revenue and spend. Low stock warnings prompt action before products sell through. Sellers can pause ads, shift budget, or trigger replenishment with minimal disruption.
Once Prime Day starts, there’s little time to correct the course. Rithum’s Advisor can help you respond in real time and guide post-event optimizations using actual sales data.
Why localization matters for global sellers
In the U.S., the top Prime Day categories mirrored global trends: apparel, electronics, home goods, and automotive. In the U.K., toys and outdoor gear climbed. Germany saw growth in beauty and wellness.
These differences matter. Even when SKUs are consistent, listing requirements often aren’t. Shipping dimensions, voltage compatibility, ingredient disclosures, and delivery expectations vary by region and channel. So do packaging rules and marketplace standards.
Rithum gives brands the tools to localize at scale. Product content, fulfillment logic, and taxonomy mapping can be adjusted for each market without duplicating work or managing disconnected systems. That reduces error and accelerates speed to market.
How to get more from your retail media spend
With this year’s Prime Day event extending longer than the typical 2-day time frame (and Walmart extending their sale event across 6 days), brands will need to be flexible with their approach and budget. Beyond scaling when demand spikes and pulling back when stock runs low, it is important to do a larger audit of the competitive landscape to understand which sellers are offering the most compelling discounts and how those offers are appearing across marketplaces.
“Speculation this year of less 3P sellers active due to tariff impact provides an opportunity for other 1P and 3P brands and sellers to carve out more market share due to less competition,” says Meghan Barden, Director of Global Retail Media at Rithum. “Understanding the entire competitive landscape and overall activity each day of the Prime event is now more important than ever, and we are advising our clients to have an agile approach to the sale from a budget and overall advertising perspective.”
Rithum connects retail media ad strategy to live product data from our marketplaces feed in our proprietary platform, allowing teams to respond to what is happening in their catalog rather than relying on fixed plans.
Here’s how to stay in control:
- Shift spend based on organic lift: Move budget away from products that are already gaining traction
- Pause ads for low inventory: Avoid paying for clicks on items that are nearly out of stock
- Align with margins: Factor in fees, storage, and shipping costs to support profitable outcomes
- Adapt mid-campaign: Adjust bids and targeting based on current performance
Retail media should support strong product performance and work symbiotically with organic product optimization efforts for a successful presence in Prime Day.
Walmart and Target reflect, but don’t replicate, Prime Day
Walmart and Target both saw strong summer sales in 2024. Their top-performing categories were similar to Amazon’s, but key differences stood out. While apparel, home goods, and electronics remained competitive, each retailer had different standouts.
Target gained traction in general merchandise and industrial products. Walmart stood out in automotive and mass-merchant categories, helped by strong omnichannel promotions and in-store pickup options.
Success on Walmart, Target, and other marketplaces, takes more than duplicating your Amazon playbook. Each has its own taxonomy, fulfillment expectations, and content rules. Rithum helps sellers navigate these requirements with platform-specific templates, listing validations, and customized routing strategies.
For Walmart, Rithum’s integration upgrades give brands access to additional tools, including:
- Multichannel fulfillment that supports store pickup and delivery
- Walmart Review Accelerator to boost review volume and visibility
- Lower-cost shipping through Walmart’s carrier network
These upgrades enable teams to manage listing accuracy and delivery performance more effectively, especially during peak traffic events like Prime Day. When every platform plays by different rules, having the right structure in place keeps your products shoppable and compliant across the board.
These upgrades help teams manage listing accuracy and delivery performance more effectively, especially during peak traffic events like Prime Day. When every platform plays by different rules, a flexible structure keeps products shoppable, compliant, and positioned to perform.
Post-event, the work continues. Reviewing performance metrics and analyzing cancellation and return rates can uncover where expectations fell short or exceeded expectations. Segment-level insights from tools like Rithum Report Center help identify which products overdelivered and which need attention. For teams looking to scale these efforts across marketplaces, Rithum Managed Services supports listing, fulfillment, and campaign management with the consistency and coverage that high-volume events demand. Applying these learnings now sets the foundation for stronger execution in back-to-school, and peak holiday season.
Learn how Rithum can help.
Top 5 categories by region and retailer: Prime Day 2024
Based on Rithum’s 2024 Prime Data, here are the top five categories sold by region and retailer:
Amazon: Global
- Clothing / Shoes / Accessories
- Consumer Electronics / Photo
- Home / Kitchen
- Office Products
- Automotive / Motors / Marine
United States
- Clothing / Shoes / Accessories
- Consumer Electronics / Photo
- Office Products
- Home / Kitchen
- Automotive / Motors / Marine
United Kingdom
- Toys / Games / Hobbies / Crafts
- Clothing / Shoes / Accessories
- Home / Kitchen
- Consumer Electronics / Photo
- Sports / Outdoor Equipment
Germany
- Consumer Electronics / Photo
- Home / Kitchen
- Clothing / Shoes / Accessories
- Beauty / Health / Personal Care
- Sports / Outdoor Equipment
Walmart
- Consumer Electronics / Photo
- General Merchandise / Mass Merchants
- Automotive / Motors / Marine
- Beauty / Health / Personal Care
- Clothing / Shoes / Accessories
Target
- General Merchandise / Mass Merchants
- Clothing / Shoes / Accessories
- Consumer Electronics / Photo
- Home / Kitchen
- Industrial / Scientific
Cameron Sutton is Senior Manager, Strategic Account Managment at Rithum.
