Prime Day 2026 results: Apparel overtakes home & garden — and Europe outgrows the U.S.

The hot take 

• Clothing, shoes & accessories overtook home & garden as the top selling category on Amazon in the Rithum network globally, across the U.S., and at Target. Europe ran the other way: home & garden held the top spot on Amazon in EMEA. 
• Health & beauty climbed into the top three on Amazon in every region, in line with the essentials-first shopping Adobe measured across the market. 
• Rithum clients who sold during both years’ events grew sales 11% year over year across all their channels globally, and U.S. Rithum client sales on Target grew 31% during the event window. 
• Europe grew fastest. Amazon sales for EMEA Rithum clients rose 16% event over event, and European Rithum clients events grew 36% across Amazon and regional marketplaces combined. 

The Prime Day event wrapped its earliest run ever, June 23 through 26. U.S. shoppers spent $26.4 billion online during the event, up 9.3% year over year per Adobe Analytics, with smaller carts and a tilt toward essentials. Rithum processes sales for brands and retailers on Amazon and 900+ other channels in North America and Europe, so our data shows which categories won and where the demand went. This post opens our four-part peak season series.

What were the top selling categories on Prime Day 2026? 

Prime Day demand reaches well beyond Amazon. Forrester counted competing sales at nearly every major U.S. retailer during the event week, and our clients sold into those events alongside Amazon. The rankings below cover the full week of demand: Amazon globally and by region, plus Target and Walmart, where competing sales ran during the same window. 

Ranked by sales across all four event days in the Rithum network on Amazon worldwide: 

Amazon: Global 

1. Clothing, shoes & accessories (up from second YoY)
2. Home & garden (down from first)
3. Health & beauty (up from fourth)
4. Business & industrial
5. Parts & accessories

Amazon: U.S. 

1. Clothing, shoes & accessories (up from second)
2. Home & garden (down from first)
3. Health & beauty (up from fifth)
4. Business & industrial (down from third)
5. Parts & accessories (down from fourth)

Amazon: EMEA 

1. Home & garden (held first)
2. Clothing, shoes & accessories (held second)
3. Health & beauty (up from fifth)
4. Business & industrial (down from third)
5. Sporting goods (down from fourth)

Target (global) 

1. Clothing, shoes & accessories (up from second)
2. Home & garden (down from first)
3. Business & industrial (held third)
4. Health & beauty (held fourth)
5. Toys & hobbies (new to the top five)

Walmart (global) 

1. Home & garden
2. Parts & accessories
3. Clothing, shoes & accessories
4. Health & beauty
5. Business & industrial

Walmart’s top five held in the same order as last year’s event. Clothing overtook home & garden at Amazon globally, across the U.S., and at Target, while European shoppers kept home & garden on top. Health & beauty climbed into the top three on Amazon in every region. 

While big ticket items are always heavily discounted, shoppers restocked essentials rather than splurging. That pattern pushed apparel and health & beauty up the rankings and dropped big-ticket electronics out of the top five in every region. Across the market, the best-selling individual items were protein shakes, hydration packets, and cat treats, according to Numerator. Plan peak assortments and pricing around value and replenishment.

How did brands and retailers on Rithum perform?

Clients who sold through Rithum during both events grew sales 11% year over year across all their channels globally. 

The competing events paid off for multichannel sellers. In the U.S., Rithum client sales on Target grew 31% during the window, with clothing there nearly doubling. Clients selling on more channels captured more of the week’s demand. 

Is Prime Day becoming a European event? 

The fastest growth in our network came surprisingly from our European clients. Amazon sales in EMEA grew 16% compared with last year’s four-day event, and across everything our European clients sell, Amazon plus regional marketplaces like Zalando and Otto, growth hit 36%. 

Regional marketplaces account for a much larger share of sales in Europe, where Amazon plays a smaller role than in the U.S. European category tastes differ too: home & garden kept the top spot there while apparel took over everywhere else. Prime Day week now moves the whole European network at once. If you sell in Europe, this event belongs on your promotional calendar. If you don’t yet, these numbers show what you’re missing. 

What does Prime Day tell us about the rest of peak season?

Back in June, we mapped the full peak calendar from Prime Day through BFCM and flagged the two forces shaping it: value-driven shoppers and AI-led discovery. Prime Day confirmed both. Shoppers bought essentials first, and AI tools sent more shoppers to retail sites than during any Prime Day before it.  

How did AI and LLM traffic perform during Prime Day 2026? 

AI referral traffic, shoppers clicking through to retail sites from LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity, grew 89% year over year during the event, converting 40% better than non-AI channels like paid search and email, per Adobe. AI traffic remains small next to those channels. The conversion rate is the reason it belongs on your peak season plan: shoppers who arrive from an AI recommendation are further along in their buying decision, and last year that same traffic converted worse than every traditional channel.

The shift reaches inside Amazon as well. Amazon folded its Rufus assistant into the new Alexa for Shopping in May and promoted it during the event as the way for Prime members to build personalized deal guides. 

Our feeds and engineering teams built for this shift before the event. ChatGPT and Perplexity Feeds deliver client product data directly to the LLMs shoppers use to research and buy, so when an AI recommends a product, accurate data points it to yours. We covered how to prepare for AI-led discovery. 

Where does Rithum fit? 

The clients who grew this Prime Day were selling more strategically, in more places, and advertising to support their products. Rithum makes that practical: marketplace listings keep product data accurate across 900+ channels, retail media and paid search advertising teams keeping products top of mind, and inventory management protects you during the exact hours demand spikes. 

Add channels between now and October’s event, while there’s time to get listings right. If your Prime Day results showed demand somewhere you don’t sell yet, start there.