Welcome to the second part of a series of three reports in which PYMNTS Intelligence compares data from Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week. The series aims to highlight key insights and conclusions for executives, retailers and consumers.

In the first part, tailored to executives, we found that fewer consumers participated in Walmart+ Week than Amazon Prime Day, but shoppers spent more on average. In fact, Amazon could face a growing challenge as Walmart continues to expand its membership base.

This retailer-focused second edition shows how consumers shopped at these special sales events, revealing what they bought and their main motivations for attending.

One trend in PYMNTS Intelligence data is that consumers bought more than just sale items during these special events. In other words, regular-priced items contributed significantly to the event’s success.

Walmart+ Week shoppers were more likely to purchase products from most product categories than Prime Day shoppers. Grocery and health and beauty products topped the list of products sold. Amazon Prime Day shoppers bought health and beauty products the most, followed by clothing and accessories. Additionally, the data shows that consumers purchased carts full of items, suggesting they took advantage of both sales events to stock up on essentials, whether on sale or not.

Many purchases during Walmart+ Week and Amazon Prime Day were for items that were not on sale

Price-conscious, deal-seeking consumers aren’t the only factor contributing to the success of Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week. In fact, data shows that consumers didn’t just buy super-discounted items during these sales events. While consumers bought 59% of items on sale during Amazon Prime Day, they bought 41% at regular price. During Walmart+ Week, consumers bought 56% of items on sale and 44% at regular price.

In addition, our study shows that there are generational differences in these trends. Baby boomers and seniors (58%) were most likely to stick with Prime Day special offers. Gen Z consumers bought an even mix of special offers and non-special offers. During Walmart+ Week, the pattern was reversed: Baby boomers were more likely to buy an even mix of special offers and non-special offers, and 61% of Gen Z consumers bought more special offers than regular-priced items.

Although the sales attracted consumers of all ages to both events, they also purchased many regular-priced items. A rising tide lifts all boats, so to speak, as these events helped boost Amazon and Walmart sales even for regular-priced items.

Health and beauty are heavily featured on both Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week

On both Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week, shoppers sought deals on everything from necessities to high-dollar items. Data shows that Walmart+ shoppers were more likely to purchase items from most categories than their Amazon Prime counterparts. This trend shows that Walmart+ shoppers typically purchased more items than Amazon Prime shoppers.

Health and beauty products and clothing and accessories were popular items among shoppers at both sales events. Among Amazon Prime Day shoppers, 44% purchased health and beauty products and 42% purchased clothing and accessories. These were the most popular item categories. Health and beauty and clothing and accessories were also the most popular on Amazon Prime Day last year. Millennials were particularly likely to purchase health and beauty products on Amazon Prime Day, at 51%.

Walmart+ shoppers also frequently purchased health and beauty products, nearly two in three. This 62% share surpasses the previously mentioned 44% of Prime Day shoppers who purchased health and beauty products on Amazon Prime Day.

One explanation for the popularity of health and beauty products is that they can be smaller and less expensive, making them easier to add to a shopping cart. Many of these are consumable items, meaning users will always need them, and sales are a good opportunity to stock up. Additionally, there may be some quality differences between items, which could explain Walmart’s lead. While Walmart tends to offer lower-priced health and beauty products, Amazon also sells luxury products.

Time to stock up! Sales events lead consumers to buy shopping carts rather than individual items

Shoppers on Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week didn’t simply attend to buy individual items. Instead, they used these sales events to stock up on essentials. On average, Amazon Prime shoppers purchased 11 items on Amazon Prime Day, while Walmart+ shoppers purchased an average of 20 items during Walmart+ Week.

Looking at age groups, the data shows that younger consumers tended to buy more products than older ones. For example, Gen Z and Millennial consumers bought an average of 22 and 21 products, respectively, during Walmart+ Week, compared to 16 for baby boomers and seniors. During Amazon Prime Day, Gen Z and Millennial consumers bought an average of 12 and 13 products, respectively, while baby boomers and seniors bought an average of six products.

These findings underscore the fact that consumers are more likely to fill their shopping carts with groceries at Walmart rather than just retailers. This reliance on groceries resulted in the number of products purchased per attendee at Walmart’s event being higher than Amazon Prime across all age groups. Still, there are signs that Amazon Prime members also used the Prime Day event to stock up on the products they need.

Why summer sales events are essential

A close look at Amazon and Walmart’s recent summer sales events shows that consumers weren’t just looking for bargains at both events. In fact, shoppers took the opportunity to make non-discounted purchases and even stock up on essentials. In other words, Amazon Prime Day and Walmart+ Week not only led to consumers buying entire shopping carts, but also increased sales of discounted and regularly priced items. Therefore, these summer sales events remain a key battleground in the competition between Amazon and Walmart for consumer spending.

PYMNTS Intelligence has been tracking this battle of the titans both inside and outside the context of sales events. For more information, check out these data reports that chronicle the often neck-and-neck race for consumer retail spending. It also goes into more detail about how Amazon Prime Day sales performed compared to the Walmart+ Week event.