Beauty shoppers searched almost as much in two days as in four, bought with intent at close to full price, and started their holiday shopping in beauty

SEATTLE, Oct. 19, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Beauty & Cosmetics was the most-purchased category on Amazon during Prime Big Deal Days 2026, bought by 32% of shoppers, up from 22% and third place in 2025. Market Defense’s “THE BEAUTY DEALMAKERS: Amazon Prime Big Deal Days October 2026 Report” uncovers which brands, products and searches made moves during the two-day event, and what October’s results signal for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the rest of the holiday season.

THE BEAUTY DEALMAKERS: Amazon Prime Big Deal Days October 2026 Report

“Five years in, Prime Big Deal Days keeps getting bigger, and beauty is making quite the impression. This year, beauty was Amazon’s #1 most-shopped category, with skincare brands claiming 9 of the top 10 bestselling brand spots. Kind of a big deal! So, what’s behind beauty’s big showing at this year’s event? Influencers fueled discovery, while established brands found fresh fans through the tried-and-true magic of a great product. And with most holiday gifting still ahead, there’s more momentum to make the most of.” — Vanessa Kuykendall, Chief Engagement Officer at Market Defense

Big Deal Days lifted online shopping

In its fifth year, Amazon’s fall Prime event ran October 6 to 7, 2026. The numbers tell the story:

Big Deal Days lifted online shopping across every U.S. retailer. Shoppers spent $9.86 billion online at all U.S. retailers combined during the two-day event (October 6–7), up 8.5% from $9.09 billion during Big Deal Days 2025. That growth outpaced last year’s event, which grew 7.3% over 2024.Shoppers bought from their phones. Of the $9.86 billion spent online at all U.S. retailers during Big Deal Days, $5.1 billion, or 52%, was bought on a phone. Mobile sales rose 12.8% from Big Deal Days 2025.Social media sent more shoppers to checkout. Shoppers referred from social media drove 7% of online sales at all U.S. retailers during Big Deal Days, up 40% from 2025, the fastest growth of any traffic source.Personal care was among the strongest online categories. Online sales of personal care products at all U.S. retailers rose 73% over September’s daily average during Big Deal Days.On Amazon, household spending nearly doubled compared with an average Tuesday or Wednesday. That lift was four times what Walmart saw in the first two days of its overlapping Fall Deals event.Amazon shoppers spent more per trip. The average order was $48.74, up 7% from $45.42 last year and above June’s $47.66. Household spend reached $114.01, up 9%.Deal satisfaction kept slipping: 55% of Amazon shoppers were very or extremely satisfied, down from 58% in 2025 and 59% at June’s Prime Day.

Beauty took the top spot on Amazon

Beauty & Cosmetics was the most-purchased category on Amazon at 32% of shoppers, up from 22% and third place at Big Deal Days 2025.Beauty led Amazon’s deals page. Of the 7,384 deals on the main page, averaging 30% off, Beauty & Personal Care was the most-featured category on both days, at 19% of all deals and 30.6% off.Shoppers searched for beauty almost as much in two days as in four. During the week of Big Deal Days, Amazon shoppers ran 152.4M beauty searches, 87% of the search volume in June’s four-day Prime Day week.Shoppers who knew what they wanted bought more often. During the week of Big Deal Days, Amazon beauty searches for a specific product or ingredient converted at 18.0%, up from 11.6% last year. All non-branded beauty searches converted at 14.7%, up from 10.6%.Derm brands gained ground. La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, EltaMD, Vanicream and Differin together took 20.8% of beauty share of sales on Amazon during Big Deal Days, up from 17.1% last year. La Roche-Posay rose to #1 in all of beauty at 8.9%.medicube kept its shoppers while its hero product changed. It stayed the #1 beauty search on Amazon, ranking #3 among all Amazon searches at both June’s Prime Day and Big Deal Days. Its June hero, the PDRN balm stick, fell from the #1 most clicked beauty product to #92, and the medicube Zero Pore Pad took over the #1 spot.K-beauty gained share and stole the clicks. medicube, Biodance, Anua and Dr.Althea together took 12.8% of beauty share of sales, up from 10.6%, and 7 of the 10 most-clicked beauty products on Amazon during event week were K-beauty.Luxury beauty shoppers searched by brand. At least 34.6% of purchases from Amazon Luxury beauty searches during the week of Big Deal Days started with a brand name, about double the 17.6% across all beauty.

Holiday shopping starts in beauty

Holiday shopping kicked off in beauty. During the week of Big Deal Days, Beauty was the #1 clicked category on Amazon for the searches “gifts,” “christmas gifts,” and “stocking stuffers,” ahead of toys and home. “Stocking stuffers” alone jumped from the #75,455 search on Amazon at June’s Prime Day to #1,079. The number of different gift-related beauty searches grew from 14 in June to 121.Amazon shoppers aren’t ready to buy for the holidays yet. 20% bought gifts during the event, down from 23% at Big Deal Days 2025, and 56% were still unsure what they wanted. Still, 83% plan to shop Amazon for holiday items in the next three months.Big Deal Days shoppers plan bigger holidays. 43% of Amazon Big Deal Days shoppers expect to spend more on the holidays than last year, compared with 36% of all U.S. adults.

“Standing out in November will take more than a discount: you’ll need strong creative, branded search, and a clear gift message. Build engagement before the event, and your deals show up on those pages without needing to buy the placements during the event.” — Jonathan Wilner, SVP, Commerce Media at Market Defense

The competition answered with loyalty perks

Fewer Amazon shoppers split their spending with competitors. Among Amazon’s Big Deal Days shoppers, 33% also shopped Walmart’s fall deals event and 24% shopped Target Circle Deal Days, down from 36% and 27% at Big Deal Days 2025. And Amazon shoppers who also bought during Walmart’s event spent 8% more on Amazon than the average Big Deal Days shopper.Beauty retailers answered Big Deal Days with loyalty perks. Target ran Circle Deal Days on the same October 6–7 dates, with up to 40% off and 30% off select skin care, hair care and cosmetics. Ulta offered Rewards members 20% off, Sephora offered 5x points on Sephora Collection, and Dermstore gave Rewards members 30% off select brands.

“October is not a lesser Prime Day. It is a different event: shorter, more planned, less price driven, and the first real moment of holiday gifting. Beauty brands that treat it as an early holiday launch, with gift-ready offers, seasonal heroes, and brand demand built in advance, carry that momentum straight into Black Friday.” — Dave Karlsven, SVP, Partnerships & Growth at Market Defense

Category standouts

Acne care led skin care during Big Deal Days. Mighty Patch Original pimple patches were the #1 best-selling beauty product on Amazon and the #1 skin care product. PanOxyl’s acne foaming wash ranked #7 in skin care and #10 across all of beauty. “Pimple patches” was the #2 non-branded skin care search, and the search climbed from #122 on Amazon at June’s Prime Day to #51 in October.The pores have it. Four of the 10 best-selling skin care products on Amazon were breakout and pore treatments, each built on a different active: Mighty Patch (hydrocolloid), medicube Zero Pore Pads (AHA plus BHA), PanOxyl (benzoyl peroxide) and The Ordinary (glycolic acid).Skin care swapped summer for fall. The “sunscreen” search term dropped in ranking from #53 search on Amazon to #479. Rich creams moved in: ANUA’s PDRN hyaluronic cream, Illiyoon’s ceramide cream, and Dr.Althea’s 345 relief cream all ranked among the 10 most clicked beauty products in October. Without sun care, skin care searches dipped just 11% from June to October.Professional hair showed up by name. Color Wow, Amika, Dyson, Redken, Olaplex, K18 and Kérastase together made up about 27% of prestige beauty purchase demand on Amazon. Color Wow Style on Steroids was the #1 most-clicked prestige product at about 35,000 clicks, and Dyson Airwrap was #4 at about 30,000.Color-changing foundation went viral between June’s Prime Day and October’s Big Deal Days. The search “color changing foundation” climbed from #19,528 to #381 in Amazon search rank, “smooche color changing foundation” was the #1 branded makeup search, and two color-changing foundations, Smooche and Luxe, ranked among the 14 most-clicked beauty products during Big Deal Days week.Eyes still lead makeup. Mascara was the #1 non-branded makeup search on Amazon at October’s Big Deal Days, as it was at June’s Prime Day. “Lash clusters” climbed from the #114 search on Amazon in June to #48 in October, and “magnetic eyelashes” jumped to #162 after missing the top tier of beauty searches in June.Men made their move in hair care. Just For Men jumped to #4 among best-selling hair care products on Amazon, and its hair care share grew 7x from PBDD 2025. Rogaine’s share grew about 57%, making it the #7 hair brand, and “minoxidil for men” was the #1 branded hair search.Men’s scents doubled their presence. Armaf, Nautica, Rasasi and Afnan men’s fragrances held 4 of the top 10 fragrance spots on Amazon during Big Deal Days, double PBDD 2025.Sol de Janeiro is still fragrance’s most-searched name: the #1 branded fragrance search at October’s Big Deal Days, ahead of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” fragrance (#2), and the top luxury beauty search overall. But competition is heating up: its brand search slipped from #90 at June’s Prime Day to #173, Victoria’s Secret lost the top click on “perfumes for women,” and after three straight Prime events at #1, Cheirosa fell to #3, making room for a new mist brand.

“Move over, Sol de Janeiro. eos took the top two fragrance spots at Big Deal Days, with its new Pumpkin Chai Body Mist at #1 and Cashmere Vanilla Body Mist at #2, up from #4 at June Prime Day. eos only launched its mists in December 2025, and within two weeks it was the #1 mass fragrance mist brand in the U.S. Here’s what I’d tell brands: eos built its name on lip balm, so don’t let your legacy hold you back from jumping into a new category.” — Amy Rudgard, SVP, Client Strategy at Market Defense

Retail media, influencer & AI

Creators drove discovery. Affiliates and influencers drove 21.9% of total U.S. online sales during Big Deal Days and converted at 11 times the rate of social networks overall.Ads were cheaper than last year’s Big Deal Days. Among the 800+ Amazon advertisers on Skai’s platform, cost per click averaged $1.46, down 9% from $1.61 at Big Deal Days 2025.Beauty was the top category for Amazon advertisers. Among Skai’s Amazon advertisers, Beauty & Personal Care ad revenue rose 314% during Big Deal Days over the 30 days before the event, more than any other category. Conversion rose 29% and average order value 16%.Most of the ad spend came before the event started. 83% of Skai advertisers’ Amazon ad spend across the 32-day Big Deal Days window came before the event opened.Amazon credits its shopping assistant with $12 billion in added annual sales, and its monthly users more than doubled in a year.Some 300 million customers used Amazon’s shopping assistant in 2025, and Google’s AI Mode has more than a billion monthly users.

“Beauty deals clustered tightly this year. More than half sat in the 30–39% off band, and only about 1 in 9 cleared 40%. When every offer looks the same, the win goes to the brand whose listing Alexa for Shopping can understand well enough to recommend when a shopper asks what to buy.”- Marty Borotsik, SVP, Tech and AI at Market Defense

Looking ahead to the holidays

Beauty shoppers were already buying at close to full price in October. The typical price paid for beauty on Amazon dipped less than 1% during Big Deal Days, compared with almost 6% at June’s Prime Day.

“My advice to beauty CEOs heading into the final months of 2026 is to prioritize capturing demand rather than manufacturing it through aggressive promotions. The brands that outperform this holiday season won’t simply be those driving the most revenue, but those converting consumer demand into profitable growth.” –Karan Raturi, Chief Operating Officer at Market Defense

Next up, Market Defense will publish its Prime Big Deal Days Home & Kitchen report, with a focus on cookware. “It’s all about the kitchen on Amazon right now. Cookware and kitchen tools and gadgets are having a moment. From meal prep for the upcoming holiday entertaining season to gifting the latest and affordable kitchen tools and gadgets, consumers are looking to simplify everyday cooking while prioritizing performance and durability. We’re excited to help culinary brands realize their full potential on Amazon,” said Trisha Hubbard, VP of Lifestyle Partnerships at Market Defense.

The full findings, category by category, are available now in Market Defense’s complete “THE BEAUTY DEALMAKERS: Amazon Prime Big Deal Days October 2026 Report”: Amazon Prime Big Deal Days October 2026 Report

About Market Defense

Market Defense is a leading digital commerce platform and commerce media agency, helping the world’s most ambitious consumer brands accelerate growth across today’s most important marketplaces and digital commerce channels. As a strategic growth partner, the company delivers seamlessly connected marketplace operations, retail media, paid media, social commerce, influencer marketing, and full-funnel growth solutions across Amazon, TikTok Shop, Walmart, Google, Meta, and other leading commerce platforms. With a global operating model spanning every major commerce region, Market Defense enables brands to launch, scale, and optimize their marketplace businesses through a single, integrated partner.

Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Seattle, Market Defense and its subsidiaries partner with over 100 of the industry’s most recognized and fastest-growing brands, including SLIP, Guthy-Renker, Davines, Lattafa, Phlur, Neal’s Yard Remedies, Donnamax, Warner Bros., Grown Alchemist, and Viking Culinary. By combining deep marketplace expertise, proprietary technology, and data-driven execution, Market Defense enables brands to unlock sustainable, profitable growth while delivering a seamless consumer experience across every stage of the digital commerce journey.

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For more information about Market Defense and its suite of services, visit https://marketdefense.com/

Media Contact: Kayla Clayton

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Kayla.Clayton@marketdefense.com

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