Best sales ever at this year's Target Deal Days

Bargain-hungry shoppers helped fuel Target's Deal Days this week, resulting in its highest sales ever for the annual promotional event.

Minneapolis-based Target Corp. offered the three-day online sales event at the same time as Amazon's Prime Day and several other retailer promotional events. Consumers clicked online to snatch up the latest toys, electronics and clothing before the discounts expired Wednesday night.

"This year's Target Deal Days was the biggest to date, delivering incredible savings for our guests on hundreds of thousands of items," Target said in a statement Thursday. "Whether shopping apparel for the family, food and patio furniture for summer or the season's hottest toys and electronics, guests saved millions of dollars on must-have products across every category."

Target unveiled its Target Deal Days in 2019 as a way to directly compete with Amazon.com's Prime Day sales — emphasizing "no membership required" to shop Target's deals.

Amazon also had a blockbuster Prime Day event, the e-commerce behemoth said Thursday. Prime members bought more than 300 million items worldwide during this week's sale, making it the biggest Prime Day since the event debuted in 2015.

Consumer electronics, household essentials and home products were some of Amazon's best-selling categories in the U.S. during the sales event. Popular items included premium beauty brands, Apple Watches and electric toothbrushes.

According to Adobe, the second day of Amazon Prime Day saw total U.S. online spending surpass $5.9 billion, more than 9% higher than last year.

All told, Wednesday was the second-largest day for U.S. online spending so far this year.

The sales coincided with the release of the latest Consumer Price Index figures that show U.S. inflation in June grew 9.1% — the largest year-over-year jump in more than 40 years.

This week's sales, retail analysts said, could provide important indications as to what customers are willing to still spend money on despite high inflation.

The promotions may have also served as a tool for some retailers to reduce inventories, which had swelled over the last year as stores stockpiled popular items during the pandemic.