You’d expect interest in Prime Day to have waned after 12 years, but this year, shoppers went in looking harder for deals to snag hefty discounts on everything from TV sets to back-to-school items and everyday essentials.

Amazon’s first June Prime Day, which ran from June 23 to June 26, delivered deeper discounts across the board. The overall energy around the event was positive, with strong consumer response throughout the four days. Last year, Prime Day shoppers might have been filling their carts, but were not quite ready to hit buy.

This year’s event generated $26.4 billion in consolidated e-commerce sales in the US, data from Adobe, which tracks visits to retail websites, showed. The overall haul marks a 9.3% rise in spending YoY.

The nature of the event, overall, is such that shoppers show a heavier spend volume on the first two days, Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, told Retail Brew.

“What we’re finding is the consumer is leaning in on these sales moments to really experience more value,” Pandya said. “They’ve dealt with a lot of price fluctuations through the years, and they really locked in on these moments to get additional items that they might need down the road, stocking up on goods, but also getting that balance of essentials, and also nice-to-have items.”

Keep reading here.—VC

While some retail founders have opted for venture-backed growth, Ingrid & Isabel Founder and CEO Ingrid Carney believes there’s still room for a slower path.

The maternity clothing brand—which Carney launched in 2003 after inventing the Bellaband, the brand’s best-selling pregnancy accessory—has grown into the largest maternity label by retail sales in the US without taking venture-capital or private-equity funding, according to the company.

Per Carney, she never entered the business with a hard rule against raising outside capital. “I didn’t go into this saying, ‘I’m not going to raise money,’” she told Retail Brew. “I went into this saying, ‘Should I raise money or can I do it on my own?’”

After working at multiple startups, including VC-backed businesses, Carney ultimately decided she wanted greater control over the company’s direction. “I saw the pros and cons of that,” she said. “So for this company…I wanted to determine the path rather than have a board determine it for me.”

That decision shaped not only the company’s ownership structure, but also how it approached growth.

Keep reading here.—JS

Some brands are as American as apple pie—and they’ve been hyping as much ahead of America’s 250th anniversary this year.

Brands Anheuser-Busch, Mountain Dew, and John Deere have looked to connect their legacy to American history in campaigns leading up to July Fourth. Others, like Coca-Cola and Chevrolet, have opted for messages that showcase the wide-ranging landscape of the country. Some especially lucky brands, including Budweiser and Jeep Wrangler, have milestone anniversaries that line up with America’s 250th, making it something of a double-whammy celebratory effort.

The variety of America250 campaigns from brands isn’t surprising, but there’s much to consider before a brand shows up during a major cultural touchstone.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KM

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