Three deal events, one week, and only two days when all three are open
Walmart runs seven days from 5 October, Amazon runs 48 hours from the 6th, Target runs the same two days. Put them on one timeline and the week has a shape none of the three announcements describe.
By Alex Tkach, CEO & Co-Founder, UNITIX Agency
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Three retailers open early holiday sales in the same week, and every announcement describes its own event as if the others were not happening. Put the three on one timeline and the week turns out to have a shape none of them mentions.
Short answer. Walmart runs seven days, 5 to 11 October, open to everyone. Amazon runs 48 hours, 6 to 7 October, for Prime members. Target runs the same two days as Amazon, for Circle members. Walmart opens 27 hours before Amazon and is still running four days after both the others have closed. Only 6 and 7 October have all three live at once.
The three events as a table
| Event | Dates | Length | Who can shop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walmart Fall Deals | 5 to 11 October | 7 days | Everyone, no membership |
| Prime Big Deal Days | 6 to 7 October | 48 hours | Prime members |
| Target Circle Deal Days | 6 to 7 October | 2 days | Free Circle membership |
Walmart opens first, and the gap is bigger than a day
Walmart starts at 12 a.m. ET on 5 October. Amazon starts at 12:01 a.m. PDT on 6 October. Those are different time zones, so the gap is not the 24 hours the dates suggest: midnight Eastern on the 5th is 9 p.m. Pacific on the 4th, which puts 27 hours between the two openings.
That matters more than a headline about who went first. For a full day and change, Walmart is the only one of the three with an event running, and it is the one with no membership wall in front of it. Amazon's event is Prime only and Target's needs a Circle account. Walmart's does not need anything.
The two days in the middle
6 and 7 October are the only days on which all three are open. It is the noisiest point of the week and the one every plan is built around, which is precisely why it is the least differentiated place to spend.
Amazon's own structure makes those 48 hours lumpy rather than flat. New deals drop three times a day, at midnight, 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT, so demand inside the event arrives in waves rather than spread evenly across two days.
The four days nobody funds
From 8 October, Amazon and Target are finished. Walmart has four days of its window left, still badged as a deal event, still drawing the traffic that a week of promotion brings, and with two of the three competing events switched off.
A budget written for a 48 hour event sees the spike and misses those four days entirely. A budget written for the week sees both.
The same money behaves differently on each platform
Splitting a budget between the two events is not only a question of how much goes to each. It is a question of how fast it is allowed to leave.
An Amazon allocation has to be spent inside 48 hours, so daily caps have to be high enough that the account is not throttled halfway through the second drop. The same sum on Walmart is spread across seven days, which is a completely different daily number, and a cap set for the Amazon rhythm will quietly underspend the Walmart week. Walmart also publishes bid floors that Amazon does not: $0.20 for automatic Sponsored Products, $0.30 for keyword Sponsored Products, $0.50 per match type for Sponsored Brands and Sponsored Videos, so there is a level below which a Walmart bid simply cannot go, whatever the plan says.
You cannot read yesterday on Walmart while the event is running
This is the part that catches Amazon managers out on a seven day event. Walmart Connect reports with a delay: in normal use the most recent complete day is the day before yesterday, and even that keeps filling in as attributed orders land inside the attribution window.
On Amazon's 48 hour event, reacting inside the event is realistic. On Walmart's seven day event, a decision taken on 8 October is being taken on data that runs to roughly the 6th. The practical consequence is that Walmart changes during the week have to be planned in advance and made on the last closed period, not improvised on what the dashboard showed this morning. The rest of the differences between the two consoles, with the screens, are in Walmart vs Amazon: 10 differences PPC managers need to know.
What was already decided weeks ago
By the last week of September, two things are out of reach. Deal submissions run through Seller Center and Vendor Central, each event publishes its own criteria and its own submission deadline, and those close well before the event. Inventory is the same story: Amazon's inbound cutoffs for Prime Big Deal Days were 2, 9 and 16 September, and the Black Friday set closes through October.
What is still movable is the advertising plan. Which of the three events the catalogue is actually present in, how the budget is shaped across a 48 hour spike and a seven day window, and what happens on 8 October when two of the three competitors go dark.
What changed since last year
The positions swapped. In 2025 Target had the long event, seven days from 5 October, and Walmart ran six days from the 7th. In 2026 Walmart holds the long window, seven days from the 5th, and Target has cut back from seven days to two, sitting exactly inside Amazon's 48 hours.
That is one year of scheduling, not a trend. But it does mean a plan copied from last October is pointed at the wrong event.
Last checked
23 September 2026, against each retailer's own announcement and landing page. Dates and start times have moved between years, and Walmart had not announced a Walmart+ early access window for 2026 at the time of writing, so nothing above assumes one.
UNITIX Agency runs Amazon Ads and Walmart Connect for the same brands, which is why this is written as one calendar rather than two.
Sources
- Amazon, Prime Big Deal Days 2026 dates and format: aboutamazon.com
- Walmart Fall Deals 2026 landing page: walmart.com/shop/deals
- Walmart's October dates, start time and discount depths: foxbusiness.com
- Target Circle Deal Days 2026 and Circle 360 early access: today.com
- Walmart Connect minimum bids: developer.walmart.com
- Walmart deals programme and submission through Seller Center: marketplacelearn.walmart.com
Event dates are announced by the retailers and do change. Where a date matters to a decision, check it against the retailer's own page before acting on it.
Common questions
When is Prime Big Deal Days 2026?
6 and 7 October 2026. Amazon opens it at 12:01 a.m. PDT on 6 October and runs it for 48 hours, in 22 countries, across more than 35 categories. It is open to Prime members only, and new offers drop three times a day, at midnight, 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. PDT.
When are Walmart's October 2026 deals?
5 to 11 October 2026, seven days, starting at 12 a.m. ET on 5 October. Walmart's own landing page titles it Fall Deals 2026. No membership is required, which is the main structural difference from Amazon's event.
When is Target Circle Deal Days 2026?
6 and 7 October 2026, the same two days as Amazon. A free Target Circle membership is required, and paid Circle 360 members get access to selected deals a day early, on 5 October. Last year the Target event ran seven days, so it has cut back from seven to two.
Do Walmart's and Amazon's October events overlap?
For exactly two days. Walmart opens 27 hours before Amazon does, because 12 a.m. ET on 5 October is 9 p.m. PT on 4 October and Amazon starts at 12:01 a.m. PDT on 6 October. The two run together on 6 and 7 October, then Amazon closes and Walmart continues to 11 October.
How should an advertising budget be split between the two events?
There is no single correct split, because it depends on where the catalogue actually sells. What the calendar decides is the shape rather than the size: Amazon's share has to be spent inside 48 hours, while the same money on Walmart is spread over seven days, so the daily budget that is right for one event is wrong for the other. The four days after Amazon closes are the part most plans leave unfunded.
Can I still submit deals for these events?
Not through this article, and by late September probably not at all. Deal submission windows and their criteria live inside Seller Center and Vendor Central, each event carries its own guidelines and deadline, and those deadlines sit well before the event itself. Amazon's inbound cutoffs for Prime Big Deal Days were 2, 9 and 16 September. What is still movable in the last week of September is the advertising plan, not the deal and not the inventory.
Can I judge a Walmart campaign on yesterday during the event?
No. Walmart Connect reports with a delay, so in normal use the most recent complete day is the day before yesterday, and even that keeps filling in inside the attribution window. A decision made on 8 October is being made on data that runs to about 6 October. Amazon's reporting is close enough to live that intraday reaction inside the 48 hours is realistic, which is another reason the two events cannot be managed on the same rhythm.
Published by UNITIX Agency, an Amazon growth agency and an Amazon Ads Verified Partner. More at unitix.pro/insights.
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