Beauty was Amazon’s Most-Purchased Category During Prime Big Deal Days 2026

Beauty & Cosmetics was the most-purchased category on Amazon during Prime Big Deal Days 2026, analysts from Market Defense report.

The achievement was 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.

“Five years in, Prime Big Deal Days keeps getting bigger, and beauty is making quite the impression,” said Vanessa Kuykendall, chief engagement officer at Market Defense. “This year, beauty was Amazon’s #1 most-shopped category, with skincare brands claiming nine 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.”

Shoppers Spend Big Bucks Online

In its fifth year, Amazon’s fall Prime event ran Oct. 6 to 7, 2026. Big Deal Days lifted online shopping across every US retailer. Shoppers spent $9.86 billion online at all US retailers combined during the two-day event, analysts say, 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.

Of the $9.86 billion spent online at all US 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. Shoppers referred from social media drove 7% of online sales at all US retailers during Big Deal Days, up 40% from 2025, the fastest growth of any traffic source. Online sales of personal care products at all US 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 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 152.4 million 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%.

Dermatologist, K-Beauty Brands Gain Ground

Dermatologist brands also 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 No. 1 in all of beauty at 8.9%.

Medicube kept its shoppers while its hero product changed. It stayed the No. 1 beauty search on Amazon, ranking No. 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 No. 1 most clicked beauty product to #92, and the Medicube Zero Pore Pad took over the No. 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 seven 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 Kicks Off with Beauty

Holiday shopping kicked off in beauty. During the week of Big Deal Days, analysts say beauty was the No. 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 No. 75,455 search on Amazon at June’s Prime Day to No. 1,079. The number of different gift-related beauty searches grew from 14 in June to 121.

However, Amazon shoppers aren’t ready to buy for the holidays yet. Analysts say 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.

Analysts say Big Deal Days shoppers plan bigger holidays. Forty-three percent of Amazon Big Deal Days shoppers expect to spend more on the holidays than last year, compared with 36% of all US adults.

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

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.

Acne, Sunscreen and More Lead Category Standouts

Market Defense says acne care led skin care during Big Deal Days. Mighty Patch Original pimple patches were the No. 1 best-selling beauty product on Amazon and the No. 1 skin care product. PanOxyl’s acne foaming wash ranked No. 7 in skin care and No. 10 across all of beauty. Pimple patches was the No. 2 non-branded skin care search, and the search climbed from No. 122 on Amazon at June’s Prime Day to No. 51 in October.

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).

The “sunscreen” search term dropped in ranking from No. 53 search on Amazon to No. 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 No. 1 most-clicked prestige product at about 35,000 clicks and Dyson Airwrap was No. 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 No. 19,528 to No. 381 in Amazon search rank, “smooche color changing foundation” was the No. 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 continue to lead makeup. Mascara was the No. 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 No. 114 search on Amazon in June to No. 48 in October, and “magnetic eyelashes” jumped to No. 162 after missing the top tier of beauty searches in June.

Men also made their move in hair care. Just For Men jumped to No. 4 among best-selling hair care products on Amazon, and its hair care share grew seven times from PBDD 2025. Rogaine‘s share grew about 57%, making it the No. 7 hair brand, and “minoxidil for men” was the No. 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 continues to be fragrance’s most-searched name: the No. 1 branded fragrance search at October’s Big Deal Days, ahead of “The Summer I Turned Pretty” fragrance (No. 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 No. 173, Victoria’s Secret lost the top click on “perfumes for women,” and after three straight Prime events at No. 1, Cheirosa fell to #3, making room for a new mist brand.

EOS took the top two fragrance spots at Big Deal Days, with its new Pumpkin Chai Body Mist at No. 1 and Cashmere Vanilla Body Mist at No. 2, up from No. 4 at June Prime Day. EOS only launched its mists in December 2025, and within two weeks it was the No. 1 mass fragrance mist brand in the US.