The school year starts early these days, and you have Amazon to thank for that.
Retail shoppers are taking advantage of the online giant's Prime Day to get a jump on back-to-school shopping for the fall semester. Amazon's annual event offers subscription members various deals over a 30-hour period in July.
Fresh data provided to CNBC show how shopping for back to school is starting earlier in in the year. Online-only shopping for back-to-school peaks the week of Prime Day, long before many brick-and-mortar stores have rolled out their displays, according to Cardlytics, a firm that tracks purchasing data.
"Retailers should start marketing their online channels at the beginning of the summer, to capture the early online spend," said Dani Cushion, chief marketing officer at Cardlytics, "and their in-store channels mid-summer through the start of the school year."