March 12 (Reuters) - Amazon.com ( AMZN ) is planning to move its Prime Day sale event up to late June, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, marking a rare shift in calendar for the critical, decade-old shopping event. 

Prime Day is marked by heavy discounts on categories ranging from apparel and electronics, and its summer iteration coincides with the back-to-school shopping season with parents and students waiting to cash in on the deals.

The timing shift would also move Prime Day sales to Amazon's ( AMZN ) second quarter, which typically ends on June 30. The company declined to comment to Reuters on the report. 

Amazon's ( AMZN ) Prime Day event has taken place in July since its launch in 2015, barring a change for two years during the pandemic. 

Last year, the event was extended to four days from the usual two, and drove $24.1 billion in online spending across U.S. retailers, up 30% from a year ago, according to data from Adobe Analytics.

However, Amazon ( AMZN ) has also had to contend with competing deals events from retailers such as Walmart and Target ( TGT ) as these companies invest in their digital order fulfillment and same-day delivery capabilities.

Contribution to U.S. sales from e-commerce almost doubled for Walmart in its most recently reported quarter, and the company said customers using its option for delivery under three hours grew more than 60% for fiscal year 2026.

(Reporting by Juveria Tabassum in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)