NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - While American children

may wish summer vacation would never end, retailers want

back-to-school season to start earlier than ever -- preferably

now -- and are timing promotions ahead of Amazon's ( AMZN )

Prime Day.

With deals on sneakers, computers, kids' clothing and

backpacks, Walmart ( WMT ), Target ( TGT ) and Shein hope to

entice parents to start back-to-school shopping and capture

dollars that might otherwise go to Amazon ( AMZN ), which holds Prime Day

on July 16 and 17.

Although in many communities school does not resume until

late August or September, the campaigns are launching this week

and next, on average two days earlier than in prior years.

"Retailers are looking to grow market share," said Brian

Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management. "It's not

good enough to have bigger discounts. You need them earlier than

your rivals."

Target ( TGT ) launched a week-long event on Sunday, two days

earlier than last year, offering 30% off on school uniforms and

backpacks, including from its in-house brand Cat & Jack. Walmart ( WMT )

is holding its "largest deals event ever" from Tuesday to

Thursday, also two days earlier than last year.

Shein is holding a seven-week back-to-school sale starting

July 15, two days ahead of its sale last year and a day ahead of

Amazon Prime Day. Bytedance's TikTok Shop is running a deals

event from Tuesday to July 17.

Brian McCarthy, a retail strategy consultant at Deloitte

Consulting, said the firm last year saw more families plan to

spend the majority of their back-to-school budgets by the end of

the July.

Jewelia Stanley, 32 of Tampa, Florida, expects to spend

$1,200, at least $300 more than last year, on back-to-school

items for her three kids, including clothes from China-based

retailers Shein and Pinduoduo's Temu, uniforms from

Walmart ( WMT ) and supplies from Amazon ( AMZN ).

Stanley's priciest purchase will be shoes from brands like

Nike ( NKE ) or New Balance, which can cost $99 to $250 a pair.

Back-to-school spending last year was an estimated $41.5

billion, a record, for children in kindergarten to 12th grade.

The number grew to $135.5 billion when college students were

included, according to the National Retail Federation.

Prime Day, Amazon's ( AMZN ) summer extravaganza, spans two days.

Continuing to keep competitors on their toes, the company pushed

the event back five days from last year. But Amazon ( AMZN ) also

released early Prime Day deals on Tuesday for Sony speakers,

T-shirts, phone cases and other merchandise.

When it launched a decade ago, Prime Day reshaped a

traditionally slow time of year for retailers. Sales boomed and

competitors had little choice but to follow suit.

Last year, Amazon ( AMZN ) had its biggest single day of sales in

company history on the first day of Prime Day. U.S. online sales

across retailers during the event hit $12.7 billion.

Prime Day draws shoppers hunting for all kinds of deals, not

just on notebooks and lunch boxes. The event is estimated to

generate 1% to 2% of Amazon's ( AMZN ) full year net sales, which were in

$574.8 billion in 2023.

The earlier and earlier start to back-to-school promotions

has precedent in a similar strategy by Walmart ( WMT ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) ahead

of holidays. They launched year-end promotions in October last

year, well ahead of Black Friday and Christmas.

Shoppers last year bought 375 million individual items

during Amazon's ( AMZN ) Prime Day. "Our members are looking for

savings," said Jamil Ghani, worldwide vice president of Amazon

Prime. "The economic situation of the last five years has been

tough, and everybody is looking to stretch their dollars

further."