Not one to be left out of the spotlight, retail giant Walmart announced that it will launch a rival sale to Amazon Inc.’s Prime Day that will be held on the same date and include more than 2,000 online discounts.
Amazon recently announced Prime Day in celebration of its 20th anniversary, which is scheduled for July 15th. Prime Day, available to Amazon customers who are members of Amazon Prime, will include thousands of sales beginning at 12:00 a.m., with new ones available as often as every 10 minutes. This sales event is being touted as big enough to rival Black Friday.
Walmart’s lower prices on categories such as electronics, home, toys and baby will last 90 days. Additionally, starting today, Walmart is also reducing the minimum order for free shipping from $50 to $35 for a period of at least 30 days.
Walmart has called Amazon’s program of Amazon Prime membership a ripoff stating “[w]e just don’t believe you should pay a fee to get a better price.” Amazon Prime Membership presently costs $99 annually. However, Prime members usually get access to unlimited free two-day shipping, as well as access to free movies and television shows to stream on Prime Instant Video, along with other benefits. These savings could add up to well over $99 per year.
Walmart and Amazon regularly compete with each other for customers and sales. Earlier this spring, and despite Walmart’s criticism of the Prime membership program, Walmart announced that it would start a program similar to that of Amazon Prime, offering unlimited, free three-day shipping to Walmart customers for a fee of $50 annually. And, while Walmart is America’s dominant retailer for several years, putting many stores out of business and even threatening local grocery store businesses, it is a step behind Amazon when it comes to the Internet.
Amazon is considered by many the world’s biggest and best Internet retailer. Walmart, however, is struggling to generate new traffic in their stores. It is trying to gain new customers as well as show that they can compete online with Amazon.
Other retailers such as Target and Best Buy are holding summer sales to recreate Black Friday shopping. The words “Black Friday” encourage and push people to shop on days that they would not otherwise consider shopping. As the words are synonymous with major deals whether at Thanksgiving time or in the summer, people will shop and buy during that time.
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