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Amazon announces Prime Day-and-a-half

Written by George Anderson

Source: Amazon

Amazon.com has announced details on this year’s version of Prime Day, including the fact that the event will be extended from 30 to 36 hours. The promotion will kick off on July 16 at 3:00 p.m. ET and will feature more than a million deals from around the planet for Prime members.

This year’s event will offer discounts across a wide variety of categories, including “double the deals” on Amazon’s own Echo, Fire TV and Fire tablet devices. The e-tailer also plans to extend the savings on more of its private label lines, including 20 percent off AmazonBasics, 25 percent off Rivet and Stone & Beam furniture and home décor, as well as 30 percent off everyday items from Mama Bear, Presto, Solimo and other brands it owns.

Amazon will extend its deals to Whole Foods where Prime members will receive 10 percent off hundreds of sales items in the chain’s stores. Members who use the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa to pay for their purchases will receive 10 percent back instead of the normal five percent between July 14 and 17 on purchases up to $400.

As in the past, Amazon is using Prime Day to recruit new members with an offer of a free 30-day trial period. In a letter to shareholders in April, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said the company has more than 100 million Prime members worldwide.

In a new twist, Amazon is hosting special entertainment events around the country in the run-up to Prime Day. The e-tailer announced it would ship giant Smile boxes to major cities around the planet to highlight the music, video, gaming and other benefits that come with a Prime membership. Details on the events can be found on Amazon’s unboxing Prime Day page.

Last year, Amazon generated $1 billion in revenue from Prime Day, according to estimates by Cowen & Co. and JPMorgan Chase. That made the event an even larger revenue producer for Amazon than Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Amazon’s past Prime Day success has come at the expense of other retailers. A report issued last year by Sense360 found that other retailers saw foot traffic in their stores decline by an average of 24 percent during the event.

Separate research from Slice Intelligence, which analyzes sales data from a panel of more than five million online shoppers every day, found that Amazon also cut into its rivals’ e-commerce market share during Prime Day 2017. Walmart saw its share fall from 2.1 percent to 1.0 percent and Target declined from 1.5 percent to 0.9 percent during the event. J.C. Penney, Kohl’s and Macy’s also experienced a share drop.

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