All retailers have their foot on the gas, pushing hard to reduce excess inventory and boost top-line sales in order to generate more gross margin dollars as inflation impacts profit margins. In today’s climate, every retailer that is over-inventoried is (or should be) focused on executing to clear stock. As a result, they’re focusing less on Prime Day and other competitors. July sales events are just that, sales events. However this year July clearance sales have taken on a whole new tone.

What I like about the Walmart and Target plans is that they fit each retailer’s particular needs without cutting the margins to fight a losing battle with Amazon.

I don’t think retailers are as worried about Prime Day as they’ve been in the past. Walmart and Target, in particular, have done a great job driving customer engagement during the pandemic; that’s the best defense against competitive disruption. I also believe that a lot of the hype around Prime Day has worn off. I think Target and Walmart are right not to waste promotional air time trying to defend something that I suspect won’t be a big deal.

The real assignment for any retailer right now is to sell through the on-hand and on-order inventory as profitably as possible while building brand integrity. They can’t get drawn into every price promotion that Amazon throws out there. I was in Target yesterday and they looked downright light in inventory. If I hadn’t been reading about their “overstocks” for weeks I would never have known. I was actually shocked at the number of lightly inventoried fixtures. Target’s aggressive actions appear to have made a dent in their problem inventories and I have to salute the fact they they didn’t wait. Maybe the floors will get beefed up again for Deal Days. Meanwhile, Target’s strategy seems to be serving them well. I think Walmart likes its position as an everyday low price leader. They don’t need a special event to make that point. Walmart is taking its own path by focusing on back-to-school as a traffic generator. Sounds smart to me. I think both Walmart and Target are deeply, keenly aware of the competitive game they… Read more »

Interesting times. Before this year I would have thought Prime Day had created a movement in retail that was leading to a new summer shopping “season” across the industry. Now, after we have seen (and discussed here on RetailWire) Amazon’s pull back on its own Prime Day marketing and deals, and Walmart pulling back, perhaps the momentum is fading?

I don’t think retailers are (or can be) running head to head with Amazon’s Prime Day. Retailers have other issues on their hands such as leveraging their own promotional strategies to move goods. Smart retailers don’t take their cues from Amazon. Prime Day had devolved into Prime week, a Prime season and perhaps a Prime year – and none of that is worthy of retail following a race to the bottom. The marketing around Prime Day has simmered on all fronts. July sales remain important, to reduce excess inventory and clear a path for a profitable second half of 2022.

If every time a competitor has a sale or drops their price all you do is copy them, it’s just playing catch-up to keep up with the competition. Walmart and Target have their own strategy to build a loyal customer base, just as Amazon does. It includes various promotions and sales that are unique to their brands. Here’s a big question: does any retailer want to go head to head with major brands like Amazon, Walmart, and Target? (That’s a rhetorical question!)

I like it. Why play by Amazon’s rules and let them set the agenda? You have your own pricing and promotion strategies in place and let them respond to YOU.

A major shortcoming of any head to head confrontation, think heavyweight boxing, is that one or more parties may end up bloodied. In such a scenario the referee normally raises the hand of the battered winner. Instead of saying “the winner is…” a more appropriate comment might be “the person who lost least.”

The physical stores operated by Walmart and Target give them the opportunity to operate in a battlefield devoid of Amazon. There’s no doubt excessive inventory mandates some promotion this summer. The key is to profitability clear warehouses of these products. Walmart and Target can win without playing Amazon’s game.

It’s great that major retailers are defining their own promotional strategies for the current summer season. Walmart, Target, and other savvy retailers should not be parroting Amazon’s tactics. Not now. Not ever.
Back-to-school has long been a perennial July opportunity for mass retailers. That should not change, regardless of Amazon’s Prime Day activities.

Of course the wrinkle this year is the urgent need to sell down excess inventory. TV consumer reporters have been touting the discounts for weeks now, and I get the feeling that the hype will motivate those shoppers who have the financial flexibility.