Walmart is highly focused on Amazon as a competitor and is smart to respond to Prime Day with some aggressive promotions of its own. While it will never have the “cool factor” of Amazon, Walmart has the attention of a large segment of shoppers.

In the e-commerce space, Walmart is clearly behind Amazon and in no position to lead the industry with a unique event. Instead, with its aggressive response to Prime Day, Walmart keeps itself in the game as a legitimate online alternative to Amazon.

Walmart’s primary competitor is Amazon. Only Amazon can best Walmart in selection, price, logistics and customer service. I don’t think Walmart’s offer takes any oxygen out of the room for Prime Day, but I salute Walmart for reminding Amazon that a big competitor is lurking nearby.

One area where Walmart might win this week is on out-of-stocks at Amazon where the shopper then finds the goods at Walmart. This could be a win both for shoppers and vendors. This morning I did a search for memory foam mattresses for Prime Day and the search results displayed three sponsored items that the vendor had paid Amazon to promote, and all three were sold out, yet the vendor obviously still had to pay — and waste — these marketing dollars.

Walmart employed a similar tactic last year, offering price rollbacks and free shipping on Amazon’s Prime Day. Sales on that day, July 14, for Walmart were up 3.5 times the average July day. So it seemed to have worked for Walmart. Of course, Amazon’s sales dwarfed Walmart’s — Walmart.com sales represented just 3 percent of Amazon’s on Prime Day (in the U.S.). Walmart has no choice but to draft off of Amazon where it can (for example, copying tactics that work, like Prime and Prime Day promotions). But Walmart isn’t going to take a lead online until it starts to innovate far more aggressively than it is today.

I think Walmart needs to do both — compete with Amazon on Prime Day and create its own unique events/promotions that will resonate with its most loyal shoppers. But … I read recently that Prime members may be wealthier than the average citizen. That could mean that Walmart and Prime aren’t really targeting the same shoppers, so maybe it’s a waste of time, money and effort for Walmart to try to lure non-customers away, especially on this highly-promoted event day.

Amazon is definitely considered a top competitor of Walmart. Their tactic last year in response to Prime day was similar, and while yes, it is more reactive than proactive, there is potential to grab attention from consumers. Not only from the press but from getting impressions from consumers who will probably still be price comparing on Prime day.