July sales are heating up as retailers look to slow Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Day momentum, and drive consumers to their sites with deals of their own.
Amazon AMZN, +0.25% is hosting its Prime Day shopping event across two days this year, July 15 and 16. The e-commerce giant says there will be more than one million deals across 18 countries, including price discounts on televisions and Amazon devices.
The company will also launch exclusive products and celebrity collaborations like merchandise from Nickelodeon’s JoJo Siwa and a Schwinn electric bike just for Prime members.
Read: How Amazon and Walmart’s next-day shipping could bust your budget
Amazon has more than 100 million Prime members and Prime Day has turned into a major annual shopping event, with competing retailers looking to take advantage of the Black Friday-like frenzy.
On Wednesday, eBay Inc. EBAY, +0.69% announced three weeks of July deals. That includes an additional “Crash Sale” on July 15, bringing even more goods into the mix, as a flick at Amazon’s site crash last year, which happened for a brief period. Ebay is promising technology deals, among other promotions.
According to the 2019 Amazon Consumer Behavior report from Feedvisor, a platform that uses artificial intelligence to serve large Amazon sellers, 43% of Amazon shoppers also turn to eBay, while 52% also head to Walmart.com WMT, +0.05%
Meanwhile, Target Corp. TGT, -0.19% is launching its “Target Deal Days” on July 15-16, highlighting that this sale doesn’t require a membership, and shoppers won’t have to wait for their purchases thanks to the pickup and same-day delivery options it offers.
Deals will include private-label brands that are rarely on sale, Target said.
Last year, Target had a one-day online sale that the company says was one of the biggest days of the year for its digital business.
See: Target shoppers who use same-day delivery at urban stores buy five times more items
And Walmart Inc. WMT, +0.05% will have “thousands” of discounts between Sunday, July 14 and Wednesday, July 17, the company said, with items like HP laptops and Dyson vacuums included.
“Amazon’s announcement that its annual Prime Day promotion now requires ‘pluralizing’ as it will be two days this year, running July 15 and 16, following 2018’s 36-hour ‘day,’ will make an already acutely competitive retail environment even tougher,” said Charlie O’Shea, Moody’s vice president.
“This is yet another example of the flexibility Amazon has to push the pricing envelope, in this case to broaden and deepen the benefits to Prime members, which creates a conundrum for all retailers, with the smaller, financially weaker retailers the most at risk.”
Strategically, competitors should make an effort to steal a bit of Amazon’s thunder. According to a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted by digital ad and analytics agency Adlucent, about 72% of shoppers will go beyond Amazon to comparison shop.
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Still, Adlucent is forecasting that 2019 will be the biggest Amazon Prime Day ever.
“Remember that brands can do their best by striving to be as agile as possible and understand that Amazon may throw some curve balls,” Adlucent said. “If possible, brands should use the opportunity to build sales velocity on their existing listings or launch new ones in anticipation of Prime Day. If they are able to run additional promotions, increase budgets or get in on deals, they’ll have the best chance of success on the big day.”
Amazon stock has rallied 26.4% in 2019, the Amplify Online Retail ETF IBUY, +0.17% has gained 21%, and the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.32% is up 16.2% for the period.