How Amazon’s rivals vie to grab a slice of the Prime Day pie

The extension of Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) Prime Day, the one-day discount sale organized for premium customers annually, to 48 hours this year is a testament to the growing popularity of the event. There is a corresponding growth in the scale at which rival retailers hold similar events to divert traffic to their own platforms. Prime Day is scheduled to commence on July 15 after midnight and last for 48 hours.

This year, the main competitor will be Target Crop. (TGT), which is all set to debut an event called Deal Days, coinciding with Prime Day. By making the offers available to all customers, unlike Prime Day which is limited to privileged customers, Target attempts to gain an advantage over Amazon. The sale event, which was aligned with Prime Day last year, turned out to be a huge success.

Also see: Amazon exits food delivery business

eBay (EBAY), which competes directly with Amazon in the online retail space, is joining the race armed with an innovative concept called Crash Sale. The sale, which officially kicks off on July 1, is organized in such a way that discounts on select items will increase if the Amazon platform crashes. It needs to be noted that Amazon.com had gone offline during the Prime Day event in the past, due to heavy traffic.

Target’s sale event, which was aligned with Prime Day, turned out to be a huge success last year

There is no doubt that the aggressive tactics by fellow retailers will have a negative impact on Amazon’s Prime Day business, and the company is not going to sit back and watch it. Amazon is trying to make the event more appealing, and undermine the ones organized by rivals, by including additional services and deals, besides broadening the purview of the free delivery offered throughout the sale period.

Last year’s Prime Day was the biggest in terms of sales volume, and Amazon expects to set a new record this year, considering the growing popularity of its products like Echo, Kindle and the Fire TV stick. Like in the past, electronics will be the most sought-after category this year too, including smart home devices, streaming gadgets, and home appliances.

Related: Amazon.com Q1 2019 Earnings Conference Call Transcript

Having recovered from the lows that followed last year’s tech selloff, Amazon shares are once again hovering near their recent peak. The stock gained about 23% since January this year and 11% in the past twelve months.

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