Battle of the Sales: Amazon and Walmart Hosting Rival “Black Friday” Sales This Week
Battle of the sales! | Susan Law Cain / Joe Ravi / Shutterstock.com
This Thursday marks Amazon’s 20th anniversary (feel old yet?). The e-tailer announced earlier this month that it would celebrate with a massive, major, better-than-ever sale called “Prime Day,” during which Amazon Prime members can shop exclusive sales and enjoy “more deals than Black Friday.” They told us to mark our calendars — Prime Day kicks off this Wednesday at midnight — but stayed relatively mum on the rest of the details.
And then today, Walmart threw its hat into the ring, announcing that it, too, would be holding a massive, major, better-than-ever sale. On Wednesday.
While Amazon’s deals are for Prime members only (these customers pay $99 a year for free two-day shipping and access to things like music streaming), Walmart is boasting that its sales are for everyone. Walmart.com CEO Fernando Madeira wrote in a blog post that went up today:
“We’re kicking off some awesome deals this week that will be available for everybody with no hidden costs or admission fees, and they won’t be available for just one day. Our customers will see thousands of great deals on Rollback beginning this week along with some special atomic deals (more on that in the days to come). In addition, we’re rolling back our free shipping minimum order to $35 from $50, making it even easier for customers to save on shipping all summer long.”
Touché.
In the end, it seems we shoppers are the true winners here. My suggestion: Let’s sit back and watch the battle between the commerce giants play out. And on Wednesday, July 15th, let us all shop what is shaping up to be the most epic online sale day ever. Check back here for updates on sale details, and which one has wooed us more.
