The recently announced Amazon Prime Day, which will take place Wednesday, has triggered a retail war with Walmart in a development that could potentially establish Black Friday in the middle of July. Walmart announced it will also cut prices on more than 2,000 online exclusives. This is unusual for the retail giant, which normally lowers prices it calls Rollbacks on hundreds of products in its e-commerce platform throughout the year, reported USA Today.
Amazon Prime Day will be staged for the first time—to celebrate the online store's 20th anniversary—with a massive sale that will supposedly eclipse the number of deals seen on Black Friday. Interestingly, this move forced Walmart to announce its own "atomic" sales extravaganza, but it was considered to target Jet, Amazon's emerging competitor, reported CBS News. Jet is an up-and-coming online retail store that also offers a diverse product offering with bargain prices. Amazon's market share is also being threatened left and right as niche merchants, such as Netflix and Spotify, and big retail brands, such as Toys R Us, begin eating up its demographics.
The price war appears to be contained between Amazon and Walmart for now. Both camps have published remarks attacking each other's promotions. Clearly referring to Amazon Prime's $99 membership requirement, Fernando Madeira, president and CEO of Walmart, said in a July 13 blog post that "the idea of asking customers to pay extra in order to save money just doesn't add up to us."
Not to be outdone, Greg Greeley, Amazon Prime global VP, indirectly attacked Walmart when he declared, "We've heard some retailers are charging higher prices for items in their physical stores than they than do for the same items online," in an interview with CNNMoney.
The consumers seem to be the clear winners in the e-commerce war so far. The huge sales Wednesday on both online stores include electronics, home goods, clothing, books, toys, baby and food products and many more items. In addition to bargain prices, both stores will also offer free shipping.
