Prime Day Is a Bigger Threat Than Ever for Rivals
This year the Amazon event is serving as the kickoff to the holiday shopping season rather than a summer spree. A lot more is at stake.
A Prime Day windfall for Amazon this year could mean particular pain for the rest of retail.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
In some ways, Prime Day is the same as ever – a concocted, hype-filled holiday for Amazon.com Inc. to lure more people to sign up for a membership. But the deals blitz is different in at least one key way this year: It’s a much more high-stakes affair for retailers that are not Amazon.
Timing is one reason. Prime Day has typically taken place in July, a fairly sleepy time of year for the retail industry. Amazon competitors have long tried to piggyback off the event with deals of their own, but if it didn’t work, it didn’t matter so much. Back-to-school and holiday shopping were still around the corner, offering ripe opportunities to win sales and customers’ loyalty.