Amazon shoppers will get another chance at Black Friday—in July. The e-commerce giant will hold its second annual summer marketing blitz, known as Prime Day, on July 12.
Last year, Amazon debuted its much-hyped Prime Day on July 15, a one-day sale exclusively for members of its Prime subscription shopping service. The company’s goal is to create a new shopping holiday like Black Friday—the busy shopping day after Thanksgiving—to encourage more spending on its site.
Amazon’s Prime Day follows in the footsteps of Chinese rival Alibaba, which created its shopping blitz, Singles Day, six years ago. It has since turned into the most successful global shopping holiday by sales by by a single company, with over $14 billion in sales in a single day.
Last year, Amazon said it broke sales records on Prime Day that it set during Black Friday 2014. Amazon said its second Prime Day will include more than 100,000 deals worldwide for Prime members, who pay $99 per year for access to streamed movies, TV shows, and Amazon’s original productions in addition to free two-day shipping and one-hour delivery on certain orders.
Prime has 54 million U.S. members, up 35% from 2014, according to a recent Consumer Intelligence Research Partners report. And 38% of American households are members, according to research from investment bank Cowen.
Like last year, Prime members will be able start shopping at midnight PST, with new deals being announced as often as every five minutes. But Amazon said that the number of discounts or available inventory would be far greater than last year.
For example, Amazon said the amount of TV inventory available at a discount for Prime day is double what it had for Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined last year. It will also offer discounts on buying streaming TV shows and movies.
Additionally, Amazon has created a number of new tools for shoppers to find and track deals. This year, Amazon will let shoppers browse deals by category, such as electronics and toys. Shoppers will also be able to track specific deals and be notified when a deal is about to go live, a feature originally launched for Cyber Monday last year.
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While Amazon is bragging about the sales that will be available on Prime Day, some reports says that the discounts don’t actually live up to the hype. Products including TVs and electronics are 9% cheaper on Black Friday than Prime Day, according to analysis from market intelligence firm Market Track,. TVs, in particular, were 15% cheaper.
In anticipation of Amazon’s second Prime Day, rival Walmart started offering free one-month trials of “ShippingPass” this week, the company’s Prime competitor. ShippingPass costs $49 per year and gives members unlimited free two-day shipping.
