Justin Sullivan
Attention, shoppers! Top U.S. retailers are running their summer sales events this week, vying to attract bargain-hunters in what could be one of the busiest shopping periods of the year.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Prime Day – potentially the biggest shopping event this summer – will begin on Tuesday (July 8) and has been extended from the usual two days to four.
Bank of America said the extension suggests that Amazon “(NASDAQ:AMZN) has greater retail logistics capacity to offer promotions, and that inventory availability is not a constraint.” BofA forecast over $21B in gross merchandise volume for the event, up about 60% Y/Y.
According to NielsenIQ, Amazon’s (AMZN) two-day Prime Day event in 2024 “rivaled the scale of the entire five-day Cyber 5 weekend, which includes Thanksgiving, Black Friday, the weekend following, and Cyber Monday.”
Given the success of Prime Day over the years since 2015, other retailers have launched their own competing events. Walmart (NYSE:WMT) will kick off “Walmart Deals” on July 8, one-upping Amazon by extending the event from four days to six.
The event will happen both online and in its 4,600 U.S. stores for the first time, with early access to be given to Walmart+ members starting Tuesday (July 7) at 7 pm ET.
Other events: Target (TGT) Circle Week on July 6–12; Best Buy’s (BBY) “Black Friday in July” sale on July 7–13; Kohl’s (KSS) Summer Cyber Deals on July 7–10.