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The pre-Christmas sale comes amid a strong year for shares of online retailer and cloud computing company Amazon.
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Amazon. com announced it would hold a two-day “Prime Big Deals Day” on October 10th and 11th ahead of the holiday shopping season. This follows a summer Prime Day sale that took place on July 11th and 12th.
The company hosted events during a similar period in 2022; Last year’s event in October was called the Prime Early Access Sale.
Amazon noted in an announcement that Prime Day sales will be expanded this year to some partners who use the company’s Buy with Prime feature, which extends free shipping and other features to other sites. Shoppers can already see some of the Prime Day deals on the company’s website.
Amazon’s online store business is showing initial signs of strengthening after several weak quarters. Online sales were $53 billion in the June quarter, up 4% year over year. Street estimates tracked by FactSet are calling for online store sales in the September quarter (including Prime Day) of $56.7 billion, up 6.1% year over year.
Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart (WMT) responded to Amazon’s announcement on Monday by unveiling plans for a “Wal-Mart Deals – Holiday Kickoff” sales event beginning the evening of Oct. 9, one day before Amazon – and extends until October 12th – one day after the Amazon event ends.
On Monday, Amazon shares fell 0.5% to $139.65. The stock is up 67% year to date.
Write to Eric J. Savitz at [email protected]