By now, it’s become common knowledge that both Walmart and Target are actively competing with Amazon in just about every way they can manage. After all, they have to try and match Amazon at every turn if they want to keep up with Amazon’s constant advances.
That’s why Target is trying to step on Amazon’s toes during the largest day of online sales for the company; Amazon Prime Day. Of course, most everyone has heard by now that Amazon Prime ‘Day’ is actually going to be two days this year, on June 15th and 16th. Incidentally, these two days are the exact same as the ‘Target Deal Days’ the titular company is launching as their biggest sale of the summer.
Naturally Target hasn’t outright said that this scheme is intended to oppose Amazon and it’s two day online sale, but then again, they don’t really have to. The fact that they’re having their online sale at the exact same time as Amazon is evidence enough. After all, they could have easily made their online deal days the 17th and 18th, but they didn’t. And of course, Target did go out of its way to state that “no membership is required to shop thousands of deals.” That could be innocent advertising, or it could be a direct jab at Amazon Prime and its $119 a year membership.
Besides, Target did this last year as well, having an online deal day the exact same day as Amazon Prime Day, and it ended up being the best day of online sales that year. There’s really no reason to assume the sale won’t be equally successful this year, if not more so since it will be two days instead of one. Not to mention Target is planning to have even better discounts this year. According to them, they’ll even have items that are rarely on sale at a good price.
“This year, we’re giving guests more discounts across even more of our assortment with two days to save on hundreds of thousands of items and offering the best options in retail for delivery and pick up on their terms, including same-day.”
On top of all of this, Red Card holders will get an extra 5% off everything. Naturally, digital sales have become an important part of any major retailer looking to stay competitive, and Target is no exception. It’s worth noting that around 7.1% of Target’s revenue from 2018 was due to online sales, which doesn’t seem like much, but is a notable improvement from 2017’s percentage of 5.5%. It’s safe to assume that online sales will continue to grow at a steady pace in the years to follow, which lends credence to Target’s online sales pitch during Amazon Prime Day.
As for how much of an affect this will actually have on Amazon’s own profits, it’s probably safe to say that the detriment will be negligible.
