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Amazon Prime Day kicks off with big sales, but Target not sitting idle

As Prime Day arrives Monday, expanded this year a bit to 36 hours, at least one retail competitor is fighting back.

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July 16, 2018

As Amazon's annual Prime Day shopping bonanza kicks off at noon Pacific time today, with an extra 12 hours of deals, at least one top competitor isn't sitting idle.

Target will host its own big sale day come Tuesday, during the last hours of Amazon's Prime Day event.

According to a lengthy press release Amazon's three-year-old Prime Day will feature more than one million deals worldwide and 140 ‘spotlight' deals in the U.S., from $20 savings on the Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote to up to 50 percent off apparel from Amazon's brands with additional select deals happening at its Whole Foods Market stores, pop-up locations and even its roving Treasure Truck.

The omnichannel giant has even launched a 'live' Prime Day programming channel on its site, ala QVC style, and its Amazon App will feature ‘watch a deal' alerts. For those consumers not wanting to sit in front of a PC or laptop or smartphone, deal hunting can be done via Amazon's Alexa devices.

This year's Prime Day is also now available in four more countries, including Australia and Singapore.

But Target isn't about to just let all the online shopping happen at Amazon. It's launching one-day sale deals on its website on July 17 and touting that no membership fee is required. At Amazon the Prime Day deals are only available to Prime members, a subscription-based membership (either $119 annually or $12.99 per month).

According to a press release Target.com will offer "great deals" all day long with free two-day shipping on purchases above $35. Consumers spending $100 or more will get a free six-month membership for same-day delivery via Shipt.

The Target.com deals include 30 percent off Target-exclusive home brands, 25 percent on beauty and personal care, up to 30 percent off top Google products and sales on everything from toys to cookware to appliances.

Prime Day was launched to mark Amazon's 20th anniversary in 2015. Since then other retailers have embarked on similar unique sale day events including Wayfair's Way Day in April.

As Retail Customer Experience reported earlier this year Way Day, which took place April 25, was created for North American customers as a Spring sales event on par with traditional holiday sales days of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Target, as reported in Retail Customer Experience's 2018 Top 100 report (sponsored by ReviewPush and available free for download), is not only battling Amazon and Walmart these days but Costco as well. The wholesale club knocked Target out of its long-held No. 3 spot in the annual ranking. The report also boasts an insightful commentary by Mobile Payments Today editor Will Hernandez on what retailers will have to do if they want to beat Amazon at customer experience — specifically how to respond to Amazon's Amazon Go concept.