Walmart also claims a win in the battle with Amazon
NEW YORK - Walmart (WMT) says its counteroffensive against Amazon's (AMZN) big sale called Prime Day seemed to pay off.
The world's largest retailer, which discounted about 2,000 items on Wednesday, said the last three days have been some of its best ever for online orders, but it didn't give specifics.
The discounter, based in Bentonville, Arkansas, also said shoppers were finding ways to speed up the delivery of items. It noted that Wednesday was the highest day of the year for same-day pickup at its stores, with orders increasing triple digits over the same day last year.
That service allows shoppers to order online and then pick their purchases up at a store the same day. Among the top-selling items Wednesday were an Apple (APPL) iPad Air 2 for $399.99 and $12.35 for Anna and Kristoff dolls from Disney's (DIS) "Frozen."
Last week, Amazon announced a sale it called Prime Day that it promised would have more deals than the Black Friday shopping bonanza. The sale, which commemorates Amazon's 20th anniversary, was aimed at Prime members, who pay $99 annual fee for free shipping.
But some shoppers expressed disappointment in the sale because they thought the discounts weren't deep enough or the items were less than desirable.
But it still drove traffic and sales for the online retailer. Amazon announced Thursday its "Prime Day" sale led to a sales surge and "hundreds of thousands" of new signups for its $99 annual Prime loyalty program.
Amazon said Thursday that in the U.S. and nine countries around the globe that offer the Prime program, shoppers ordered 398 items per second, exceeding the rate of ordering on Black Friday, the busy shopping day after Thanksgiving. It said worldwide order growth more than quadrupled over the same day last year, which is typically a lackluster sales day, and climbed 18 percent more than Black Friday 2014.
The company said it aims to make the sale an annual event.