Amazon Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Major Prime Day Deals
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Online shoppers, take your marks – Amazon Prime Day is just hours away.
Amazon.com is hosting its first-ever Prime Day to celebrate the site's 20th birthday with Black Friday-style deals, like $60 off the Fire HD 7 tablet, a $115 40-inch 1080p LED TV and a $199 Chromebook laptop.
The online shopping giant says they will have more deals on Prime Day than on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Experts say the event is possibly an "experiment" by Amazon to see how shoppers react to the sale.
"Black Friday is an event because it kicks off the holiday shopping season," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said. "I don't think an event in mid-July will have much impact and view it as more of a test by Amazon during a slow period to see how a special Prime shopping day is received by its customers."
Amazon doesn't release the number of Prime members it has, but Pachter estimates there are 35 million to 40 million.
The buzz around Prime Day spurred Wal-Mart to counterattack with its own summer sale. The big box giant lowered the threshold for free shipping for online purchases from $35 to $50 for at least 30 days and will offer discounts on thousands of items online Wednesday.
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