Walmart Crashes Amazon's Birthday Bash

Walmart scrambled to pooh-pooh “Prime Day” and launch a rival sale after Amazon announced it will pull out all the stops for its 20th birthday celebration.The e-commerce juggernaut is promising a one-day shopping event on July 15 that it says will offer more deals than Black Friday. The lower prices will be available only to Prime members, who pay $99 a year to be part of the service in exchange for free two-day shipping and access to video streaming, music and books, as well as photo storage.In a post on its corporate blog, Walmart lashed out at Amazon for the exclusivity of the sale. “We’ve heard some retailers are charging $100 to get access to a sale. But the idea of asking customers to pay extra in order to save money just doesn’t add up for us … We’re kicking off some awesome deals this week that will be available for everybody with no hidden costs or admission fees, and they won’t be available for just one day.”While shooting venom at its rival, Walmart also sweetened the pot for consumers. The mass merchant on Monday reduced the minimum order for free shipping from $50 to $35 (for at least 30 days, according to reports). And on Wednesday Walmart will offer more than 2,000 online-exclusive Rollbacks on items in categories such as electronics, home, baby and toys. (The retailer typically has hundreds of Rollbacks during any given time throughout the year that generally last 90 days.) The blog post also promised unspecified “atomic deals” in the days to come. On walmart.com, home page carousel ads tout the new $35 free shipping minimum and “dare [consumers] to compare,” boasting prices at or below those offered by Amazon on top products. A July 14 email blast supported. The retailer also used its mobile application to promote the reduced shipping minimum with a push notification. Meanwhile, a July 12 Facebook update reiterated the comparison dare.In related news, Walmart also is offering a Shipping Pilot program in some markets that grants free, unlimited three-day shipping for $50 a year.

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