Amazon.com Inc. said Wednesday that this year’s Prime Day event will take place July 11-12 and will have a greater focus on small-business products for U.S. shoppers than in the past.
The event will kick off at 3 a.m. Eastern time with savings on products from brands including Lancôme, Kérastase, Peloton, Victoria’s Secret, Yeti, the Drop and Sony, as well as exclusive deals on D’Amelio Footwear, OPI and Alo Yoga, the e-commerce giant said in a statement.
This year, Amazon
AMZN,
is offering a new program in which Prime members can request an invitation to get access to certain deals that are expected to sell out. The list includes up to 75% off an Amazon Fire 43-inch Omni Series TV, which is expected to meet with strong demand.
The company also highlighted a deal offering 60% off the Bulova Marine Star Chronograph, 55% off JBL Live 660NC noise-canceling headphones and 50% off the FOREO LUNA 3 facial-cleansing brush.
Members who ask for an invitation will be notified during Prime Day and told how to make their purchase at the special price. The company said new deals will drop every 30 minutes during select periods of the event.
The company will offer back-to-school deals priced under $5, $10 and $20 ahead of the event. Shoppers can also ask Alexa for deal notifications and for an event reminder.
Prime membership currently costs $14.99 a month, or $139 a year.
Not to be outdone by its rival, Target Corp.
TGT,
said Wednesday that members of its Target Circle loyalty program will be able to access Target Circle Week deals July 9-15 this year, a time frame that partially overlaps that of the Amazon event.
Members of the Target Circle program, which is free to join, will get up to 50% off certain items and see other discounts as well, including on Dyson vacuums and Keurig coffee makers.
Target Circle has more than 100 million members who can get deals in stores, online and via the Target app. The retailer highlighted deals including 50% off select Sun Squad items, including outdoor pools and water toys; 30% off certain children’s clothing; 20% off all Barbie products; and a $350 discount on a Lenovo 15.6-inch touch-screen IdeaPad 3i laptop, which will be offered for $389.99, compared with its regular price of $739.99.
Meanwhile, the Federal Trade Commission said it it has taken action against Amazon, alleging that millions of consumers were “duped” into enrolling in Amazon Prime without their consent.
The FTC said in its complaint, filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, that Amazon also knowingly made the cancellation process complicated in an attempt to stop customers from dropping their Prime subscriptions.
“Amazon used manipulative, coercive, or deceptive user-interface designs known as ‘dark patterns’ to trick consumers into enrolling in automatically-renewing Prime subscriptions,” the FTC said in its complaint.
An Amazon spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Amazon shares were last down 0.7% but are up 49% year to date, while the S&P 500
SPX,
has gained 14%.
