Two years after Amazon’s first Prime Day, which offers exclusive discounts to Amazon (AMZN) Prime members, other US retailers have yet to create their own sales holidays.
If a 30-hour sale on a summer Monday evening and Tuesday can sell more items for Amazon than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, why haven’t more retailers joined this game?
While the idea of having a “day” can be fun and create buzz, it’s not for everyone. Sometimes it could conflict with the brand or stray from a company’s core competency.
Discount retailers like Walmart (WMT) and Kmart (SHLD) may shun one-day sales because they like customers to believe they’re getting a bargain every day. Amazon’s major competitor, Walmart, shows little interest in creating a one-day event. With the slogan “Everyday Low Price,” the room for price cutting is limited. And the company is trying to impress customers by emphasizing “every day is a special day.”
“We offer our customers free, two-day shipping with no membership fee,” a Walmart spokeswoman wrote in an email, “which is available on great deals every day.”
Technical issues pressure retailers on sale days
For other retail players, the online sales spike during the existing holiday season already creates logistical and technical headaches. The onslaught of traffic from an additional, made-up holiday might be more of a hassle than it’s worth. Amazon has always defined itself as a technology company and has hired thousands of software engineers and scientists, so it’s already well-equipped to handle Prime Day.
However, traditional retailers are still refining the technology to meet growing online needs. It’s not uncommon for online shoppers to encounter technical issues during the holiday season.
During last year’s Black Friday, the Macy’s (M) website showed a “temporary shopping jam” message due to overflow shopping traffic. Meanwhile, Target’s (TGT) website shut down periodically because of increased traffic on Cyber Monday in 2015. The next year, the company extended the Cyber Monday sale to two days.
For its part, Nordstrom (JWN) just felt the pain of technical difficulties. Last week, the Seattle-based high-end department store launched its “one of a kind” anniversary sale to its “Prime Members”— people with Nordstrom cards. But the website crashed, in some cases emptying virtual shopping carts at checkout.
“Every time I went to check out, the website just went down completely. I had to try for six or eight hours to finally buy that product,” Kate Winford, a beauty blogger in Austin, told Yahoo Finance.