Dive Brief:
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Kohl's is the latest retailer to muscle in on Amazon's Prime Day, on Thursday announcing its "Wow Deals event" to be held in stores and online June 21 and 22.
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Like Walmart and Target, which also announced sales that compete with Prime Day, Kohl's has the advantage of stores, where customers can pick up many of their purchases, often the same day. Amazon runs fewer than 600 stores, most of them Whole Foods grocers.
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Research shows that consumers are increasingly viewing the summertime sales event as an opportunity to find deals, including for back to school and even the holidays, and not just at Amazon.
Dive Insight:
When it comes to Prime Day, Walmart has wasted no time defending itself, jumping in with its own deals the very first year.
Shoppers by now look for deals beyond Amazon. In a survey of more than 20,000 global consumers, half said they plan to shop at Amazon on Prime Day this year, and almost a quarter said they'll shop at more than one retailer, according to emailed research from Bazaarvoice.
E-commerce analytics platform Profitero found that consumers are as likely to shop for deals at other retailers as they are on Amazon and that more than half plan to price check Prime Day deals. Wherever they shop, the event is a draw, with Numerator finding that 70% of consumers have previously shopped the sale.
Some sales will be a wash, considering that a fair number of people are looking to Prime Day to shop for back-to-school (12%, per Numerator) and even holiday (29%) — purchases they are likely to make one way or another.
