[Crew Review] Target and Walmart vs. Prime Day

 One step ahead

Stealing the thunder

You may be hyped up about the coming Prime Day (or stressed out because you can’t send in more inventory). Whichever the case, Amazon’s annual event is expected to result in more revenue for sellers. Last year, it raked in $10.4 billion in sales.

This year, Walmart and Target are once again rivaling the ecommerce giant with its own sales events that overlap with Prime Day. Target has Target Deal Days while Walmart has Deals for Days.

Here’s how Target Deal Days gains an advantage over Prime Day:

• It starts a day earlier and is longer (3 days).
• There’s no membership requirement to take advantage of deals on all categories.
• It offers same-day fulfillment.

Walmart, on the other hand, is offering Black Friday-like savings both online and in-store, and its event is also a three-dayer.

This isn’t the first time that the two retailers are hosting so-called Anti-Prime Day events. In 2019, they both opened on July 15, the same date as Prime Day. But this time, they’re taking one step ahead by opening a day earlier.

We’ll have to see how this would affect Amazon’s sales.

Jeff is leaving Earth

Bezos is known for his ambitious vision for Amazon: Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work.

But now, he’s finally taking a break from his efforts at world domination to take a really short vacation in space with his brother—11 minutes, to be exact.

He made the announcement in an Instagram post that includes him saying I love you to his best friend and brother, Mark. (All together now: Aaawwww!)

They will be on board the New Shepard, which was made by Bezos’ space exploration company, Blue Origin. You can watch it in action here. (Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks it looks like a giant toy not made for children.)

Image Source: CNBC

The good news is, you can join Jeff and his brother in the journey. I wanted to, but I realized I’m a couple million dollars short. If you happen to go, send us some pictures.

mDesign acquires first Amazon marketplace seller

If mDesign doesn’t sound familiar to you, then you’re not up-to-date about Amazon’s top sellers.

Recently, the company announced the acquisition of its first Amazon marketplace seller, its first move towards marketplace consolidating.

For now, it will focus on the niche it knows best—home organization.

Founded only in 2015, the brand is doing extremely well, roughly doubling its growth year over year. And as for its marketing expenses, CEO Stacey Renfro says it spends only five to six percent. Enviable numbers, indeed!

Google’s ad changes

While Google’s share in US digital ads decreased in favor of Amazon and Facebook, it’s still number 1 overall. This means governments are looking closely at it to see if it’s breaking any antitrust laws.

Recently, the company paid $268 million in fines to settle a case alleging its abuse in digital advertising.

As part of the settlement, Google will

• no longer allow AdX (previously known as DoubleClick Ad Exchange) to use competitors’ bids to optimize its own bids, and
• give rival ad servers equal access to advertising auction data

The investigation started way back in 2019 after a complaint from a news publishing group. (Press groups are some of those most affected by Google’s advertising practices because of their heavy dependence on ad revenues.)

The settlement provisions are binding only in France, but may bring changes to the company’s overall operations. It’s the practical thing to do if you know your current system can potentially lead to millions of dollars in fines.

Sell with Sells

Ian Sells founded Million Dollar Sellers (MDS) and Rebate Key, two big names in the ecommerce industry.

He’s currently working on another project, which is becoming an Amazon seller’s dream tool. For one, it allows you to launch products in minutes. It also provides you a customizable dashboard that allows you to see the most important metrics at a glance.

He’ll talk about it and more on June 16 at 10 AM (PST).

Join us for free.