Amazon promises more deals than Black Friday with one-day global sale
Amazon is to offer members of its Prime service thousands of exclusive deals in a promotional stunt it claims will be bigger than the discounts it runs on the Black Friday shopping day.
Prime Day launches next week (15 July), offering Prime members in the UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, Francs, Canada and Austria the chance to receive unlimited, fast, free delivery on certain items. The first deals will surface at midnight with new offers emerging as frequently as every ten minutes.
In the UK, Amazon customers will be able to join Prime before 8 July for £59 for the first year as part of the promotion. A nationwide photo contest will also trumpet the sale by inviting Prime members to submit pictures of moments that best captures how one of Prime's features has benefited them. Whether it's the perfect playlist to a summer BBQ or the arrival of a long-awaited gadget, members can submit their snaps to Prime Photos between 6 July and 15 July for the chance to win $100,000 to spend on Amazon.co.uk. Photos are shared on Amazon's social channels with the #PrimeLiving hashtag daily and one winner wull be selected from each country. Winners will also be invited to have their photos become screen savers on Amazon Fire TV.
The move, along with the global sale, are Amazon's latest attempts to convert more of its customers into paid-up members of the Prime subscription service. Despite its dominance of the ecommerce space, the retailer has famously struggled to turn a profit.
“Prime Day is a one-day only event filled with more deals than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members around the globe. Members tell us every day how much they love
Prime and we will keep making it better,” said Amazon's vice president for Prime Greg Greeley. “If you’re not already a Prime member, you’ll want to join so you don’t miss out on one of the biggest deals extravaganzas in the world.”
Since it launched in 2007, Prime's service has grown to 10 million eligible items for fast delivery and added a host of features including unlimited streaming of movies and access to 800,000 Kindle books. Last week, it launched one- hour delivery exclusively for Prime members in selected London postcodes.