Major summer sales from retailers like Amazon, Walmart and JD.com are continuing to shift consumer shopping patterns from a traditional annual spike in December to a series of smaller surges throughout the year.
Walmart on Monday said its “Walmart Deals” sale would run from July 8 to 11, offering price cuts on items electronics, home, toys, and travel, including top-selling items for the back-to-school season. To drive further sales into those four days, the Bentonville, Arkansas-bases company will also grant early shopping access to its Walmart+ members, who pay monthly subscriptions to get free shipping on e-commerce.
The event follows Walmart+ Week, which wrapped on June 23 and offered those Walmart+ members special benefits like increased fuel savings and Walmart Cash on travel bookings through Walmart+ Travel.
Those sales come just days before Amazon holds its 10th annual Prime Day event on July 16 and 17, the Seattle-based e-commerce company announced on Tuesday. Amazon drives a jump in sales on those days by offering its subscribers access to short-term offers from certain retailers and by announcing new deals at frequent intervals throughout the two-day surge.
Amazon further promoted the event by running ads featuring pop star Megan Thee Stallion unveiling the Prime Day sales dates through a music video and original song.
And the Chinese mega-retailer JD.com held a similar event just weeks earlier, holding its “2024 JD 618 Grand Promotion” on June 18. According to the company, 83 brands achieved a cumulative transaction volume exceeding $137 million, and more than 150,000 small and medium-sized merchants saw a 50% increase in sales.
