Wal-Mart to counterattack Amazon's 'Prime Day' with online sale
World's largest retailer cuts prices in battle with giant of online retailing
Walmart Stores is cutting prices on thousands of products this week in a counterattack to Prime Day, an event Amazon.com is using to promote its subscription service.
Walmart will begin the sale on Wednesday, the same day as Amazon's much-publicized promotion. During Prime Day, Amazon will offer special discounts to members of its service, which costs $99 a year.
The move marks an escalating battle between Walmart's e-commerce site and Amazon, the world's largest online retailer. Walmart also has been developing its own competitor to Prime that will cost $50 a year, half the cost. But it won't have the same speed of delivery as Prime or some of the other perks, such as Amazon's streaming video and music services.
Walmart's promotion this week is a separate from that push, and the deals are available to all customers. Fernando Madeira, president of Walmart.com, took a dig at Amazon in a blog post on Monday, saying that Wal-Mart's discounts won't be only for people who pay for a membership.
"We've heard some retailers are charging $100 to get access to a sale," Fernando said. "But the idea of asking customers to pay extra in order to save money just doesn't add up for us."
As part of the effort, Walmart also is lowering its minimum purchase for free shipping to $35 from $50.
Walmart, the world's biggest retail chain, is betting that online sales can help pull it out of a broader slump. The Bentonville, Ark.-based company cut its sales forecast in February, and higher spending on wages and other investments have raised concerns for investors.
Walmart has been trying for years to get a bigger share of online retail sales. It opened sleek offices in Silicon Valley, hired hundreds of programmers and acquired tech companies. Walmart's online sales increased 17 percent in the first quarter.
This story was originally published July 14, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Wal-Mart to counterattack Amazon's 'Prime Day' with online sale ."