Amazon's Prime Day e-commerce extravaganza has kicked off and deals abound for a bevy of in-house products and brands in what amounts to a big customer acquisition grab for the company's retail subscription.
The first two Amazon Prime Days rivaled Black Friday in terms of volume and sales. For Amazon, Prime Day lands more subscribers, who get shipping, music, video and a host of other goodies. This year, Amazon's big sale may also be a way to not only land Prime members, but also jump-start e-commerce via Alexa. Should voice purchases pay off, Alexa could lead to more impulse buys. Amazon is running special deals for Alexa.
But this Amazon Prime Day is a bit different because it'll be about more than deals on the Kindle Paperwhite and various e-readers from the e-commerce giant. Lightning deals only tell part of the story.
Why? Amazon's Prime Day comes as the Amazon-as-disruptor storyline hits its stride. Now Amazon disrupting markets isn't anything new. Amazon rewrote how enterprise IT is delivered with Amazon Web Services. Amazon has extended into everything from content and video to advertising to hardware to various services both physical and digital.
All Amazon's acquisition of Whole Foods did was accelerate that disruption storyline. Prime Day is now seen as the death knell to all brick-and-mortar retail. Last year, retailers responded with promotions in kind. This year, some retailers are fighting back, but many just kinda wave a white surrender flag and close a few more stores. After all, how can you compete with Amazon when it nails free same-day delivery in the future?
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I overheard three guys at the gym talking about Amazon's disruption and facilities build out. I take this conversation to be the equivalent as the woman down the street a few years ago that took out a ton of debt to flip houses just before the real estate bubble crashed.
Here's the funny thing: Amazon isn't going to kill all of retail. Wal-Mart and a host of other well-run retailers that can deliver a good experience will beg to differ. Nonetheless, Amazon's transformative Whole Foods deal put everyone on notice.
Consider:
See:Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' 2017 annual letter: What decision-makers can learn
It's unclear if Amazon can remain a first-day company forever because world domination can also be distracting over time.