Power up your laptops, ladies and gentlemen. The Black Friday of Amazon kicks off the evening of July 10th. Amazon Prime Day features a myriad of deals for prime members from a wide variety of products, including electronics. For the first time, this service will be launching in China, India, and Mexico, where prime membership just recently began service. Amazon's prime service offers many benefits including free expedited shipping, unlimited video/music/photos, and much more. This expansion further accentuates the company's market share and presence globally. In addition to the newer members, US, UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium and Austria are other countries on the list. Amazon will begin "exclusive promos" starting today for all prime members until the mega shopping on July 10th.
Amazon & Whole Foods: The $13.8 Billion Deal
Things are about to get interesting in the online marketplace. Today Amazon announced the intended purchase of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Whole Foods, who has been struggling over the past few years to maintain profits, growth, and market share, has been actively searching for avenues to appease their shareholders and rise out of their rut. This acquisition could be just the path they've needed. Granted, there were discussions of other chains looking to take in the organic grocery store (including Wal-Mart), Amazon ultimately outbid contenders with an offer of 28% premium on their closing share price Thursday. Amazon has been looking to expand their fresh food offering; however, it'll be intriguing to see just how the giant plans to incorporate Whole Foods' products. As Juda Engelmayer, crisis communication and reputation management expert at HeraldPR, told CNBC in an email, "Amazon is known for its competitive pricing, and if it had bought a chain like Shoprite or Acme, it would have made more sense, but Whole Foods is a store with generally very expensive real estate, and high prices, which is the opposite of what Amazon is all about, so it'll be interesting to see how Amazon brings Whole Foods into the fold and adapts to a completely different model."