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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Amazon.com, Walmart, eBay, Kroger and Target

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 9, 2018 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) , Walmart Inc. (WMT - Free Report) , eBay Inc. (EBAY - Free Report) , The Kroger Co. (KR - Free Report) and Target Corporation (TGT - Free Report) .

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Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:

How Will Rivals Tackle Amazon's Longest-Ever Prime Day?

Amazon.com, Inc. announced on Jul 3, that it will start its Prime Day this year on Jul 16. Starting at 3 P.M. (Eastern Time), Amazon’s Prime Day will last for 36 hours, more than last year’s 30 hours. This would be the longest Prime Day ever for Amazon since its start in 2015.

The company is gearing up to offer at least one million deals including those on all the Whole Foods Market stores in the United States. Moreover, Amazon is also focused on exploring new markets beyond the United States. In this respect, it is wise to evaluate some of its competitors and they way they are preparing to counter Amazon’s assault.

Walmart All Geared Up To Counter Amazon

The "best Prime Day celebration,” is definitely good news for Amazon and a matter of worry for its competitors. However, one of Amazon’s major competitors, Walmart Inc. is in no mood to sit back. In fact, new customers of Walmart will get a discount of $10 on about 3 different orders using the code, "WALMART3" on pickups of $50 or higher till Jul 31.

Additionally, the company’s credit card holders will be subjected to cash back of 3% on any grocery pickup service from Walmart. Although, Amazon’s cash back offer is comparatively higher than Walmart’s, the latter does not bear a “Prime” membership charge of $119 per year. Both Amazon and Walmart have a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Amazon Prime Day is a major catalyst to bring back-to-school shopping season. Following this development, Walmart recently launched a new online shopping feature, 3D Virtual Shopping Tour that will showcase around 70 different items. Also, from this month, shoppers are offered with curated collections. Walmart’s 3D shopping feature along with its curated collections is known as “Buy the Room.”

Ebay, Target Prepared to Compete

Also, like Amazon, eBay Inc. announced on Jul 3 that it will offer "thousands of exclusive deals" starting Jul 16. It will be a weeklong affair and the best part is that no membership will required to avail these offers. “Hundreds of brands" will be participating.

Other big retail companies like The Kroger Co. is also focused on competing with Amazon by investing heavily in automated warehouses. Further, Target Corporation has gone into a partnership with membership-based grocery service provider, Shipt.

The main focus of the partnership is to provide customers faster delivery, which is on the same day. Also, Target has offered a gift card of $5, when customers buy select household essentials for $25 or higher.

Summing Up

Amazon’s Longest Ever Prime Day is definitely going to bring a lot of good news for the company. Additionally, the overall retail industry will also remain busy as several other key players like Walmart, Ebay, Kroger and Target have their guns blazing to compete with Amazon. In this respect, this year is truly going to be one of the biggest ever for the retail market.

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About Zacks Equity Research

Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term.

Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons.

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