Amazon's Third Annual Prime Day Will Be July 11

Amazon.com announced this week that its third annual Prime Day will be Tues., July 11. The retailer's discount day was originally launched to celebrate its 20th anniversary and to provide an e-commerce alternative to Black Friday. TechCrunch reports there will be 30 hours of sales, starting at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on Mon., July 10 and continuing through all of Tues., July 11. Amazon is tempting customers with deals that will be refreshing on the site up to "every five minutes." The deals will only be available to Amazon Prime members, although shoppers can sign up for free 30-day trial, which will give them access to the Prime Day deals.

Total Retail's Take: In my experience as an Amazon shopper, Prime Day has been more hype than substance. Last year's cyber sale was Amazon's biggest day ever in sales revenue, however, consumers complained about checkout glitches, blackouts on the site and poor deals (some items averaging at 15 cents off of a purchase). This year, Amazon is organizing its sales by category — pets, techies, gardeners, etc. — and extending Prime Day in hopes of besting last year's record sales.