As the shopping mall model evolves and online retail grows, Smith shares his predictions for the future of physical stores.
Amazon Expands Prime Day Again
Starting on July 16, this year’s event is 36 hours long and features exclusive launches, Whole Foods deals and pop-up events.

Seattle--Amazon’s Prime Day is back and bigger than ever.
Prime Day will start at 12 p.m. PST/3 p.m. EST on July 16 and will run through July 17, making it 36 hours total and six hours longer than last year’s 30-hour shopping event.
It will feature more than one million deals exclusive to Prime members in the U.S., U.K., Spain, Mexico, Japan, India, Italy, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium and Austria, as well as four new countries: Australia, Singapore, Netherlands and Luxembourg.
Amazon has added a number of new features to this year’s event, like Prime Day Launches, giving Prime members access to exclusive new items, content and special edition launches from well-known and emerging brands.
For the first time, it also has looped upscale grocery chain Whole Foods (which it now owns) into the Prime Day activities: Prime members will receive an additional 10 percent off hundreds of sale items throughout Whole Foods Market stores as well as discounts on select products.
Additionally, from July 14 to 17, Amazon Prime Rewards Visa card members with an eligible Prime membership will get 10 percent back when shopping at Whole Foods.
To help build excitement around Prime Day, giant Amazon boxes will make their way to New York City, Los Angeles, London, Tokyo and Milan, where they will be opened to reveal a pop-up event “in a nod to the unparalleled benefits that come with a Prime membership including music, video, gaming and more,” Amazon said.
Consumers across the world can join in on the festivities at Amazon.com/UnboxingPrimeDay.
Prime Day 2018 also will feature 50 percent more Spotlight Deals, its deepest discounts on top brands and popular products, as well as double the deals on Amazon devices.
Amazon said last year its 2017 Prime Day--which was six hours longer than the 2016 event--was its biggest sales day in company history, reporting that sales during the event were up by more than 60 percent when compared with the same 30-hour period in 2016.
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