Wedbush Securities maintained an “outperform” rating on Amazon Tuesday on “substantial earnings growth, tempered somewhat by spending on new initiatives.” In a research note to investors before Amazon’s Thursday quarterly earnings report, analyst Michael Pachter estimated this month's Prime Day revenue at more than $1.6 billion, vs. $1 billion last year, driven by higher Prime subscription adds, back-to-school sales and voice-activated shopping. Wedbush projects Q3 revenue of $40.54 billion vs. $39.93 billion in the year-ago quarter.

Amazon’s unflagging efforts to extend its reach continued Thursday with news it was launching appliance sales via a distribution agreement with struggling retailer Sears and expanding its Treasure Truck vehicle beyond the Seattle market. Amazon was selling a smart Kenmore air conditioner Friday for $379, and the unit showed a 3½-star rating from five reviewers dating back to June 2016. Reviews for the air conditioner were mixed but it received blistering commentary for the pre-Alexa “smart” features. Customer Hubert Farnsworth posted in a 1-star review that month: “Not only does the app not offer geofencing or IFTTT [if this, then that] integration to automate the device -- arguably the only features which justify its existence, but it doesn't even work as a regular old dumb remote.” Customer WIwise also panned the Kenmore smart app as “not usable” but advised shoppers they could control the AC unit with an app by Frigidaire. A Sears news release said plans call for distribution on Amazon.com to expand to the full line of Kenmore home appliances in all U.S. markets, with Kenmore, Sears Home Services and Innovel Solutions providing “white-glove” service for delivery, installation and extended service. Customers can enable voice control for Kenmore products in the Alexa Skill Store, by linking their account and then asking Alexa to interact with their Kenmore smart appliances, Sears said. Amazon also said it’s rolling out its Treasure Truck -- a “new way to shop with Amazon” -- in select unnamed cities. We plugged in our New York City ZIP code and were told the service isn’t available yet in our area. Amazon describes Treasure Truck as offering a selection of “new, trending, local or delicious” items loaded on a truck and driven around town, “spreading joy for everyone with a smartphone and an appetite for fun.” It encouraged customers to sign up for a text notification when a truck is headed their way.

NPD is extending its “Checkout Tracking” e-commerce sales data service to consumer tech products, the company said in a Wednesday announcement. “The service will provide clients an in-depth understanding of online consumer electronics sales, which is becoming increasingly important for manufacturers and retailers alike,” it said. Streaming audio speakers and smart lighting are among the consumer tech product categories “seeing strong annual online dollar sales growth in the U.S.,” it said. Checkout Tracking data are “mined from millions of consumer receipts, which are then benchmarked against NPD’s point-of-sale and consumer survey data, to provide a complete e-commerce market picture,” the company said.

Amazon updated its statement on Consumer Watchdog’s Thursday letter to the FTC and DOJ (see 1707070048), which claimed Amazon practiced "deceptive pricing," emailing us Tuesday that CW's study "is deeply flawed, based on incomplete data and improper assumptions." The conclusions "are flat out wrong," said an Amazon spokeswoman. "We validate the reference prices provided by manufacturers, vendors and sellers against actual prices recently found across Amazon and other retailers.” Meanwhile, as of late afternoon on Prime Day (see the July 11 issue of this publication for more details), Amazon customers were shopping at “record levels” around the world, she said. The Amazon Echo speaker is the top-selling item for Prime Day, followed by Echo Dot, 23andMe DNA Test and the Fire 7 tablet, she said.

An Amazon spokeswoman called a Thursday report by Consumer Watchdog alleging deceptive pricing (see 1707070048) "misleading." The company is "obsessed with maintaining customer trust, and work[s] hard to provide meaningful reference prices," the spokeswoman emailed us. Amazon uses "a variety of systems to validate reference prices provided by manufacturers, vendors and sellers against actual prices recently found across Amazon and other retailers.”

U.S. residents can qualify for an eBay “price match guarantee” on more than 50,000 items offered for sale through its e-commerce store and those of eight competitors, the company said in a Wednesday announcement. If a shopper finds a competitor offering the same product for less, once verified, eBay will offer a coupon for the difference in price redeemable within 24 hours toward the purchase of that item, it said. Listed e-commerce competitors include Amazon, Jet and Wayfair, plus the online stores of Best Buy, Home Depot, Sears, Target and Walmart.

With preparations underway at FedEx for holiday shipping season, “the expectation is for another record peak season with multiple days that will set records for package pickup and delivery,” said Rajesh Subramaniam, chief marketing and communications officer, on a Tuesday earnings call. FedEx continues to work directly with a “relatively small number of large customers that drive the majority of the surge and demand to ensure that we have appropriate pricing related to volume expectations and capacity needs,” said Subramaniam. “We are focused on ensuring that we are compensated for the investments we make to deliver outstanding service during peak.” FedEx continues to weigh whether to impose surcharges for peak holiday demand, but hasn't “made a final decision in this regard,” he said. It continues to see growing demand “for large, heavy package delivery as a growing array of items are now being sold online,” he said. Large items like furniture, mattresses, sports and exercise equipment and big-screen TVs “are increasingly moving to the FedEx Ground network for residential delivery,” he said. “This trend has accelerated over the past 12 months, and we have made adjustments to facilities and investments in sortation technology that enable outstanding service for these larger packages. We're continuing to analyze pricing and surcharges for oversized packages to ensure that we have appropriate pricing for the service provided.” That demand for delivery of large packages continues to grow is “just the nature of e-commerce," said FedEx Ground CEO Henry Maier in Q&A. “We are making investments in material handling and lifting technologies to address that. We review hub designs over the normal course of business that account for package size. So that would divert packages, for instance, that we would have to handle manually today to a more automated mode.”

Reports that Best Buy will team with Lumoid to offer a “try before you buy” rental service are “generally accurate,” except for the product categories the service will cover, spokeswoman Paula Baldwin emailed us Monday. Contrary to the reports, “drones will not be available for rental -- but health & fitness, digital imaging and smart home devices will be,” Baldwin said. The service will launch later this month at BestBuy.com, Baldwin said. “It is a not an in-store offering,” she said: “When customers visit bestbuy.com, they’ll be able to use Lumoid to try out products” in the selected categories “for a period of time (usually about a week),” she said.

President Donald Trump's planned renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement should include policy positions supported by the tech sector, the Internet Association said Tuesday. Trump said last month he plans to update the 1994 deal (see 1705180050). A NAFTA revamp should include a specific e-commerce chapter that would “maintain an open internet,” language protecting the fair use doctrine and Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512 safe harbors, IA said. The update should ensure trade rules protect e-commerce because the agreement's existing rules “do not accommodate package-level e-commerce export, the industry group said. “Promoting internet-friendly disciplines in NAFTA on data flows, balanced copyright, intermediary liability, and customs represents a massive opportunity for the internet sector and the U.S. economy as a whole,” said President Michael Beckerman.

Walmart is “moving faster to combine our digital and physical assets to make shopping easier and more enjoyable for customers, but we can also see plenty of room to improve,” including the “need to scale our e-commerce business further,” CEO Doug McMillon said on a Thursday earnings call. Walmart likes the “traction” in its U.S. e-commerce business, “and we’re working hard to make even more improvements,” said McMillon. For example, under a recent policy change, consumers who order more than $35 worth of merchandise no longer are required to pay a membership fee to qualify for free two-day shipping “on millions of items,” he said. Walmart also recently began offering customers “pick-up discounts on non-store items,” he said. “Our stores are located within 10 miles of nearly 90 percent of the U.S. population, so this is convenient for many of our customers, and also saves them money when they order online and pick it up during their visit to our stores.” He estimated Walmart.com now has 50 million first- and third-party items to choose from compared with only 10 million a year ago, “so our assortment continues to ramp.” Walmart also recently made “a few small, but strategic e-commerce acquisitions” to bolster its online product assortment, “but our plan in e-commerce is not to buy our way to success,” he said. “The majority of our growth is and will be organic.” The initiatives helped Walmart boost its Q1 e-commerce sales by 69 percent from the same quarter a year earlier, Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs said on the call.