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If Amazon crashes again on Prime Day, eBay has your back

Online marketplace eBay is preparing to compete against Prime Day with a cheeky bonus offer that will only go live if Amazon’s site crashes like it did last year.

The aptly named “Crash Sale” will take place on the opening day of Amazon’s massive sales push on July 15, and promises to offer online shoppers “doorbuster savings” of more than 50% on top brands that include LG, Apple, Samsung, KitchenAid, and Garmin. And if Amazon’s servers once again buckle under the weight of online traffic as they did at the start of last year’s Prime Day, eBay will flick the switch on what it describes as “a fresh batch of too-good-to-be-true deals.”

In a bid to draw attention away from Prime Day and boost sales via its own service, eBay will add a slew of deals to its site during most of July.

So, besides the Crash Sale on July 15, you’ll also find seven days of savings worth up to 85% on “summer essentials, appliances, and more, including stand mixers, cookware, robotic vacuums, camping gear, outdoor toys, and more” from July 1 through 7.

Then, from July 8 through 22, visitors to eBay should look out for fresh deals landing daily on an array of items, with savings of up to 80% offered.

An online message touting its upcoming sales event has eBay taking a tongue-in-cheek swipe at Amazon, claiming that shoppers will find great deals “on the things they actually want.” But if you check out Digital Trends’ carefully compiled Prime Day piece on the kind of deals you can expect to see, we think you’ll be just fine.

“eBay is primed to deliver exactly what shoppers want during this year’s Crash Sale,” the company’s Jay Hanson said in a release, adding, “July has become a massive shopping season, and our summer sales include blockbuster deals that will not disappoint.”

Next month looks all set to become one of the busiest ever for online summer shopping, with Amazon’s annual sales extravaganza prompting competitors to ramp up their own efforts to attract customers.

July 15 marks Amazon’s fifth Prime Day, though this time around the event will last two days instead of the usual one. Last year, the sale got off to a troubled start when the site went down for a number of hours. But thanks to eBay’s Crash Sale, at least there’ll be an upside if it happens again next month.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
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