Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond were among retailers heralding a half-off sale for Alexa products Friday in a one-day Amazon sales event. In an email blast to customers, Bed Bath & Beyond pitched customers under the subject line: “Alexa, give me 50 percent off!” At both retailers, the Echo, regularly priced at $179, was $89.99 Friday, the same price Amazon sold it for on Prime Day, and the Dot was $34.99. Both had Echo limits of four per customer. The “manufacturer’s sales event” didn’t allow additional discounts via retailer coupons, according to the Bed Bath & Beyond fine print. Target didn't actively promote an Echo sales event but was selling the Dot for $34.99 and the Echo for $99.99 Friday, down from the regular Echo price of $129. Walmart only sold Echo and Dot accessories, not the products. Amazon, meanwhile, was selling the Dot for $49.99 ($20 off with the purchase of three) and $100 off a two-pack of $179 Echo speakers.
Best Buy trumpeted prices up to 25 percent off on 4K TVs to customers in an email blast Friday. Other standout offers included a $99 32-inch Westinghouse 720p TV ($50 off), a Toshiba 49-inch 4K TV with Chromecast, knocked down by $120 to $329 and a Samsung 65-inch 4K smart TV cart-priced below the manufacturer’s minimum advertised price at $999 ($100 off).
Sony gave more details on a promotion with Amazon around the Echo Dot to build off a recent firmware update that allows Sony Android TVs to be controlled by the Alexa digital assistant. Customers who buy select Sony TVs can get $15 off in a bundle purchase at Amazon. Sony spokesman Tom Laemmel directed us to an Amazon page showing an Echo Dot package built around the Sony XBR55X900E 55-inch 4K Ultra HD with a price of $1,432.99: $1,398 for the TV and $49 for the Dot, minus bundle savings of $15. The offer runs through Sept. 30 and is listed on Sony’s promotional calendar for all retailers if they want to participate, Laemmel said. Sony may choose to extend the promotion, he said.
Sling TV launched a Refer a Friend program, giving subscribers a $5 discount on their bill after referring a friend who signs up for service, it said in a blog post. The friend also gets a $5 discount off the first bill after a free seven-day trial, said the service provider. Sling TV also added WeatherNation and Showtime Family Zone to select service packages.
Consumers looking for good tech deals on Amazon Prime Day can do comparison shopping at Newegg, which announced Wednesday its annual FantasTech sale. The three-day sale, beginning Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. EDT, will offer “deep discounts on hundreds” of products, said the retailer. Featured items include a Seagate 2-TB hard drive ($59), MSI 15-inch gaming laptop ($599), LG 25-inch gaming monitor ($109) and LG 49-inch 4K Ultra HD LED TV ($399), it said.
Headphone company 1More USA is holding a Fourth of July flash sale, the first time it's discounting the flagship Quad Driver in-ear headphones. The $30 discount brings the price to $169 through Wednesday, said the company.
A $299 Westinghouse TV led the 4K Ultra HD TV deal parade at Best Buy Thursday. The 43-inch Westinghouse skidded in under the $300 barrier on a $50 discount, according to bestbuy.com’s listing of July 4th TV sales. Other 4K deals include an Insignia 50-inch TV cut by $50 to $399, a Samsung 55-inch model sliced by $170 to $629 and a Sony 75-inch set selling for $900 off at $2,599. The lowest TV price we found was a $99 24-inch HD Insignia model. The biggest discount was found on Samsung’s 65-inch flagship QLED TV, marked down $1,000 to $2,999. Samsung's UN40MU6300FXZA was cart-priced below the TV maker’s minimum advertised price at $499, for $50 in savings.
The Trustworthy Accountability Group provided a listing of more than 8,000 apps that violate IP rights of content owners, said a Wednesday news release. Such information sharing "helps companies quickly identify and remove them from their supply chains, thus cutting off the flow of money to pirates," said TAG CEO Mike Zaneis. TAG, formed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, said mobile app piracy, defined as placing legitimate ads on illegitimate mobile apps, is a growing problem and can continue even after an app is removed from an app store. TAG said the list will be updated.
TCL and Winegard designated July 7 “National Cut the Cord Day,” they said in a Wednesday announcement. Consumers who buy a TCL S-Series 4K Roku TV on Amazon from Saturday through July 9 can add a Winegard FlatWave Micro indoor antenna for over-the-air channels to their cart at no cost by entering the code TCLCUTTHECORD at checkout, they said. The S-Series TVs started at $349 for a 43-inch model at Amazon Wednesday.
Influencers and marketers aren't heeding FTC warnings about disclosing their relationships to brands when promoting products on Instagram, said Public Citizen and other organizations in a Monday news release, prompting the groups to again complain to the agency. More than two months ago, the FTC sent out more than 90 letters to influencers and marketers as reminders they should reveal material connections between themselves and advertisers unless it's already clear from the context of the communication (see 1704190031). Public Citizen said that from May 1 to June 12 it tracked 46 Instagram influencers who received the FTC letter and found that "only one fully and consistently complied" with agency policy. "In total, 327 (79 percent) of the 412 advertisements posted by the 46 influencers did not comply with FTC standards," said Public Citizen. The group, along with Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Digital Democracy, sent a letter to the FTC asking it to enforce the guidelines and seek penalties. "The FTC must demonstrate that there will be consequences for failure to follow the FTC’s guidelines," said the letter. It said the commission should work with Instagram to create a system "to denote paid posts consistent with" those guidelines. An FTC spokesman emailed that the agency is reviewing the groups' letter.