Most Americans consider "Black Friday" as the ultimate shopping day, but Amazon aims to challenge that with "Prime Day," an event cooked up by the Internet retailer to celebrate its 20th birthday.

The one day global event will be held on July 15, with the company boasting of deals that would put any "Black Friday" discount to shame. "Prime Day" is open to loyal members in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and the U.S. For non-members, "Prime Day" is the best time to try out Amazon's subscription-based service as the company is offering a free 30-day trial. Customers who are not satisfied can cancel any time before the end of the trial period.

Of course, Amazon is hoping that those who avail of the free trial will enjoy the service and stay on for good. Amazon Prime membership costs $99 a year; a good deal considering the perks that members enjoy like free shipping, free Same-Day Delivery and unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV shows and more than a thousand playlists.

As a way of giving back to loyal customers who stuck with the company for 20 years, new and existing members will be able to find "deals starting at midnight, with new deals starting as often as every 10 minutes." And Prime members will not only enjoy great deals in electronics, they can peruse different categories like toys, clothing, patio furniture, lawn and garden supplies, sports gear, school supplies and even regular every day items. What is more, members can do their online shopping on any device.

Amazon has also launched the Prime Photos service which gives members unlimited storage for their photos. So the Seattle-based giant has started a photo contest to promote the new service. The contest is simple; members are asked to submit photos that capture the "happy moments" that were made possible by Amazon Prime. The photo contest is currently running and will end on July 15. The owner of the best photo will receive an Amazon gift card worth $10,000.

"Prime Day" is being advertised as just a one-day event to celebrate Amazon's 20th year in the business. Whether or not it will be an annual celebration will probably depend on how well it boosted membership for Amazon's Prime service.