Amazon’s annual shopping event Prime Day is reportedly being delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Prime Day is being postponed “at least until August,” according to a report Friday from Reuters.
Prime Day is typically held in July. The 48-hour sale last year was “largest shopping event in Amazon history” and “surpassed the previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.” Prime members bought more than 175 million items during the Prime Day stretch.
Prime Day has attracted great attention worldwide, after starting as a much smaller sale in 2015. Now hundreds of other retailers join in the summer sale, and consumers tend to delay their purchasing in anticipation of Prime Day.
This news might seem insignificant to those who don’t participate in the Prime Day “festivities,” but for Amazon, it’s quite the opposite. The company is reportedly expecting to take at least a $100 million revenue hit due to the delay. At worst, Amazon may lose up to $300 million, but the lower $100 million figure is more “likely.” The cause for these potential losses relates to excess device stock Amazon may now need to sell off at a steep discount.
We don’t know what date Prime Day will be moved to and we wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon doesn’t know for sure, either but Reuters say the current plan is to host the event in August at the earliest.
Last year, Amazon sold over 175 million products during Prime Day, which was quite the achievement. It remains to be seen whether or not the company will be able to beat that record this year, considering the fact that thousands upon thousands of worldwide consumers have lost their jobs due to Covid-19.
