Amazon ‘Prime Day’ glitches cost company up to $99M: report
Amazon’s record-setting haul from this year’s “Prime Day” sales promotion could have been even larger if not for website glitches, according to a report Thursday.
Some users saw an error message while attempting to access Amazon’s website, while others were temporarily unable to add items to their “cart” for checkout. Reports of outages surged on Monday at 3 p.m. ET, shortly after the event began.
The tech issues cost Amazon an estimated $72.4 million, Axios reported, citing data from Digital Commerce 360. Another estimate from digital marketer Liam Solomon of Love the Sales placed the site’s losses at $99 million.
Amazon has yet to provide a final revenue tally for this year’s “Prime Day,” which featured discounts on thousands of items across the e-commerce platform, including many Amazon devices. However, the online retailer confirmed Wednesday that it was “the biggest shopping event in Amazon history.”
Members of the $119-per-year subscription “Prime” service purchased more than 100 million items during the 36-hour event and shopped on the site in record numbers, according to a press release. Amazon also added more new Prime users than on any other day in its history.
Amazon is projected to have earned $3.4 billion from this year’s event, according to estimates from Coresight Research.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed last April that Prime has more than 100 million subscribers.