Why is Amazon Prime Day being delayed? What does this mean for ecommerce?
Amazon Delays Highly Anticipated Prime Day
How have you solved your quarantine boredom? Good answer: got a new hobby. Better answer: working out. Best answer: SHOPPING. We’ve all been waiting for the day when we can get the best deals — and no, we aren’t talking about Black Friday; we are talking Amazon Prime Day. Last year, Prime members all around the world were able to save more than one billion dollars! Unfortunately for all the impulsive shoppers, Amazon has officially delayed the highly anticipated sale.
What Is Happening, and Why?
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted industries across the U.S. and world. The pandemic hit Amazon and other e-tailers in ways no one could predict. While health and safety are a concern heard from employees all over the world, the business side of Amazon has been rising since quarantine started. In fact, the company’s stock is up 57%. Think about it: All the retailers are closed; no one has been allowed outside; and there has been limited capacity in shops that were/are open. It makes sense that while at home and out of other options, people turned to online shopping, and with Amazon’s famous two-day shipping, people began to flex their Prime memberships.
Amazon recently announced that it would be delaying Prime Day to continue “ensuring the safety of our employees and supporting our customers and selling partners.” Prime Day has always been a huge day for ecommerce; even online stores that are not affiliated with Amazon have typically seen lifts in searches and sales on that day. In fact, within a day of Prime Day last year, Best Buy searches increased by 255%, Walmart’s by 130%, and eBay’s by 72%. Traffic spiked for Costco and Apple as well, at 27% and 22% respectively. Other online retailers from large to small saw sales increase by 30-70% as a ripple effect from Amazon’s boom in customers. The new coronavirus has forced many businesses to join the e-commerce industry and pushed others, like Amazon, to be bigger, better, and faster as demand grows.
Luckily, the Prime Day delay won’t last forever, Amazon says the shopping event will only be postponed until early October, so keep your wallet close to you.