Amazon Will Reportedly Postpone Prime Day Until At Least August

Amid the coronavirus, Amazon is delaying its Prime Day summer shopping event to August at the soonest and foresees a possible $100 million impact from extra devices it could possibly now have to offer at a reduced price, according to internal company notes seen by Reuters.

Amazon, which declined to confirm or deny the plan to Reuters, started the promotional event in 2015 to encourage sales during the quiet summer shopping season and it has taken place in July in the past.

Reuters said Amazon will have 5 million surplus devices for sale such as its Echo speakers. In addition, a Prime Day postponement will it impact third-party sellers who have become accustomed to relying on the company’s platform for sales.

General Counsel David Zapolsky wrote in notes, as reported by Reuters, that “we probably have to promote sooner, which will be difficult if we’re capacity constrained.”

The notes indicate a “worst case” scenario of a $300 million impact, but an effect of $100 million is more probable. The newswire reported that it wasn’t known what the impact to the eCommerce retailer would be in the end or how firm the estimates were.

The notes are said to provide an unusual view into planning inside the biggest eCommerce retailer in the world, and they show how the firm is quickly reacting to COVID-19’s business risks.

In separate news, Amazon had noted that last year’s Prime Day was its largest shopping event ever per a report in July 2019. The sale had a duration of two days and was available in 18 nations. The eCommerce giant also sold more Amazon devices such as the Fire TV Stick and Echo Dot than ever before.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, according to the 2019 report, “We want to thank Prime members all around the world.” Bezos continued, “Members purchased millions of Alexa-enabled devices, received tens of millions of dollars in savings by shopping from Whole Foods Market and bought more than $2 billion of products from independent small and medium-sized businesses.”