Amazon Prime Day: Awesome Deals or Overhyped Flop?
Amazon's first ever Prime Day sale is over, and the results may surprise you. Find out if the highly publicized event was a hit or miss with consumers.
Krystal Steinmetz • July 16, 2015
As a loyal Amazon Prime shopper, I anxiously scoured the Amazon site Wednesday looking for the amazing deals the e-commerce giant promised for its one-day Prime Day sale.
I was shocked and disappointed (although my husband was all smiles) when my shopping cart stayed empty and Prime Day passed without me spending a dime.
After all, Amazon pledged that Prime Day would offer "more deals than Black Friday," and I was looking forward to getting a head start on my Christmas shopping.
But in the end, there were very few items that appealed to me. And if something did pique my interest, it sold out too quickly for me to add it to my shopping cart.
As it turns out, my experience was similar to those of many other Prime shoppers, according to the Washington Post.
Shoppers scoffed at the merchandise selection, with many saying the assortment reminded them of a neighborhood garage sale. Who, they wondered, was clamoring for a big sale on knee braces and Pop-tarts? Others griped about how quickly some items ran out, and many said that Prime Day saved them tons of money not by giving them great discounts, but by presenting items that were so lame that there was no temptation to buy them.
Given the plethora of complaints from shoppers (check out #primedayfail), you'd think it would be safe to assume that Prime Day was a flop. But that couldn't be further from the truth, at least according to Amazon.
Although it declined to reveal hard sales numbers, Amazon says it sold more items on Prime Day than during its biggest Black Friday ever, Forbes reports. In fact, the sale was so successful that Amazon has vowed to repeat Prime Day.
According to Greg Greeley, vice president of Amazon Prime:
"Customers worldwide ordered an astonishing 398 items per second and saved millions on Prime Day deals. Going into this, we weren't sure whether Prime Day would be a one-time thing or if it would become an annual event. After yesterday's results, we'll definitely be doing this again."
Amazon says it sold tens of thousands of Fire TV sticks, 35,000 "Lord of the Rings" Blu-ray sets, 28,000 Rubbermaid sets, and 4,000 Echos in the first 15 minutes of the sale.
Did you shop on Amazon during Prime Day? What did you think of the promised big deals? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.
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