The much-hyped Amazon Prime Day is here — but not everyone is impressed.
The e-commerce giant promised its one-day super sale, which started at 12:01 a.m. PDT Wednesday, would offer “more deals than Black Friday.” Amazon said the sale is a celebration of its 20th anniversary.
Thousands of discounted items, including electronics, toys, video games, movies, clothing, sports, patio, lawn and garden, and outdoor are being offered throughout the day as Lightning Deals and Deals of the Day, so you need to check the site throughout the day to find newly discounted items.
However, reports suggest that customers were less than thrilled by Amazon’s initial offerings, with some criticizing the sale with hashtags such as “#unhappyPrimeDay, #AmazonFail, #gobacktosleep, and #PrimeDayFail.”
The sale is exclusive to Prime members. A Prime membership costs $99 per year and entitles members to unlimited free two-day shipping, access to Prime Music and Prime Photos, Prime Pantry, unlimited streaming of Prime Instant Video, and free access to the Kindle lending library.
If you’re not a Prime member, but you want to take advantage of the savings promised on Prime Day, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Prime here. If you don’t want to pay for a Prime membership, make sure you cancel Prime before the 30-day trial is up.
Analysts predict that Prime Day will have an impact on other e-retailers.
“If this works, this could be the start of a many more days like this from Amazon,” Sucharita Mulpuru, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc., told Internet Retailer. “Others will of course try to piggyback on it. I’m sure Amazon will handle the day well. They seem to be promoting doorbusters, and the good thing about the Web is that you can quickly change what you promote and to whom.”
One other big retailer is attempting to piggyback on Amazon’s big day. Wal-Mart recently announced it’s crashing Amazon’s party with a sale of its own.
“We’re kicking off some awesome deals this week that will be available for everybody with no hidden costs or admission fees, and they won’t be available for just one day,” Wal-Mart president and CEO Fernando Madeira wrote in a blog post.
So if you’re looking to score some major deals, you may want to check out both Amazon and Wal-Mart.
Do you plan on checking out Amazon’s Prime Day deals? Will you shop Wal-Mart as well? Share your comments below or on our Facebook page.
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