
It Looks Like Amazon Raked In Millions On Prime Day
Updated with new sales data for Prime Day.
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Amid gloomy sales reports for its second annual Prime Day, Amazon appears to have done just fine. The internet giant said Wednesday that worldwide customer orders on Prime Day surged by 60%, and by more than 50% in the U.S. It was the biggest sales day ever, said Amazon. Amazon didn't release total sales figures.
Shares of Amazon rose about 0.6% in early trading following the news.
All of the cards were stacked in Amazon's favor this Prime Day, however, leading to speculation the day would lead to a sales blowout. First, the Internet juggernaut planned to offer more than 100,000 deals this Prime Day, according to JMP Securities analyst Ronald Josey's estimate, making it the company's largest event ever. Additionally, Prime Day 2016 is available in 10 countries, up from nine last year. Belgium was recently added. Meanwhile, the number of third-party sellers participating in Prime Day is expected to surge 100% year over year, according to Josey.
The expectations for Prime Day were tempered though due to technical difficulties. Many shoppers took to Twitter Tuesday to say they were struggling to use the checkout for their discounted Amazon swag.
Specifically, people complained that they are getting an "add to cart fail" message each time they attempted to check out. The company tweeted that it was working to resolve the issue quickly, and Reutersreported in the late morning that Amazon had emailed them to say that customers were having trouble adding some Lighting Deals to their shopping carts, but that the issues had been fixed.
What looks like a solid one-day of shopping globally bodes well for Amazon headed into back to school and the holidays, as Prime Day drives large numbers of consumers to try out Amazon Prime. Members of Amazon Prime tend to spend more than the average Amazon customer that visits the site sporadically to buy stuff.









