Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) said on Monday its annual Prime Day shopping event will be Oct. 13 and 14.
The e-commerce giant rescheduled Prime Day from July, when the company’s supply chain was strained from the coronavirus pandemic.
The discount event is partially designed to secure new Prime subscribers, to promote Amazon’s products and services and to provide a sales boost in the middle of the year. The timing of this year’s Prime Day means the holiday shopping season will start earlier than usual for many.
Amazon Prime Day sales amounted to an estimated $7.16 billion in 2019.
The Seattle-based company has recently been on an expansion spree, thanks to a surge in online orders during coronavirus-induced lockdowns, which helped Amazon post its biggest-ever quarterly profit in July.
Amazon announced in September it would hire 100,000 full- and part-time logistics and fulfillment workers in North America, as well as open 100 buildings across its fulfillment and delivery network, according to FreightWaves’ Mark Solomon. Amazon was expected to increase capacity by 50% by the start of the peak holiday shopping season, which begins in October.
Amazon has already opened more than 75 fulfillment, sortation centers, regional air hubs and delivery stations in the U.S. and Canada this year.
Other retailers are copying Amazon and holding October online sales events. Target (NYSE: TGT) is holding Deal Days at the same time as Amazon’s Prime Day event. The retailer said it will have “nearly 1 million more deals” this year.
Walmart (NYSE: WMT) announced it will be holding a Big Save online event that runs Oct. 11-15. The retail giant said it will offer Black Friday-like savings on thousands of items.
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