As per internal meeting notes viewed by Reuters, Amazon is planning to delay its "Prime Day" sales event at least until August. The event began as a promotion in 2015 in a bid to entice customers to subscribe to Prime before the summer holiday season begins. Those who sign up for the service pay monthly or yearly fees, receiving shipping discounts among other perks. They also tend to shop more than the regular users on the site.
Amazon expects that it could lose as much as $100 million due to the surplus devices that it will now have to sell at discounted rates. As a result of the decision, Amazon will have five million surplus devices, including Echo speakers that are quite popular among consumers. Third-party retailers who use Amazon"s platform to sell their merchandise will also be affected by the decision. Last year, Amazon said that it sold more than 175 million items through the marketing event.
Although the company has never announced the date of the event this early, Prime Day usually takes place in July. When asked about the decision, Amazon declined to comment.