Amazon is bringing its Prime Day megasale back to its normal summertime schedule after the company last year postponed the annual event due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The company announced Wednesday that this year’s Prime Day will take place on June 21 and 22. Members of Amazon’s Prime subscription program will get access to “more than 2 million deals” across every category, said Jamil Ghani, vice president of Prime, during a press event Tuesday.
Prime Day, which started in 2015, is typically held in July. The discount celebration is partially designed to attract new Prime subscribers, to promote Amazon’s products and services, and to provide a sales boost during a normally slower shopping period.
Last year, the company was forced to delay Prime Day until mid-October due to pandemic-related uncertainty and strains on its fulfillment and logistics capacity. Amazon is postponing this year’s Prime Day in India and Canada due to the worsening spread of Covid-19 in those countries.
Amazon previously confirmed that Prime Day would be held in June, but it stopped short of sharing a kickoff date. Bloomberg reported last month that Amazon would select June 21 and 22 as the dates for this year’s Prime Day, citing notifications sent to employees.
CFO Brian Olsavsky said during Amazon’s most recent earnings conference call that the company would hold Prime Day one month earlier this year because July is typically a busy vacation period. Analysts told CNBC that a June Prime Day could potentially help soften year-over-year comparisons to its business during lockdowns last spring.
Amazon has forecast second-quarter revenue will be between $110 billion and $116 billion, which surpassed Wall Street’s projected $108.6 billion and implies a bump from Prime Day.
