Amazon Prime Day Reportedly Postponed Due to Coronavirus
Apr. 4, 2020Amazon is planning to postpone its annualPrime Daysales event at least until August in wake of thecoronaviruspandemic, according to internal meeting notes obtained by Reuters.
The report says Amazon expects almost $100 million loss in revenue that could go up to $300 million in the worst-case scenario due to excess unsold devices that might now be sold at discounted rates.
To be specific, Amazon will have about 5 million devices including its range ofEcho deviceslike smart speakers and smart displays.“We probably have to promote sooner, which will be difficult if we’re capacity constrained”,wrote Amazon General Counsel David Zapolsky.
With over1 million coronavirus casesacross the globe, Amazon’s plans to postpone its Prime Day don’t really come as a surprise since people have more significant things to worry about rather than getting a steal deal on the latest gadgets or home appliances.
Although Amazon has not officially confirmed the postponement of Prime Day just yet, we could expect the e-commerce giant to make an announcement in the coming weeks as we move closer to the tentative Prime Day season.
Notably, the information about the delay comes from the same internal notes where David Zapolsky tried to discredit a fired Amazon employee as “not smart or articulate” for organizing a walkout over coronavirus concerns, as reported byViceon Friday. Amazon says it fired the employee as he violated self-quarantine.
Subin writes about consumer tech, software, and security. He secretly misses the headphone jack while pretending he’s better off with the wireless freedom.
