Tech

Amazon Prime Day set for June 21 and 22

Key Points
  • Amazon's annual Prime Day event will take place June 21 and 22, the company announced Wednesday.
  • Prime Day is returning to its normal summertime slot after Amazon postponed the two-day sales event last year due to Covid pandemic-related uncertainty.

In this article

An Amazon fulfillment center in Frankenthal, Germany.
Thorsten Wagner | Bloomberg | Getty Images

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.

Retail rivals typically keep a close eye on Amazon's Prime Day dates in order to schedule their own competing events. 

Other retailers are already rolling out their competing offers. Target said it will offer three days of deals starting June 20 and has added food and beverage to its promotions lineup for the first time. In previous years, Walmart, Best Buy and Bed Bath & Beyond have also run discounts that coincided with Prime Day.

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