An Amazon delivery worker pulls a cart full of packages during the annual Official Day sale in New York City, June 21, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Amazon’s The big annual sale, Prime Day, will return on July 12 and 13, the company announced on Thursday.
The event is also a major revenue driver for other retail sites, which often offer competitive discounts to consumers. Last year, total e-commerce sales in the two days of the shopping event amounted to 11 billion dollars, according to Adobe Analytics. That number is even slightly higher than Cyber Monday totals in 2020, although that represents a 24-hour period instead of 48.
Amazon’s sale begins at 3 a.m. Eastern Time on July 12 and lasts 48 hours in a number of countries, including Poland and Sweden for the first time. It will host the event for other countries such as India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, later in the summer.
Amazon says more third-party sellers will join this year. Several sellers told CNBC Last year, they saw the event as an opportunity to increase brand awareness even if they didn’t cut prices, sometimes due to already high consumer spending or supply chain issues. Amazon’s announcement of Prime Day results in 2021 is relatively muted compared with previous years.
Prime members will get access to early deals starting June 21, including up to 55% on select Amazon devices like the second-generation Echo Show 5, Kindle Paperwhite, and routers WiFi mesh eero.
The Fire TV Smart TV will start at $89.99, a 47% savings.
Members can also save 20% on select items at Amazon Fresh stores in the US starting June 29. Amazon says the benefit will be available year-round for paying Prime members pay using the Amazon app or a card registered to their account.
Amazon will also hold a sweepstakes for prizes including Super Bowl tickets, a meet and greet cast for Prime Video’s new Lord of the Rings series, and Amazon gift cards. Every dollar spent on qualifying small business products from June 21 to July 11 will provide customers with a chance to win a prize.
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