Yesterday, Ecommerce Giant Amazon celebrated its 20th birthday with a massive one-day sale extravaganza it dubbed "Prime Day". The event, which was only open to subscribers of Amazon's Prime membership option, was hyped by the company as a bigger retail event then Black Friday, the traditional leader when it comes to big discounts. Now that the dust has settled on the first of what is surely a new promo for Amazon, what is the verdict? Well not that good.
Many disgruntled customers took to Twitter during the event to voice their displeasure at the supposed deals available to customers. The hashtag "#PrimeDayFail" quickly became a trending topic on the social network, as users flocked to share their disappointing experiences.
One twitter user called it a joke, tweeting: "Hey @Amazon, #PrimeDay is not Black Friday in July. It's April Fools' in July. #primedayfail".
The most common complaints were that the best deals were selling out in seconds while those that remained were just not worth it. Many disparaged the event as an "Online Garage Sale" filled with bizarre items you wouldn't normally look for. A 55 Gallon Tub of Water Based Lubricant became the punch line for many jokes after Buzzfeed's Tom Gara spotted the item on sale for $1,138 and tweeted the hilarious find.
According to the Adobe Digital Index, 50% of the reaction on social media towards Prime Day was about disappointment.
Amazon quickly went on the defensive. Midway through the day they published a report boasting of high sales figures:
"Prime Day peak order rates have already surpassed 2014 Black Friday. Prime members have already bought tens of thousands of Fire TV Sticks, 35,000 Lord of the Rings Blu-Ray sets, 28,000 Rubbermaid sets, and 4,000 Echo devices in 15 minutes. The Kate Spade purse was gone in less than a minute. We also sold 1,200 of the $999 TVs in less than 10 minutes. And there are thousands more deals coming."
However, Forbes Magazine notes that those numbers mean very little on their own.
