Some subprime reviews for Amazon's Prime Day
After a week and a half of hype and a major marketing blitz, Amazon.com's one-day deals bonanza, Prime Day, appears to have pulled in a big haul of orders - but also left a wide swath of shoppers disappointed.
The Wednesday sale, which commemorated the e-commerce giant's 20th anniversary, was available only to members of its $99-per-year Prime program and offered new deals every 10 minutes on items including tablets, toys and household goods.
Amazon said that, by Wednesday afternoon, peak order rates had already surpassed those it saw during the most recent Black Friday, a sign that the sale was plenty enticing to many customers.
And yet there was a deluge of criticism of the deals on social media, with many shoppers saying they stayed on the sidelines because the event didn't live up to their expectations. On Twitter, many users likened the sale to a neighborhood garage sale because it included a hodgepodge of not-exactly-everyday items such an Australian collectible coin set and a weaving loom.
"All I've learned from #PrimeDay is that @amazon has GROSSLY miscalculated my interest level in discount vacuums and cat toys," one Twitter user wrote.
Meanwhile, still more customers were frustrated by how quickly items got snapped up. Some deals that were supposed to last all day long, such as $50 off on the Amazon Echo, were 100 percent claimed more than 12 hours before the sale ended. Some customers were invited to join a waiting list to buy these in-demand items at the special price, but Amazon eventually declared several of these waiting lists full.
"If #PrimeDay was supposed to make @amazon Prime seem more worthwhile, it backfired. Decent deals were waitlist only: #PrimeDayFail," another Twitter user wrote.
An Amazon spokeswoman stressed that shoppers continued to see fresh deals throughout the day even as their supply of some hot items ran out early on. "We have years of experience with these types of events and we stagger the deals to make sure the fun will last through tonight," Amazon's Julie Law said in an email.
Amazon had put heavy promotional muscle behind Prime Day, including newspaper advertisements and television commercials. The sale was intended to lure more shoppers into its Prime program, and in turn, help it better ward off intensifying challenges from rivals such as Wal-Mart.
After hearing Amazon's Prime Day announcement last week, Wal-Mart fired back with a major online sale of its own. The big-box chain offered thousands of new deals Wednesday and reduced its free shipping minimum to $35 from $50 "until further notice."
Wal-Mart had touted its sale as one that wouldn't come with "an admission fee" - a shot at Amazon.
Amazon fired back: "We've heard some retailers are charging higher prices for items in their physical stores than they do for the same items online," said Greg Greeley, vice president of Amazon Prime, in a statement. "The idea of charging your in-store customers more than your online customers doesn't add up for us, but it's a good reminder that you're usually better off shopping online."
Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.