Amazon's hyped up Prime Day shopping extravaganza started out with a whimper[1]. Right out of the gate the site was glitchy and slow, trapping shoppers in an endless loop of links on the home page.
Nonetheless, the 36-hour bargain spree has been crowned the biggest global shopping event[2] in Amazon's history, beating out all the other made-up deal days that came before it. The e-commerce giant said it sold more than 100 million products worldwide, with Amazon-branded devices -- the most heavily discounted products by far -- selling at record clips.
The company didn't disclose a monetary value for the sales event this year, so it's hard to say just how big a sales haul it actually had. In 2017, Amazon said Prime Day grew by more than 60 percent compared to the same 30 hours in 2016, which was itself another record-breaking sales day for the company.
However, the company touted yesterday that small businesses accounted for more than $1 billion in sales about mid-way through Prime Day.
Whatever the sales tally may be, to Amazon, sales are only a secondary goal during that one-day event. Prime Day is a benefit exclusive to Prime members, which means non-Prime customers had to subscribe to the service -- albeit with an optional 30-day free trial -- to access the deals.
Amazon said it signed up more new Prime members on July 16 than any on previous day in the company's history.
But Amazon wasn't the only retailer bringing in a record sales haul yesterday. Target said July 17 was the highest single day of traffic and sales of 2018. The cheap-chic retailer promoted its own alt-Prime Day in the days leading up to Amazon's event, telling