Amazon's Prime Day has been scheduled for October 13-14. The annual shopping promotion, usually held in July, was postponed this year because of increased demands Covid-19 put on the company’s warehouses due to a surge in panic-buying.
Announcing the new dates, Amazon attempted to frame Prime Day as a boost for small businesses--at least those with a direct connection to the online retailer--that were hit hard by the novel coronavirus. "Amazon is increasing its commitment to small business selling partners by designing Prime Day to support them with our biggest small business promotion yet," the company said, adding that it would spend "more than $100 million on new promotional activities to help small businesses around the world increase their sales and reach new customers. This has been a challenging year for many small businesses, and selling in Amazon's stores has enabled hundreds of thousands of smaller companies to sustain and even grow their sales despite the Covid-19 crisis and beyond."
Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO of worldwide consumer, commented: "In the midst of an unprecedented year, we're committed to making this the most successful Prime Day ever for our small businesses and excited for Prime members worldwide to discover new ways to support local entrepreneurs and save big on everything they need and love."