Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) kicked off its Prime Day on Tuesday, its annual two-day promotional event for Prime members with deals and benefits. This year’s Prime Day sale got off to a fast start, with sales up by almost 12% year-over-year in the first seven hours, according to Momentum Commerce.
Amazon’s Advertising Portal Crash
However, there was a glitch as Amazon’s advertising portal for merchants crashed on Tuesday night and was not working for two hours but was restored later. The advertising portal is a self-service system where merchants and brands adjust ad budgets and bid on keywords to make their products appear in searches in response to consumer queries. Without it, brands lack direction in their Amazon ad spending.
Expected Amazon Prime Day Performance
This year, according to a Yahoo Finance report citing eMarketer analyst Sky Canaves, Amazon’s Prime Day sales are expected to exceed $14 billion. This optimistic outlook about Amazon’s Prime Day sales comes as consumer spending remains strong in the U.S. despite concerns about the economy.
Furthermore, the report stated that the Prime Day event is likely to see higher sales in the Essential Goods and Beauty categories. The eMarketer analyst stated that the e-commerce giant is seeing online sales in the Beauty category exceeding e-commerce growth for the category.
Additionally, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley, Amazon is expected to become the leading beauty retailer in the U.S., surpassing Walmart by 2025.
The tech giant’s Prime Day, started by the company around nine years back, clocked sales worth $13 billion last year. Amazon made up 60% of the Prime Day sales last year, while 40% of the sales were made by third-party sellers. Amazon Prime members bought over 375 million items last year.
Is Amazon a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Analysts remain bullish about AMZN stock, with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on a unanimous 44 Buys. Over the past year, AMZN has surged by more than 40%, and the average AMZN price target of $222.93 implies an upside potential of 15.5% from current levels.
