Amazon is marking its 20th birthday with Prime Day

10 months ago

Online retail giant Amazon is marking its 20th birthday by running a sales event – Prime Day – that the firm says contains more deals than Black Friday.

Amazon says “thousands” of deals will be offered throughout the day, as well as so-called “lightning deals” that will appear every 10 minutes on the site.

Black Friday is the shopping day in December when stores dramatically cut their prices, and last year in the UK saw stampedes in stores as consumers spent £810 million. Prime Day, however, is limited to the e-commerce firm’s website – and members of their Prime service.

Devices such as video games consoles, smartphones and tablets – as well as fashion and beauty accessories – are forming part of the one day sale on Amazon’s websites around the world.

Though Prime is a subscription-based extra service that gives additional perks to users including free one-day delivery, Amazon is encouraging consumers to sign up for the free 30-day trial they offer in order to take part in Prime Day.

Amazon was founded in 1994 as ‘Cadabra.com’, before founder Jeff Bezos changed the name to Amazon ahead of its launch in 1995, and originally only initially sold books. Since then, it has expanded into a technology company, and now makes its own smartphones, tablets and TV streaming boxes – as well as the Kindle eReader. It has also expanded into TV and movie creation with Amazon Studios.

Industry experts have said that the firm has changed the way the world shops over the last 20 years, and will continue to do so.

Technology expert Lins Karnes, executive producer at digital firm B-Reel Creative, said: “Amazon revolutionised what users have come to expect from online retailers.

“Jeff Bezos and co perfected the ability to tell us what we need before we even knew we needed it, and help us order it for next-day delivery without actually having to drag ourselves to the shops.

“I can see a future where purchases are made literally in the blink of an eye, by capturing something you like using an Amazon-branded contact lens with a built-in camera.”