Business

Shoppers Disappointed in Much-Hyped ‘Prime Day’ Sales

Published

9 years ago

July 16, 2015

Oakland Post

In this Oct. 18, 2010 file photo, an Amazon.com package awaits delivery from UPS in Palo Alto, Calif. Amazon on Thursday, March 13, 2014 said it is raising the price of its popular Prime membership to $99 per year, an increase of $20. It's the first price increase since the online retailer introduced its Prime membership program in 2005. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

Mae Anderson, ASSOCIATED PRESS

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Amazon aimed for Christmas in July with its much-hyped “Prime Day” sale. But some shoppers found a lump of coal instead.

The online retailer said Prime Day would offer bigger sales than those during the winter holiday shopping season. The goal was to boost $99 annual Prime loyalty program memberships during the sluggish summer months. The sale gained so much attention, other retailers, including Wal-Mart, Target, Macy’s and Best Buy, had sales of their own.

But some Amazon customers were disappointed by Prime Day. Some thought the discounts weren’t deep enough. Others didn’t like that the deals were only available for a limited time and in limited quantities. And still other Amazon customers criticized the types of products that were marked down.

By midday Wednesday, Amazon was offering a Kindle Fire marked down to $79 from $139, a GoPro camera bundle marked down from $691 to $500 and a Blu-Ray “Lord of the Rings” trilogy set marked down from $120 to $28. But there also were markdowns on more mundane household items like detergent and baby wipes, causing some shoppers to compare Prime Day to a garage sale.

“The biggest disappointment is that Prime Day seems to focus more on quantity over quality,” said Emily Wienberg, 24, from Boston, who was looking for a Bluetooth speaker or printer on sale.

Doug Messer, 21, from Westchester, New York, was disappointed in the sale too.

“I was frustrated to see that only a certain amount of users could claim each deal,” he said. “We found a TV we wanted and when we went to claim it, we were added to a waitlist. Not really a deal if only a certain percentage of visitors can take advantage of it.”

The promotional day highlights the risk marketers face when they try to hype promotional deals and sales and don’t deliver.

Larry Chiagouris, marketing professor at Pace University, said if people get disillusioned with Amazon’s sales announcements they won’t trust future sales. “They haven’t damaged the trust people have in the overall Amazon brand, but they have done major damage to the credibility of sales announcements going forward,” he said. “People are going to get numb to sale announcements and they’ll no longer provide the traffic kick start they’re designed to.”

Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates, said that customers won’t completely lose trust in the Amazon brand, but he questions the overall strategy of the sale.

“If you’re going to offer this, then you have to really do it right,” said Allen Adamson, managing director of branding firm Landor Associates. “The Amazon business model is everyday value. Jumping on the bandwagon to try to create Black Friday in muggy July really feels off-brand for Amazon.”

Early data showed the promotion boosted sales, though. ChannelAdvisor, which tracks sales of third-party sellers on Amazon, said sales jumped 80 percent compared with the same day a year ago in the U.S. and 40 percent in Europe. On a normal non-sale day, that figure would be up about 25 percent.

Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru said that was “decent” for a sales day. But a big sale like Cyber Monday, the busy online shopping day after Thanksgiving, or Alibaba’s Single’s Day, an annual sale in November, generates a lift that is two, three or five times normal sales.

“It’ll be a decent day for them but is it going to be earth shattering? No,” she said.

Amazon said by 1 p.m. on Wednesday, the speed with which customers were ordering had already surpassed 2014 Black Friday. Shoppers picked up “tens of thousands” of Fire TV Sticks, 35,000 Lord of the Rings Blu-Ray sets, 28,000 Rubbermaid sets, and 4,000 Echos in 15 minutes. A Kate Spade purse on sale sold out in less than a minute and 1,200 Samsung TV bundles on sale for $999 sold out in less than 10 minutes.

Thomas Palladino, 23, in public relations in New York, snapped up an Amazon Fire TV stick marked down from $39 to $15 and Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses marked down from $142 to $57. He said the sale made him feel like Amazon appreciated its Prime members.

“I have been completely satisfied with their offerings so far, but this just goes above and beyond,” he said.

___

Associated Press Writer Anne D’Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 17 – 23, 2024

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16 hours ago

April 19, 2024

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V.P. Kamala Harris: Americans With Criminal Records Will Soon Be Eligible for SBA Loans

Speaking in Las Vegas on Jan. 27, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a forthcoming federal rule that will extend access to Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to Americans who have been convicted of felonies but have served their time. Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

On her daylong trip, Harris was joined by Horford, SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman, Interim Under Secretary of Commerce for Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Eric Morrissette, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev).

By California Black Media

Small business owners typically apply for the SBA loans to start or sustain their businesses.

Harris thanked U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV-04), the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, for the work he has done in Washington to support small businesses and to invest in people.

“He and I spent some time this afternoon with business leaders and small business leaders here in Nevada. The work you have been doing to invest in community and to invest in the ambition and natural capacity of communities has been exceptional,” Harris said, speaking to a crowd of a few hundred people at the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Hall in East Las Vegas.

“Formerly incarcerated individuals face significant barriers to economic opportunity once they leave prison and return to the community, with an unemployment rate among the population of more than 27%,” the White House press release continued. “Today’s announcement builds on the Vice President’s work to increase access to capital. Research finds that entrepreneurship can reduce recidivism for unemployed formerly incarcerated individuals by as much as 30%.”

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G.O.P. Lawmakers: Repeal AB 5 and Resist Nationalization of “Disastrous” Contractor Law

Published

3 days ago

April 16, 2024

Oakland Post

File Photo: Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City)

By California Black Media

Republican lawmakers gathered outside of the Employee Development Department in Sacramento on Jan. 23 to call for the repeal of AB5, the five-year old California law that reclassified gig workers and other independent contractors as W-2 employees under the state’s labor code.
Organizers said they also held the rally to push back against current efforts in Washington to pass a similar federal law.

“We are here to talk about this very important issue – a battle we have fought for many years – to stop this disastrous AB 5 policy,” said Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher (R-Yuba City).
Now, that threat has gone national as we have seen this new rule being pushed out of the Biden administration,” Gallagher continued.

On Jan. 10, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a new rule providing guidance on “on how to analyze who is an employee or independent contractor under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).”
“This final rule rescinds the Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act rule (2021 IC Rule), that was published on January 7, 2021, and replaces it with an analysis for determining employee or independent contractor status that is more consistent with the FLSA as interpreted by longstanding judicial precedent,” a Department of Labor statement reads.
U.S. Congressmember Kevin Kiley (R-CA-3), who is a former California Assemblymember, spoke at the rally.

“We are here today to warn against the nationalization of one of the worst laws that has ever been passed in California, which has devastated the livelihoods of folks in over 600 professions,” said Kiley, adding that the law has led to a 10.5% decline in self-employment in California.

Kiley blamed U.S Acting Secretary of Labor, July Su, who was the former secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency, for leading the effort to redefine “contract workers” at the federal level.
Kiley said two separate lawsuits have been filed against Su’s Rule – its constitutionality and the way it was enacted, respectively. He said he is also working on legislation in Congress that puts restrictions on the creation and implementation of executive branch decisions like Su’s.
Assemblymember Kate Sanchez (R-Rancho Santa Margarita) announced that she plans to introduce legislation to repeal AB 5 during the current legislative session.

“So many working moms like myself, who are also raising kids, managing households, were devastated by the effects of AB 5 because they lost access to hundreds of flexible professions,” Sanchez continued. “I’ve been told by many of these women that they have lost their livelihoods as bookkeepers, artists, family caregivers, designers, and hairstylists because of this destructive law.”