Sale fail: Customers unimpressed by Amazon Prime Day (but sales soar 80%)

From extra long shoehorns to an airplane seatbelt extender- Amazon’s ‘Prime Day’ didn’t exactly deliver the big discounts on big ticket items that many were hoping for. However, the hype for an event ‘bigger than Black Friday’ helped the online retailer enjoy an 80% rise in sales.

Twitter users slammed Amazon’s Prime Day Wednesday, likening the made-up ‘holiday’ to a garage sale and making fun of the seemingly random assortment of discounted merchandise.

Posts mocking the sale with the hashtag #PrimeDayFail trending on the social network.

Prime Day was hyped as a sale celebrating Amazon’s 20th birthday that’s supposed to be bigger than Black Friday.

Some of the better deals included discounted Kindles, DVDs and 50 percent off all Harry Potter Books.

But many users complained that the deals were less than impressive and griped about them online. One user pointed out a chef’s hat going for $3.93, while others joked about stale cereal boxes for sale.

Other shoppers used the #PrimeDayFail hashtag on Twitter. One user tweeted: “Hey @Amazon, #PrimeDay is not Black Friday in July. It’s April Fools’ in July. #primedayfail”.

Adobe Digital Index said that 50 per cent of overall sentiment related to Prime Day on social media was about disappointment.

“Much of the disappointed chatter focussed on the lack of blockbuster deals,” it said, adding that users cited sales of less desirable items like socks and towels.

An Amazon spokeswoman said the retailer was listening to its customers and planned to add more deals like TVs.

ChannelAdvisor calculated the 80% rise in US sales as of 12 pm ET (1600 GMT) based on sales by partner retailers that sell on Amazon.com. Sales rose 40 per cent in Amazon Europe, ChannelAdvisor said.

Addressing complaints that desired products were not being discounted, Amazon said, “We have years of experience with these types of events and we stagger the deals to make sure the fun will last through tonight.”

Here’s some of the best #PrimeDayFail tweets summing up customer’s dissapointment with the Prime Day sale: