Amazon Sets Date for Prime Day 2021

After Amazon moved Prime Day to the fall in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the online retail giant is reportedly moving up the shopping event closer to its usual summer date. Multiple sources told Recode Thursday that Amazon is "targeting" June, which would be a month earlier than pre-COVID Prime Day events were. Amazon did not comment on the report.

When Amazon held its first Prime Day in 2015, it was scheduled for July to help boost spending during the summer shopping lull among Prime members. The event was held in July every year until 2020 when Amazon chose to delay it to October due to operational and logistics issues caused by the pandemic. Multiple sources told Recode Amazon debated adding another Prime Day-style shopping event for the fall in 2021, but it is not clear if this is still being considered.

If Prime Day 2021 is scheduled for July, it would likely happen in the middle to the latter part of the month, sources told Recode. It is not clear why Amazon would move the event to July instead of back to June. One source speculated that Wall Street could be involved, as Amazon might want the 2021 second-quarter revenue results to look as good as 2020 when Amazon saw a boost because more Americans were buying online during the pandemic. A major sales event in June, a month in the second quarter, could take a bite into revenue results. July is a third-quarter month. Although Amazon spokesperson Katie Larsen would not confirm when Prime Day 2021 will happen, she denied the idea that Wall Street would influence when Prime Day happens.

Amazon's Prime Day event usually features hundreds of discounts exclusive to Amazon Prime members. An Amazon Prime membership costs $119 per year or $12.99 per month. New members get a 30-day free trial, which you can sign up for by clicking here. The company usually uses the event to highlight some of its own tech products, like the Amazon Kinkle and Echo, as well as its own branded products. However, some labor groups also use the event to raise awareness of the conditions workers face in warehouses across the country.

The 2021 Prime Day event comes as the labor situation is dominating headlines. This week, Amazon faced its largest union push, when workers at the Bessemer, Alabama facility voted on joining the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. The final vote showed 1,798 workers voting against joining the union, while 738 voted to join, reports NPR. However, the retail union is filing a legal challenge against the results, accusing Amazon of unfair labor practices. It requested a hearing from the National Labor Relations Board on the situation.