Amazon's website ran into some early snags Monday on its much-hyped Prime Day, an embarrassment for the tech company on the shopping holiday it created.
Shoppers clicking on many Prime Day links after the 3 p.m. ET launch in the U.S. got only images of dogs — some quite abashed-looking — with the words, "Uh-oh. Something went wrong on our end." People took to social media to complain that they couldn't order items.
By about 4:30 p.m., many Prime Day links were working, and Amazon said later Monday that it was working to resolve the glitches.
FILE- In this Aug. 3, 2017, file photo, packages ride on a conveyor system at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore. Amazon's Prime Day starts July 16, 2018, and will be six hours longer than last year's and will launch new products. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
In an email to The Associated Press, it said "many are shopping successfully" and that in the first hour of Prime Day in the U.S., customers ordered more items than in the same time frame last year.
Still, the hiccups could mute sales and send shoppers elsewhere during one of Amazon's busiest sales periods that's also a key time for it to sign up new Prime members. Shoppers have lots of options, as many other chains have offered sales and promotions to try to capitalize on the Prime Day spending.
Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru-Kodali at Forrester Research called the glitch a "huge deal."
"This is supposed to be one of their biggest days of the year," she wrote in an email. "I am shocked this caught them off guard. But I guess the lesson is to not have a big unveil during the middle of the day when everyone comes to your site all at once."
Amazon, which recently announced that Prime membership would be getting more expensive, was hoping to lure in shoppers by focusing on new products and having Whole Foods be part of the process. It was also hoping parents would use the deals event to jump start back-to-school shopping.
FILE- In this Aug. 3, 2017, file photo, Myrtice Harris applies tape to a package before shipment at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore. Amazon's Prime Day starts July 16, 2018, and will be six hours longer than last year's and will launch new products. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Jason Goldberg, senior vice president of commerce at Publicis. Sapient, noted that the problems could turn off shoppers for a while, particularly those who planned to sign up for Prime membership.
"If you were planning to find Prime deals to lower the cost of back-to-school (purchases), you're almost certainly going back to your traditional venue of choice," he said.
Goldberg noted that it's easy for Amazon to extend deals on its own devices and brands, but trickier for it to extend deals for its third-party sellers because they signed up for different promotional slots.
While Amazon doesn't disclose sales figures for Prime Day, Deborah Weinswig, CEO of Coresight Research, had estimated that it will generate $3.4 billion in sales worldwide, up from an estimated $2.4 billion last year. Prime Day also lasts six hours longer than last year.
FILE- In this Aug. 3, 2017, file photo, packages pass through a scanner at an Amazon fulfillment center in Baltimore. Amazon's Prime Day starts July 16, 2018, and will be six hours longer than last year's and will launch new products. (Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Meanwhile, other retailers like Macy's, Nordstrom, Best Buy, Walmart and Target have rolled out their own promotions, said Charlie O'Shea, lead retail analyst at Moody's.
"Brick-and-mortar retailers know that they have little choice but to continue offering their own deep discounts, which is evident in the proliferation of 'Black Friday in July' deals that are being launched earlier each year, as well as various 'price match' offers," he said in a note earlier Monday.
Amazon created Prime Day in 2015 to mark its 20th anniversary, and its success has inspired other e-commerce companies to invent shopping holidays. Online furniture seller Wayfair introduced Way Day in April, becoming its biggest revenue day ever.
Prime Day also usually helps boost the number of Prime memberships. Amazon disclosed for the first time this year that it had more than 100 million paid Prime members worldwide. It's hoping to keep Prime attractive for current and would-be subscribers after raising the U.S. annual membership fee by 20 percent to $119 and to $12.99 for the month-to-month option.
"It has been one of the best vehicles" for signing up members," said Goldberg.
Galena, a 6-year-old house cat from Utah, likes hiding and playing with cardboard.
Earlier this month, the combination of the two made for a stressful trip in an Amazon package, a feverish search, a California rescue and a tearful reunion.
Her family is still waiting to “reintroduce cardboard to her again," owner Carrie Clark said Tuesday, because they don't want to stress her out.
Clark got Galena as a kitten after her aunt rescued a pregnant feral cat. The American short hair with calico and Siamese coloring has been a constant companion and source of emotional support.
“I’ve been through a bunch of health things and she and I have gone through all of that together. And she’s she just has this extra great part about her personality that’s very loving. And she can tell when you don’t feel well,” Clark said. “And she's just really, really special to me.”
So when Galena disappeared on April 10, Clark was beside herself.
They searched the neighborhood, put up flyers and posted notices on Facebook lost pet pages in Lehi, Utah.
“Not knowing what had happened to her was pretty excruciating," Clark said, “I cried my eyes out for seven days trying to figure out what had happened.” Clark also ran through all the worst-case scenarios, wondering if the cat could have gotten out of the house and been nabbed by a predator or run over by a vehicle.
Clark said she received a “text that changed my life” on April 17, saying that Galena's microchip had been scanned, so Clark knew she had been found somewhere. Soon after, she got a call saying her cat was near Riverside, California, after being found in a box along with steel-toed boots that had been returned to an Amazon warehouse.
Clark's husband had ordered several pairs of boots, kept one and returned the rest in a large box on April 10.
“We realized that that our sweet kitty must have jumped into that box without us knowing,” she said.
Amazon employees knew just who to call when they found the feline — co-worker Brandy Hunter, who rescues cats, Clark said.
Hunter took the cat home and to the vet the next day, where the microchip was scanned.
Clark spoke with Hunter who “calmed me down and told me that my kitty was OK," despite having spent six days in a cardboard box without food or water.
“I wanted desperately to be with her,” Clark said. She and her husband flew to California the next day, reunited with Galena at the veterinarian's office and rented a car to drive home.
“We did what we needed to do because I just adore her,” Clark said.
It was an intensely emotional week.
“I went from hysterically laughing that she was stuck like that — we mailed our cat — you know ... just the humor part of that, to hysterically crying all within like five seconds," Clark said.
The family was lucky to get Galena back, Clark said, in part because the weather was not harsh during the time the cat was missing, the box was torn at a seam, allowing her to get more air, and because Hunter who took her to a vet and had her scanned for a microchip.
Since word got out, Clark has been sharing her cat's story, with advice to microchip your pets and to double-check your Amazon boxes before returning them.
Galena is a quiet cat, Clark said.
“She didn’t meow," Clark said. "We would have loved for her to meow so we knew that she was,” in the box.
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, Carrie poses with Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, Carrie poses with Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, Carrie poses with Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, is Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, is Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
In this photo provided by Carrie Clark of Lehi, Utah, is Galena, a 6-year-old house cat. Clark says Galena went missing after jumping into a box being returned to Amazon without its owners noticing. (Carrie Clark via AP Photo)
