SEATTLE: Amazon.com Inc. kicked off its big Prime Day sales promotion with technical glitches on its website and app, threatening its 36-hour sales extravaganza.
Trouble on the site spiked when the event began at 3 p.m. Eastern time, according to Downdetector.com, which monitors web trouble. Shoppers were expected to spend US$3.4 billion on the site during the event, up more than 40% from a year earlier, according to Coresight Research.
Amazon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Shoppers immediately took their frustration to sites like Facebook and Twitter.
“Way to go, Amazon.com. People might actually buy prime day stuff if your site wouldn’t crash. Great planning. Can’t get the app to load at all,” Jessica Henning wrote on Amazon’s Facebook page.