Christmas In July? Amazon Offers More Than 100,000 Deals For 2nd Annual 'Prime Day'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Amazon's "Prime Day'' has returned for a second year with the online retail giant promising twice as many deals as last year.
More than 100,000 deals are being offered Tuesday. Last year, Amazon sold 398 items per second on Prime Day.
The company launched the event last July in an effort to promote its $99 annual Prime loyalty program, which offers free two-day shipping and other perks. Some of the big discounts are on large screen TVs and Amazon devices like its Echo, Kindle and Fire TV products.
Consumers may be hoping for better deals than last year, when #PrimeDayFail became a trending topic amid complaints that the products offered were unimpressive and the best items were quickly out of stock.
On Tuesday, some customers were reporting difficulty with the checkout and Amazon said it is working to resolve the issue.
Retailers are countering Amazon with deals of their own.
Walmart is providing free shipping on all online orders Tuesday and has cut prices throughout the month on a host of products online.
Toys "R" Us and Babies "R" Us are offering 15 percent discounts online and 50,000 sale items.
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