Amazon celebrates 20th birthday with ‘bigger than Black Friday’ Prime Day

In celebration of the 20th anniversary of its founding, Amazon has launched “Prime Day”, a day of steep discounts which it reckons will be bigger than Black Friday.

The promotion, which is only for Prime members in the US, UK, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada and Austria, will reportedly allow users shop “thousands of Lightning Deals, seven popular Deals of the Day and receive unlimited fast, free shipping”. On Wednesday 15 July, Amazon says, new and existing members in the US will find deals starting at midnight, with new deals starting as often as every ten minutes.

It’s not just limiting the promotion to existing Prime users either. Amazon customers who sign up to a free 30 day Prime trial can also access the deals.

“Prime Day is a one-day only event filled with more deals than Black Friday, exclusively for Prime members around the globe. Members tell us every day how much they love Prime and we will keep making it better,” said Greg Greeley, Vice President Amazon Prime. “If you’re not already a Prime member, you’ll want to join so you don’t miss out on one of the biggest deals extravaganzas in the world.

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In 2014, Amazon says that it sold some 5.5-million items on Black Friday — an annual retail celebration in the US which falls the day after Thanksgiving.

If it can match or beat that on the 15th, then it’ll certainly brig in some serious revenue. More importantly though, it could see a lot more people signing up for the Prime service. And that could in turn mean more revenue for Amazon. As The Verge notes, Amazon Prime members spend US$1 500 a year, compared with non-members’ US$625.