Amazon Prime Day sale to begin on June 21

Amazon.com Inc.’s Prime Day sale will be held June 21 and 22, according to records reviewed by Bloomberg News and a person familiar with the matter, as the company tries to get its big summer sale back on schedule after postponing it last year due to the pandemic.

Amazon notified employees about the dates and asked them to keep the information confidential until an official announcement in the coming days, according to the records. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The world’s biggest online retailer uses the annual event to drum up sales and attract and retain subscribers to its Prime service, which entitles users to the best and earliest discounts. Amazon has traditionally held the event in July, but pushed it to October last year. It previously announced Prime Day would be in June this year, without disclosing the specific dates.

Amazon’s Prime Day dates are important in the retail industry since competitors often schedule competing sales to capitalize on the big promotion and entice shoppers to explore their offerings should Amazon’s event disappoint. Amazon’s first Prime Day was in 2015 and it has since grown into a two-day sales blitz, allowing Amazon to process more transactions. Sudden surges in demand have in the past strained its warehouse and delivery capacity.

Amazon is pausing Prime Day in Canada and India due to concerns about the spread of Covid-19.