Amazon's one hour of downtime on Prime Day may have cost it between $72 million and $99 million in lost sales

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Amazon's one hour of downtime on Prime Day may have cost it between $72 million and $99 million in lost sales

Amazon warehouse

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

An Amazon warehouse.

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  • Amazon's website had consistent issues during Prime Day, the website's biggest sale event of the year.
  • Shoppers had issues connecting to the website for over an hour, which caused many to threaten to cancel their Prime subscriptions.
  • It's estimated that the website downtime could have cost Amazon between $72 million and $99 million.
  • Regardless, Amazon still made a predicted $3.4 billion on Prime Day alone, its biggest Prime Day yet.

The website glitches and downtime that Amazon experienced during its annual Prime Day sale may have cost it more than just some unhappy customers - it's estimated it lost tens of millions of dollars in lost sales.

Shoppers began having issues connecting to Amazon's website and participating in its biggest sale event of the year shortly after it kicked off. Some frustrated customers, unable to access or complete purchases on the website, threatened to cancel their Amazon Prime subscriptions, which were required in order to participate in the sales.

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Amazon acknowledged the issues, noting that "many are shopping successfully," and it eventually got things running smoothly.

But the downtime is estimated to have cost Amazon between $72 million and $99 million in lost sales, depending on whom you ask, according to Axios. Digital Commerce 360 estimates the outage cost Amazon $72 million, and Love the Sales' Liam Solomon estimates it cost Amazon up to $99 million.

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However, it wasn't all bad news for Amazon, as the company made an estimated $3.4 billion in sales on Prime Day sales alone. Regardless of the losses and server issues, it was the biggest Prime Day so far.

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