Amazon Prime Day comes amid slowdown in online sales growth

By HALELUYA HADERO
AP Business Writer

Amazon is heading into its annual Prime Day sales event on Tuesday much differently than how it entered the pandemic. The company has long used the two-day event to lure people to its Prime membership. This year, it could help Amazon boost profitability amid a slowdown in overall online sales. That’s quite a reversal from the early days of the pandemic when the e-commerce giant’s profits soared as homebound shoppers turned to online shopping to avoid contracting the coronavirus. Now, Amazon says it has too many workers and too much warehouse space. Some analysts says the excess capacity is likely to be a short-term problem for the company.