Amazon Prime Day annual shopping feast encounters a "small episode": the advertising portal crashed and was down for about two hours
Amazon Prime Day, the annual shopping extravaganza, experienced an advertising portal crash, leading to troubles with promotional activities. Amazon's advertising portal is a self-service system for merchants to adjust advertising budgets and bid on keywords. Despite some advertisers being unable to access the advertising console, ad placements and activities are still ongoing. Amazon accounts managed by consulting firm Pirawna were affected, with some sellers reporting issues. Prior to the fix, the portal website was down for about two hours. Amazon did not provide a timeline for the interruption. According to data from Momentum Commerce, sales on Prime Day increased by nearly 12% in the first seven hours
According to information obtained by Zhitong Finance APP, several Amazon (AMZN.US) sellers and consultants revealed that Amazon's marketing portal for merchants crashed on Tuesday evening local time, causing trouble for one of the online retailer's biggest promotional events of the year.
It is understood that Amazon's advertising portal is a self-service system where merchants and brands can adjust advertising budgets and bid on keywords so that their products can appear in consumer searches. Without this online interface, brands' advertising spending on Amazon would operate without clear guidance or information.
Momentum Commerce, which manages brands in 50 different product categories, reported that the two-day Prime Day promotion kicked off on Tuesday with a strong start, with sales in the first seven hours increasing by nearly 12% compared to the same period last year.
An Amazon spokesperson stated in an email, "A small number of advertisers were unable to access Amazon's advertising console for a short period of time, and we are working to resolve this issue. This has no impact on ad delivery, and advertisers' campaigns are proceeding as planned."
Jed Rawson's consulting firm Pirawna manages Amazon accounts with annual sales close to $500 million on the platform. He mentioned that several sellers are discussing this issue online. All of his clients have been affected, with a survey of Amazon sellers on a private Slack channel revealing that four sellers reported encountering problems. Several consultants from Amazon also discussed this issue on LinkedIn.
Rawson mentioned that the portal was down for approximately two hours before being fixed. Amazon did not provide a timeline for the interruption