Amazon's Running a Sale to Get Ready for Prime Day

Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) is planning a sales event for later this month. The move marks a departure from Amazon's current pullback on marketing and promotional activities designed to reduce the stress on its overburdened warehouses and the workers fulfilling orders.

Amazon's calling the promotion a "Fashion Summer Sale Event." That suggests the focus of the shopping bonanza will be apparel and perhaps other items that have been slow to sell during the coronavirus pandemic.

There could be two factors at play in Amazon's thinking. First, it wants to spur sales in categories that haven't sold well recently, and a concentrated effort by Amazon and third-party merchants to draw in shoppers could prevent steeper inventory writedowns in the future. At the same time, it could permanently shift consumer behavior to buying those items online more often versus going in store. Second, Amazon needs to clear room in its warehouses for Prime Day, which is now reportedly scheduled for September.

Source Fool.com