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 A piñata in the Amazon conference room where Prime Day coordinators gathered in 2015 to oversee the company’s first Prime Day sale. The original event was code-named piñata. (Photo: Elizabeth Weise) 
 
 SEATTLE—At Amazon headquarters here, two floors of conference rooms are outfitted as war rooms, the better to absorb the crushing blow of 85 million Prime shoppers feverishly tapping on the best slow cooker deals. 
 
 Prime Day (or Prime Day plus six hours) is almost here. 
 
 What started as an experiment to shake-up the shopping doldrums of July, with perhaps a sprinkle of inspiration from Alibaba's wildly successful Single's Day, has turned into one of Amazon's biggest sales days. 
 
 Last year, analysts estimate Prime Day sales totaled between $500 million and $600 million, or 1.5% of its third quarter sales — compared with the $3.34 billion spent online by Americans this past Black Friday at retailers. Amazon (AMZN), which does not release sales figures for the event, said they surpassed the prior year's Prime Day by more than 60% worldwide. 
 
 While this year’s Prime Day will almost certainly out-perform last year’s, in the bigger picture Prime Day just isn't as relevant as holiday sales in November and December, said Alasdair McLean-Foreman, founder of Teikametrics, a company that provides data analytics and optimization technology for sellers on e-commerce platforms. 
 
 Sales are by no means the only important metric. At heart, Prime Day is “another excellent branding opportunity to own consumer mind share,” McLean-Foreman said. 
 
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 Bursting digital shopping carts help Amazon and the tens of thousands of companies that sell on its site to level out demand over the year, adding a nice bump of sales in July when things are typically flat, says Gene Alvarez, an analyst who follows the company for Gartner. 
 
 It’s also a chance for Amazon to tout voice-ordering and to get more people engaged with its Echo voice-operated devices. 
 
 But mostly it’s a chance for Amazon to gather information, both in general and as a kind of stress test for the holidays. 
 
 Amazon’s vice president for Prime, stands in the conference room where his team oversaw Amazon’s first Prime Day sale in 2015. The event was code-named Piñata and the room was decorated with piñata cutouts and actual piñatas. The one he holds in his hand was the only piñata remaining in the conference room in 2017. (Photo: Elizabeth Weise/USA TODAY) 
 
 “Prime Day is about experimenting and learning more about the customer experience and willingness to shop in new ways,” Alvarez said. 
 
 Amazon is prepping for this year's Prime Day, which starts Monday at 9 PM Eastern and runs for 30 hours across 13 countries, to be a big one. 
 
 Amazonians (Amazon's internal name for its workers) who work on Prime are expected to block off June and much of July and take their summer vacations after the dust has cleared. 
 
 Code Name: Pinata 
 
 It’s all a long way from its beginnings as a doldrums of July sale, originally code-named Piñata. 
 
 The first Prime Day in 2015 got off to a somewhat inauspicious start. The team focused on the event had taken over a small conference room decorated with Piñata cutouts as its operations center. 
 
 Prime hit first in Japan, 16 hours ahead of Seattle. As the sale began there, customers rushed online to start buying and the Amazon.jp site promptly crashed. 
 
 Greg Greeley, Amazon’s vice president for Prime, literally fell off his chair as he lunged to deal with the problem. The team got the site up and running again in two minutes but the magnitude of what they’d launched was clear. 
 
 “I got on the phone with AWS and I told them, ‘When the sun comes up here, this is going to be huge,’” he told USA TODAY last week. 
 
 The first Prime Day in 2015 came about as the company was casting about for a celebration for its twentieth anniversary, though it resembled Singles’ Day in China, an obscure event for bachelors that the Chinese digital giant Alibaba turned into a cultural event beginning in 2009, selling $17.8 billion in goods last year. 
 
 Just as with Black Friday deals, the question for consumers is always whether they’re getting deals or duds. Amazon’s first try at Prime Day in 2015 was panned by some because too many deals seemed instead to be merchants clearing out unsold inventory, with Twitter calling out garage-sale like goods such as shoe horns and granny panties. 
 
 The next year Prime Day felt a lot more like Black Friday, though an analysis by The Wirecutter found that while there were thousands of deals, few were what it termed "great deals." 
 
 This year, Amazon is pledging that price for all its limited-time lightning deals will be the lowest for that item offered on its site in the last 365 days. 
 
 It won't be the only game in town. JCPenney, Kohl's and Macy's are all offering exclusive discounts before and during Prime Day, though Walmart, Target and Lowe's are among the big names who appear to be skipping the event. 
 
 Amazon uses both human and robot workers in its warehouses. (Photo: Amazon) 
 
 In the first two years Prime Day was also a big enticement for customers to sign up for Amazon’s Prime membership service, which offers free two-day shipping and same-day shipping in many cities plus a host of perks. 
 
 Prime members are a major sweet spot for Amazon. According to figures released last week by Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, there are now 85 million highly remunerative Prime members in the United States, up from 65 million a year ago. Once in the Amazon eco-system they spend on average about $1,300 per year, compared to about $700 per year for non-member customers. 
 
 Forrester’s Amazon analyst Brendan Witcher expects the company to heavily promote its Echo family of voice-activated devices as it continues efforts to build-out its already substantial lead in voice assistants. This includes the new Echo Show, which comes with a 7" screen. 
 
 Amazon Echo Show (Photo: Reviewed.com / Jackson Ruckar) 
 
 “It wouldn't surprise me if almost every step of the purchasing journey will include some mention of Amazon Echo,” he said. 
 
 Amazon’s overall goal, which Prime Day contributes to, is to do with retail what Apple did with music – build an ecosystem of delivery that will become an ecosystem of buying, Witcher said. 
 
 The work that Amazon has put into Prime Day is paying off for the third-party sellers on Amazon’s site, who now make up more than 50% of units sold by the company. 
 
 Austin, Texas-based Silk Innovation sells mobile phone cases. The company set its sales targets in the spring, ordering from China and having the products shipped directly to Amazon fulfillment centers. 
 
 CEO Matt Altschul expects a 25% jump in sales in July due to Prime Day. 
 
 “I wish I had a story to tell you that everything’s wild and we all had to work our butts off, but I don’t," he said. "It’s the beauty of Amazon’s automation.” 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2u8NTs2 ||||| Now playing: Watch this: The real deals of Amazon Prime Day 
 
 It's beginning to look a lot like Prime Day. 
 
 On the evening of Monday, July 10 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, and 6 p.m. in the UK, Amazon will kick off its third annual sales event. It's basically a Cyber-Monday-in-July that promises extra savings over and above the company's usual discount prices. But that evening start is reminiscent of Black Friday sales that start on Thanksgiving: This year's Prime Day runs for 30 hours, straight through July 11. 
 
 So who's allowed to get in on this Prime action? What's going to be different compared with last year? How can you be sure Amazon's Prime Day price is actually the best price? 
 
 I've got all the answers. Here's everything you need to know about Prime Day 2017. 
 
 Days of Prime Day past 
 
 Amazon's first stab at Prime Day (in 2015) was to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Although the event proved a big success in terms of sales, customers found a lot to dislike. The biggest discounts were on Amazon's own products (Kindles, Fire tablets, Echo products and so on), and those seemed to come and go at random. 
 
 Last year, things went better, with lots more inventory and category-driven search that made it easier to sift through the nearly 100,000 sale items. 
 
 Why you should care about Prime Day 
 
 In 2016, Amazon's big categories were TV and toys. The company promised twice as much TV inventory as "Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined," and toy deals that would run "nearly all day." 
 
 Will those be the spotlight categories this year as well? That remains to be seen, but there will undoubtedly be countless other deals. And Amazon will offer Alexa-powered specials as well, so if you own an Amazon Echo ( ), Dot or Tap, you might be able to score some exclusives. (You can already ask Alexa to spill some rumors.) 
 
 Amazon is also promising savings of "up to 40 percent" on Kindle Unlimited membership, though it's not quite clear what the "up to" part is about. Currently, the ebook/audiobook subscription service costs $9.99 per month, or £7.99 in the UK. 
 
 ...and why you shouldn't care 
 
 If we haven't met before, I'm Rick "The Cheapskate" Broida, and I write about tech deals pretty much every day of the year. And let me tell you, every day is Prime Day. By which I mean there are great bargains to be had all the time. 
 
 Yes, as with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon may shave a few extra dollars off a TV or Kindle. But also as with those days, supplies will be limited. And the TV might be an off-brand model that wasn't really what you had in mind. 
 
 In other words, resist the hype. If there's a particularly good deal to be had on a product you've been eyeballing, by all means grab it. But don't think this is your only opportunity to save big. 
 
 Furthermore, with Amazon planning to roll out new deals "as often as every 5 minutes" throughout the day, this is a rabbit hole you might want to avoid. Prime Day will definitely not be Productivity Day if you're refreshing your browser every 5 minutes. (Though see below for a handy way to keep tabs on specific deals.) 
 
 Prime Day is for Prime subscribers 
 
 Amazon Prime is, of course, the subscription service that affords unlimited two-day shipping, movie and unlimited music streaming and various other perks. It costs $99 per year (a very good deal, in my humble opinion), or £79 in the UK. 
 
 In order to take advantage of Prime Day deals, you must be a Prime subscriber. That's the bad news; the good news is that if you've never tried the service before, you can get a free trial -- and that trial membership qualifies you for Prime Day savings. 
 
 By the way, if you're a US college student, you can get a six-month free trial of Amazon Prime, after which you can snag a membership for just $49 -- 50 percent off the regular annual price. 
 
 Prime Day deals have already started (sort of) 
 
 Head over to amazon.com/primeday (here in the UK) and you'll find some deals rotating in and out before the official kickoff on July 10. Some of the deals are better than others. For instance, as of Friday, July 7, there are digital versions of some pretty great movies on sale for just $5. I'll update the post if there's anything further to report. 
 
 Use the Amazon App to get deal notifications 
 
 Amazon 
 
 Part of the challenge of Prime Day is keeping tabs on the deals that interest you, especially those scheduled to begin later in the day. If you forget, you might miss out. 
 
 Fortunately, the Amazon App lets you track upcoming deals and receive notifications when they're about to begin. It's available for Amazon Fire (natch), Android and iOS in their respective app stores. (The app also affords benefits like voice-powered search and shipment tracking.) 
 
 Don't assume Prime Day is the best day 
 
 As I noted above, where I come from, every day is Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Prime Day. That means you should approach every deal with a little bit of skepticism -- or at least a little bit of research. 
 
 One great place to start: CamelCamelCamel, the site that tracks Amazon price histories. (It can also notify you when Amazon products go on sale; I recently explained how to use it to track those rare Amazon Echo deals and you can see Amazon's current deal offerings here.) 
 
 Before you pull the trigger on any Prime Day deal, copy the URL, paste it into CamelCamelCamel's search field and check the results. You may discover that the product has indeed been priced lower in the past, and therefore may be again. 
 
 At the same time, consider using a browser plug-in such as Honey, which can instantly inform you if any third-party sellers have the same product for a lower price (which doesn't happen often, but it's worth checking). 
 
 Finally, be sure to check other sites. Best Buy, Walmart and other major stores may well trot out their own answers to Prime Day, offering loss-leader pricing on popular items. 
 
 How waitlisting works 
 
 Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET 
 
 Like Amazon's daily Lightning deals, most Prime Day deals are available in limited quantities -- and once they're "claimed," they're gone. Or maybe not: You may see a Join Waitlist button that'll put you in the queue to grab an item if it becomes available. 
 
 How does that happen? Sometimes other customers will add an item to their cart, then decide not to buy it (or fail to complete the purchase within 15 minutes) -- at which point it goes to the next person in line. That could be you, so don't be shy about joining the waitlist if it's something you really want. 
 
 Ask Alexa for exclusive deals 
 
 Amazon already offers exclusive deals to owners of the Echo, Echo Dot, Tap and other Alexa-enhanced devices: You just say, "Alexa, what are your deals?" 
 
 It should come as no surprise, then, that Amazon's gal is serving up Prime Day exclusives as well -- starting with a deal on Prime itself. If you're not already a subscriber, you can say, "Alexa, sign me up for Prime," and you'll get an annual membership for $79 instead of the usual $99. 
 
 Beyond that, ask Alexa for "Prime Day deals," both leading up to the big day and on the day itself. One item to consider: the Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Speaker III. Alexa will score you a $50 discount, a bit better than the $41 discount afforded to regular Amazon shoppers. 
 
 Editors' note: This article was originally published on July 5, 2016, and has since been updated. ||||| Screenshot by Joan Solsman/CNET 
 
 All eyes in retail are on Amazon this Monday, and not just for good reasons. 
 
 The world's largest e-commerce company kicked off its annual Prime Day sale today with a series of glitches that plagued its site and mobile app for over an hour in the US, based on visits from CNET staff and a host of reports on social media. Outage reports spiked around noon PT, according to DownDetector.com, just as Amazon Prime Day officially started. Amazon.com in the US appeared to be hit the hardest. Lesser issues were reported in parts of Canada, Mexico and Europe. 
 
 Now playing: Watch this: Prime Day 2018 and the 404 dogs of Amazon 
 
 As of 1 p.m. PT, a full hour into the sale, there appeared to be a handful of errors on the site. The homepage was generally available, but errors were coming up at checkout, items in shopping carts were disappearing, mobile alerts were delayed, products searches were sometimes offering no results, and some shoppers were caught in a "Shop All Deals" loop. Soon after, it appeared the site was beginning to recover, with the main Prime Day homepage becoming available. 
 
 Roughly two hours after the outage began, Amazon acknowledged the ongoing problems in short statement: "Some customers are having difficulty shopping, and we're working to resolve this issue quickly." It added that US customers ordered more items in the first hour of Prime Day than last year, despite the outages. Amazon didn't offer an explanation for what was causing the issues. 
 
 Monday's problems weren't the first time that Amazon experienced a notable website error during Prime Day. In 2016, a computer glitch prevented people from checking out their purchases online in the early hours of the sale. 
 
 When asked about the site running properly during the increased demand, Jamil Ghani, vice president of Prime international, earlier this month told CNET: "We feel prepared for what's to come." 
 
 con: @amazon prime day site down 
 
 pro: doggo pictures pic.twitter.com/szN0h4JPOa — elizabeth wozobski (@EWozobski) July 16, 2018 
 
 The problems could be due to an early rush of web traffic, though for now that's uncertain. 
 
 Amazon is used to surges of consumer traffic following over 20 years operating its website during the height of holiday shopping. The company is also a leader in operating server farms and cloud computing, thanks to its highly lucrative Amazon Web Services business. AWS runs Amazon's sites and appeared to be working normally Monday, according to its online status page. 
 
 However, Prime Day offers significant challenges for even Amazon, since the sale is consolidated to a short period of time -- not a whole shopping season -- kicks off at a set period across the globe and is focused on just one retailer. Amazon also added four new countries to Prime Day this year: Australia, Singapore, Netherlands and Luxembourg. 
 
 That scenario invites a big wave of shoppers to arrive at Amazon right at the beginning of the sale, which could temporarily overwhelm its capacity. Additionally, Prime Day offers its own set of over 1 million deals globally and a customized homepage, adding to the complexity of operating the sale. 
 
 "We've seen this sort of thing happen on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the past with other retailers," said eMarketer retail analyst Andrew Lipsman. "In many ways, it's a double edged sword. On the one hand, you don't want to erode consumer trust by having an outage. On the other side, it's often a reflection of higher-than-expected demand." 
 
 He added that consumer shopping tends to recover if an outage is fixed fairly quickly. 
 
 amazon down on prime day heellpp #AmazonPrimeDay pic.twitter.com/IQRpr72iDw — Lisa Scherzer (@lisascherzer) July 16, 2018 
 
 My @amazon Prime Day experience. Multiple refreshes and still the same. Is @awscloud down too? pic.twitter.com/MMRCglgGK1 — Mike Baranski (@mikebaranski) July 16, 2018 
 
 Because Prime Day is going on for 36 hours this year -- up from 30 hours last year -- Amazon has an opportunity to come back from the weak start. But, the problems may make it harder for the company to break its single-day sales record, which it managed to do for the past two Prime Day sales. 
 
 Amazon last year said Prime Day sales grew by 60 percent from the year earlier and that more new members joined Prime than on any other day in Amazon history. Overall, Prime Day raked in an estimated $2.5 billion to $2.9 billion in global sales, including sales from third-party vendors, financial firm Cowen said last year. 
 
 First published at 12:19 p.m. PT. 
 
 Updated at 2:21 p.m. PT: Adds more background throughout and updates the site's performance, as well as an official statement from Amazon. 
 
 'Hello, humans': Google's Duplex could make Assistant the most lifelike AI yet. 
 
 CNET Magazine: Check out a sample of the stories in CNET's newsstand edition.
– Will the third time be the charm for Amazon? Its now-slightly-misnomered Prime Day (it's actually 30 hours long, not 24, this year) kicks off at 9pm EDT Monday. Its inaugural sale in 2015 didn't blow consumers over; in 2016 there were early-morning website issues for some customers. This year, Amazon is ready, at least by USA Today's account, which notes that two floors of conference rooms at HQ have been "outfitted as war rooms" to support the onslaught of shoppers, all of whom must have a Prime membership to get the deals. More: The figures: Prime Day 2016 saw an estimated $500 million to $600 million in sales (Amazon didn't release official numbers). That's a fraction of the $3.34 billion spent on the Black Friday that followed months later, but Amazon said the total was up 60% over 2015, with 2017's Prime Day expected to be even bigger. What does bigger look like? Beating 2016 Prime Day records like these perhaps, per TechCrunch: More than 90,000 TVs, 1 million shoes, 23,000 iRobot vacuums, and 200,000 headphones were sold. It's a win-win for Amazon: There's a big upside involved in reeling in new Prime shoppers (the count has increased about 20 million year-over-year in the US, to 85 million): Their Amazon spending is almost double that of a non-Prime customer: $1,300 a year versus $700. What's on sale? Some 100,000 items, per CNET, but those items don't all go on sale at once. It offers tips on how to be alerted to the best deals (one smart one involves using your Amazon Wish List). Fortune offers some other ways, including a convenient-sounding Alexa tip. So are the deals deals? In some cases. Quartz points out that the Wirecutter gadget-review site examined 8,000 deals last Prime Day and recommended fewer than 1% of them: 64. One handy tool: CamelCamelCamel.com, which prompts you to input a product URL and then lets you know how that stacks up to what Amazon has charged for the item in the past. There's reason to care: ... and also reason to avoid the "rabbit hole" altogether. Rick Broida makes both cases at CNET. One dose of reality: If you've enjoyed Amazon's tax-free shopping in the past, it's, well, a thing of the past. Forbes points out that since April 1, Amazon has been levying sales tax for shoppers in all states with a sales tax (five don't have one: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon).