By Dave Sebastian

Amazon.com Inc. said it would hold its annual Prime Day sales event on June 21 and 22 in the U.S. and other countries, though it is postponing the event in Canada and India to a later date because of the Covid-19 situation in those countries.

The online shopping fest follows the acceleration of digital commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic. But it also comes amid the continuing pandemic supply-chain strain, which caused the company to postpone Prime Day to October last year.

The e-commerce giant on Wednesday said it would offer its Prime members more than two million deals in categories including fashion, home, beauty and electronics. The deals will be available for Prime members in the U.S., U.K., the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Spain, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, China, Brazil, Belgium, Austria, and Australia, Amazon said.

Amazon didn't disclose detailed financial figures for last year's event, but the company said third-party businesses on its platform sold more than $3.5 billion during last year's Prime Day, a nearly 60% increase from the prior year.

Amazon logged a big lift to its bottom line during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it has been on a hiring spree ahead of Prime Day. The company's profit since the pandemic started has exceeded $26 billion, more than the previous three years combined. Its profit tripled during the first quarter to $8.1 billion.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-02-21 0826ET