Amazon’s Prime Day shoppers encounter checkout snafus

Some customers are reporting difficulty with checkout.

But this year only customers who subscribe to Amazon Prime are eligible for the savings. The ecommerce giant is expected to double its sales this year from Prime Day 2015 (up to an estimated $1 billion).

Amazon said the Fire TV stick, which was on sale for $15 off at $25, was the top seller of the day.

Discounts will be on products that have ratings of 3 stars or higher and must offer a 20-percent or greater discount off the average price of an item listed on Amazon.com in the last 90 days.

Rick Ostopowicz, a marketing communications manager for a chemical company in Catonsville, Maryland, was disappointed in the deals previous year during Prime Day. By 6:30 a.m., she had picked up a Silhouette Cameo, an electronic cutting machine used for arts and crafts projects, for $50 off at $179.97.

Amazon tweeted to announce it was looking into the issue, and about two hours later said it had been resolved.

Customers making purchases on discounted products for Amazon Prime Day have been experiencing problems checking out.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc launched free shipping with no minimum order threshold on all items, touting products “at or lower than Amazon’s prices”. J.C. Penney and Toys R Us offered their own sales too.

Shoppers with an Echo device were able to use Amazon’s voice- assistant Alexa to make purchases.

It’s Christmas in July as Amazon (AMZN) unleashes twice as many Prime Day deals today in hopes of topping last year’s highly successful mega-shopping event.

Consumers may be hoping for better deals than a year ago, when #PrimeDayFail became a trending topic amid complaints that the products offered were unimpressive and the best items were quickly out of stock.

Amazon said it worked with its vendors to beef up inventory this year. The company also said it got hundreds of thousands of new Prime signups.