Amazon Prime Day Promotion Boosts Sales as Consumers Squawk

Amazon.com Inc.’s inaugural Prime Day event offering reduced prices on television sets, lawnmowers and other goods helped the online retailer increase sales even as the promotion was skewered by customers on social media.

Amazon’s daily sales in the U.S. were up around 80 percent as of noon Wednesday in New York, compared with a year earlier, according to ChannelAdvisor Corp. Sales in Europe rose about 40 percent, according to the firm, which helps merchants sell on marketplaces including Amazon. The data reflect transactions for ChannelAdvisor’s 2,800 customers and don’t include purchases from Amazon’s own inventory.