Amazon (AMZN  ) pushed its Prime Day shopping holiday into September, as it deals with a huge surge in demand for essential items. This year, Prime Day was scheduled for July 15 and 16. Last year, the holiday brought in $4.19 billion with 175 million products sold. This was a 71% increase in revenue from 2018. Prime Day was strategically selected to boost sales during a period when retail spending is typically depressed. September is the last time to boost sales before it begins to compete with holiday spending.

Coronavirus Strategy

The company has been prioritizing essential items due to the coronavirus and shutdown effects such as household items, food, and healthcare products. Amazon also limited sales, marketing, and shipping times of nonessential items to prioritize essential, household items for its customers.

While it is focused on dealing with the pandemic's effects in the near-term, there are signs that the company is slowly beginning to normalize operations. Setting a new, firm date for Prime Day is one indication. It has also been on a hiring spree, adding nearly 300,000 workers this year. In its first-quarter results, Amazon said it was investing $4 billion to upgrade its warehouses.

Inching Towards Normal

As a result of these measures, Amazon is soon expected to allow unlimited shipments of nonessential items to its warehouses and slowly return to its pre-coronavirus shipping times for all items. In recent weeks, Amazon has been allowing shipment of nonessential items to warehouses on a limited basis.

Amazon's first-quarter results were lower than expected due to higher costs, and people buying low-margin items instead of higher-margin ones. Amazon barely breaks even on many of these items for its Prime customers especially when taking into account the additional expense of same-day or next-day delivery. Currently, same-day or next-day shipping is mostly available only for essential items, but the list of products is expected to grow over the next month.

Amazon has constantly focused on winning market share and serving customers over short-term profits. In a sense, it's operated like a startup whose investors want it to prioritize growth and winning market share over other factors until it goes public. Amazon is unique in that it's continued this behavior and been rewarded by Wall Street.