On Monday, July 16th, Amazon (AMZN  ) kicked off its annual Prime Day at 3 P.M. E.T., lasting until Tuesday night at 11:59 P.M. E.T. The 36-hour sale on both Amazon's website and mobile app featured more than 1 million deals. Deborah Weinswig, CEO of Coresight Research, estimated that the sales from this year's Amazon Prime Day generated $3.4 billion worldwide, an increase of an estimated $2.4 billion from last year. Amazon confirmed that it overcame early glitches - including slow purchase processing times and error pages featuring the "dogs of Amazon" - to have its biggest Prime Day yet.

Along with the greater number of items on sale, Prime Day also lasted six hours longer than last year. Customers flocked to the site in greater numbers than ever before from across 17 countries, with 2018 marking the first year that members in Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg were able to participate. Amazon also was able to sign up more new Amazon Prime members on July 16 than on any previous day in Amazon history. Small businesses with listings on Amazon were the big winners, exceeding $1 billion in sales alone.

The deals encompassed a vast array of products, from tech gear to great saves for back-to-school shopping. Even some of the most coveted tech devices were discounted, like Bose Wireless Bluetooth Speakers, Bose Noise-Cancelling Headphones, Dyson Cordless Vacuums, and other big products. Amazon's Echo products, particularly those with screens like Echo Show and Echo Dot, sold particularly well. Prime Day 2018 also marked the company's best-ever sales event for kid-oriented Amazon devices, like Echo Dot Kids Edition, Fire 7 Kids Edition tablet, and Fire HD 8 Kids Edition tablet. Millions of Prime customers also took advantage of promotional streaming events, including an Amazon Music concert and a Twitch Prime showdown.

In addition to the "dogs of Amazon" error, users also encountered other problems in the early hours of Prime Day. Shoppers who clicked the entry link for a specific category, for instance, were brought back to the first page on Amazon. There were also missing components for some users on their website, such as the disappearance of the "deals page" and 'Shop all deals" options. Customers outraged to find their attempts to get the best deals in the first hour thwarted only continued when many received an error message at checkout, too.

Fortunately for Amazon, the company resolved the tech issues within about an hour and a half, and got the site running normally again, though not without some desperate scrambling. The company even managed to spin the error into a charming, if unintentional, PR campaign.

Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' net worth climbed to a record-breaking $151 billion in the wake of the strong Prime Day performance.