The Amazon e-commerce platform suffered a significant outage on Thursday afternoon, impacting more than 21,000 users across the United States who reported difficulties accessing the company’s services.
Reuters reports that Amazon’s main e-commerce website experienced a widespread service disruption on Thursday, March 5, 2026, leaving thousands of customers unable to complete their online shopping activities. According to Downdetector.com, a website that monitors service outages by collecting status reports from multiple sources, more than 21,700 incidents were reported as of 3:48 p.m. Eastern Time.
The outage began around 2:00 p.m. ET and affected various aspects of the Amazon shopping experience. Users took to social media platforms to report problems with fundamental website functions, including difficulties logging into their accounts, completing checkout processes, and browsing product listings. The disruption prevented customers from conducting normal e-commerce activities on one of the world’s largest online retail platforms.
Amazon acknowledged the technical difficulties through an official statement. “We’re sorry that some customers may be experiencing issues while shopping. We appreciate customers’ patience as we work to resolve the issue,” a spokesperson for Amazon said. However, the company did not provide specific details about what caused the service interruption or an estimated timeline for full restoration of services.
The outage was not limited to Amazon’s primary e-commerce platform. Downdetector also registered minor disruptions affecting Prime Video, the company’s streaming service, and Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing division. While these services experienced less severe problems compared to the main website, the simultaneous issues across multiple Amazon platforms suggested a potentially broader technical problem affecting the company’s infrastructure.
The actual number of users affected by the outage may be significantly higher than the reported figures, as Downdetector’s data represents only those individuals who actively reported problems through the platform. Many users experiencing difficulties may not have filed reports, meaning the true scope of the disruption could extend beyond the documented incidents.
The timing of this outage comes amid other challenges for Amazon’s infrastructure. Earlier in the week, some of the technology giant’s data centers located in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sustained damage from drone strikes related to the ongoing Middle East conflict. These attacks on physical infrastructure disrupted Amazon’s cloud services in those regions, though it remains unclear whether there is any connection between those incidents and Thursday’s widespread service disruption in the United States.
The cause of the outage Thursday remained undetermined at the time of reporting. Amazon did not provide information about whether the service interruption resulted from technical failures, cyberattacks, infrastructure problems, or other factors. The company’s response focused on acknowledging the issue and working toward resolution rather than explaining the underlying cause.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship.
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