At 10 a.m. ET, about 12,000 consumers reported having purchase issues, according to Downdetector, which tracks outages.

The company confirmed the issue had been resolved after 11:30 a.m.

Amazon stock edged up a fraction, closing at 88.46 on the stock market today.

Some shoppers received a message from Amazon saying: "Sorry. We're experiencing unusually heavy traffic. Please try again in a few seconds."

As the Amazon outage grew, however, Amazon added to the message, saying, "An error occurred when we tried to process your request. Rest assured, we're working to resolve the problem as soon as possible. If you were trying to make a purchase, please check Your Account to confirm that the order was placed."

No explanation was provided as to what caused the Amazon outage.

The Amazon outage was most pronounced in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, as well as Denver.

The company reported third-quarter results in late October that beat on earnings but gave an outlook that fell short, causing AMZN stock to drop 11%. Revenue climbed 15% from the year-ago period. That marks a return to double-digit growth after three straight quarters of growth in the single digits.

But for its fourth quarter, Amazon expects revenue in the range of $140 billion to $148 billion. The midpoint of $144 billion is below estimates of $155.1 billion.