Amazon Prime Day

feline groovy · ‎07-29-2014

good luck, everyone!

How to Get the Best Deals During Amazon Prime Day

Use these tips to find the hottest deals during the two-day sale

Consumer Reports 6/28/23

Amazon’s annual Prime Day sale will take place July 11 and 12. The event will feature hundreds of thousands of deals, many of which will beat or at least match the lowest prices we’ve seen to date.

Prime Day tends to bring prices that rival what we see during Black Friday, making the huge summer sale a great time to score big savings. Amazon typically offers the best deals on its own products, such as Echo smart speakers, Fire tablets, Fire TVs and streaming devices, and Kindle e-book readers. It also owns Blink (smart home security), Ring (smart doorbells), and Eero (mesh routers). We expect to see at least a few discounts on these brands, too.

But the sale extends well beyond Amazon’s own products, and thousands of merchants are expected to take part in the event, providing discounts, bundle deals, and other offers on items including clothing, toys, outdoor equipment, sporting goods, electronics, and appliances.

But with so many offers to sift through, it can be hard to find the best Amazon deals. The most popular offers can expire quickly and new ones appear regularly, often without much notice.

The following tips can help you save time and shop smarter.

How Amazon Deals Are Organized

You have to be an Amazon Prime member to participate in the sales event. If you’re not, you can take advantage of Amazon’s free 30-day Prime trial offer to shop the sale. Cancel before the trial period ends and you won’t be charged. (The free trial is available only if you haven’t signed up within the past 12 months.)

The company runs several types of promotions for its major sales.

Deals of the Day last 24 hours, so many of them available July 11 may not be available July 12, but there will be a slew of new offers on the second day of the sale. This may mean placing more than one order, but the free shipping available to all Prime members makes that less of a hassle.

Lightning Deals are even more limited promotions on specific items. They usually last only for a certain amount of time—usually just a few hours—or until the item sells out. And new ones can pop up as frequently as every 5 minutes.

Alexa Deals are offers available exclusively via Amazon’s voice-powered digital assistant. If you ask an Echo smart speaker “Alexa, what are your deals?” you can get access to exclusive ones not available elsewhere, or access to certain deals an hour or so before they appear on the Amazon website. You can also download the Alexa app to access these offers if you don’t own an Alexa-enabled device.

What Will Be on Sale During Prime Day

You’ll be able to find deals and discounts on practically everything. Amazon is promising sales from major brands like Sony, Yeti, and more. And it’s heavily hinting at a slew of deals and discounts on apparel, shoes, and all sorts of products that you’ll typically find on a back-to-school shopping list. Regardless of what you’re hoping to get during the sale, odds are you’ll find it.

Amazon Prime Shopping Tips

Here are a few ways to score a good Amazon deal during this year’s Prime Day.

• Download Amazon’s smartphone app. It allows you to get a “sneak peek” advance notice of deals and to sign up for alerts. The app will also let you see upcoming Lightning Deals before they’re active. You can use the app to create a “Watch this deal” list, so you can get notifications when a deal is about to go live. You can also add items directly to your cart and then select “Save for Later” to easily and quickly review the prices of products you want.

• Click on the “Join Waitlist” button on the Amazon website or app for Lightning Deal items that have sold out. Items are deleted from a person’s shopping cart after 15 minutes if they haven’t completed the purchase, and you’ll get an alert if you’re next in line.

• Turn on 1-Click purchases to speed up your checkout. Go to your Amazon account and click on the “1-Click settings” link. You can then set up or check your payment method and shipping address.

• Use the free Amazon Assistant plug-in. It’s available for most common browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Edge, and Safari. The plug-in can help you compare products and prices while searching and shopping online or get notifications when deals go live. It also provides Amazon shortcuts right in your browser. (Keep in mind that Amazon Assistant allows the company to do some tracking of your browsing behavior, as described in the plug-in's privacy policy.)

• Compare prices. Other retailers, including Target and Walmart, are running their own sales at the same time. Target’s Cricle Week will run July 9-15 and Walmart+ Week is happening July 11-13. Search for the products you want on their sites before buying from Amazon to make sure you’re getting the best price. (Details below.)

Check Other Retailers

Other big retailers, such as Best Buy, generally hold their own sales to compete with Amazon when the retail giant hosts a big savings event. Best Buy has yet to announce a competing sale, but may still offer discounts that rival Amazon’s prices.

So what does all of this mean for you? Whenever you add an Amazon deal to your cart, it may pay to check out some of these other retailers to see whether they have the product cheaper. Just remember that if you’re buying a Lightning Deal, you have only 15 minutes to complete the Amazon purchase before the item is removed from your cart and freed up for other customers.

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bikerbabe · ‎03-09-2010

I purchased our Echo’s on Prime Day.

jackthebear · ‎03-11-2010

just got a new firestick this week at PD price, it was delivered in 3 hours

Shelbelle · ‎03-09-2010

Target Circle Days on the same days.

PA Mom-mom · ‎05-27-2015

@feline groovy Thanks for the info! I've placed things I want to buy in my wish list, and I get a notification if there is a price drop. We're having the family here this coming week, so I can't monitor, and I'll rely on the price drop notifications.

icezeus · ‎10-30-2010

I don't need anything but I will still keep an eye out for deals.

Snowpuppy · ‎03-09-2010

@Shelbelle wrote:
Target Circle Days on the same days.

Thank you for this! I shop Target more than The A.

While I don't have Prime, watch your prices. I ordered DS protein powder last week with a 25% off coupon. Today it's on "sale" for $24 more. 🙄

feline groovy · ‎07-29-2014

Early Prime Day Deals are at Amazon.com for Prime members (see main page heading).

Google-search Amazon Prime Day for more information re: what's on sale starting tomorrow.

Hmmmmm24 · ‎04-24-2019

Prime Day used to be great and something I looked forward to. Now that Amazon has "sold out" to the Chinese third party sellers, they no longer offer any name-brand items for a good deal. It's not worth my time anymore. Nothing but Temu-type junk that does nothing but clog up our landfills.

Rockycoast · ‎03-02-2016

There are also "Invitation Only" deals. My husband received one a few days ago. He said it was for a $400 television on sale for $99. If we get the deal it will be going into one of the bedrooms. Not to bad of a deal.