Amazon has just announced that its annual Prime Day sale is set to return on 16 and 17 July 2024, giving families the opportunity to get their hands on some serious bargains. Follow our top tips to find the best deals and get the best value for money.
If you're not sure what or when Amazon Prime day is, it's a 48-hour sale hosted by Amazon each year, where it offers massive reductions on thousands of products, exclusively to Prime members. It normally takes place in early summer. There is also a version of Prime Day that takes place in October, in the lead up to Black Friday. While the most discounts can be found during the Prime Day event, there are deals to be found now - our shopping editor has spotted these early Prime Day baby deals.
How to get the best deals on Amazon Prime Day
1. Make sure you have an Amazon Prime membership
If you're keen to shop the sale, you’ll need to make sure you are signed up to Amazon Prime. Prime Day discounts are exclusive to Prime members, so if you don't sign up, then you'll miss out. The good news is, if you’re not already a member, you can get a 30-day free trial that will allow you access to all the benefits of Amazon Prime, including exclusive Prime Day deals for the duration of the trial.
Make sure you start your free trial by 15 July at the latest so that you are covered for the Prime Day event which starts at 00.01 on Tuesday 16 July and runs until 11.59pm on Wednesday 17 July 2024.
Paying annually works out cheaper, so pay this way if you can. If you do stick with your membership, then check out all the ways you can save money when shopping with Amazon.
2. Create a wishlist
To make sure you bag a bargain on the items you want before they sell out, it helps to have an idea beforehand of the items you want or need, and list them in priority order. It’s also worthwhile knowing that deals come and go throughout the two-day sale. So while it’s good to act fast if you see a product you’re after at a great price, if you don’t see your favourite item discounted on day one, check again on day two. While some reductions will be around for the whole 48-hours, others will only be around for a matter of minutes.
If you are on a budget, Andrea Knowles, the budgeting expert at vouchers.co.uk, says: “Whilst the excitement of an Amazon sale can result in you spending a lot of money, a bargain is only a bargain if you wanted it in the first place.”
3. Be flexible
If you have something in particular you want to buy, you may find that you can get a better deal if you are flexible about what colour or model you choose. For example, we spotted this star-design bedding that would be perfect for a child's bedroom and it comes in multiple colours. But at the time of writing the pink colourway was slightly cheaper than the navy - come Prime Day, you might see even more marked price differences on different colours of the exact same item.
But understandably, this is only worth doing if choosing a different colour or model makes no difference to you. If buying the cheaper version means it won’t meet your needs or if you won’t use it in the same way, then it'll be a false economy.
4. Check the price history to see if you’re actually getting a bargain
Before you make any purchases on Prime Day, it can be really useful to check out how much the items cost before they were discounted. Amazon price tracker website, camelcamelcamel, can help you see if you are actually getting a good deal. It might be that the item you want is even cheaper at a different time of year, and in that case, it may be worth holding off.
Martyn James, one of the UK's leading consumer rights experts says: “I get lots of complaints about items in the Amazon sale that turn out to have been more or less permanently discounted on the website throughout the year. Others have questioned whether the items were ever available at the non 'sale' price.”
It’s also sensible to check with other retailers to see if you can get the item cheaper elsewhere before committing. Remember to factor in any delivery costs you might incur from other retailers when determining the cheapest place to buy.
5. Sign up for notifications
Make sure you have the Amazon app installed on your phone and make use of notifications. You can set up an alert in the Prime Day event page so that when the discount you’re waiting for is applied you’ll receive a notification. Not only can this save time, but it will also help you stay focused on the items on your wish list and get them before they sell out.
6. Keep an eye on Lightning Deals
Flash sales, or Lightning Deals, are worth keeping an eye on too. But you’ll need to be quick - some Lightning Deals will only be around for 30-minutes or so, or until the item sells out.
Amazon lists upcoming deals as well as their start time so you can add items to a watchlist. This means you’ll get a notification when the deal begins and you can checkout before it sells out.
7. Don’t leave things in your basket
If you’ve found a really good bargain, then check out as soon as you can rather than leaving an item sitting in your basket, especially in the case of Lightning Deals. Adding an item to your basket doesn't lock in the price, so you could find that the product you want has sold out, or reverted to a higher price and you will have missed out.
8. Now is the time to bag an Amazon-own bargain
While thousands of products will be discounted across Prime Day, you’ll find that the best discounts can be found on Amazon’s own products like Kindles, Fire tablets and Echo Dots. If you’ve had your eye on one of these devices for a while, it’s highly likely you will be able to get a real deal in the 48-hour sale event.
How often does Amazon have a sale?
While there are deals and discounts available on Amazon all year round, the online giant usually runs two massive sale events each year - once on Amazon Prime Day and then again for Black Friday. You might find more discounts available just after Christmas too, but not on the same scale as Prime Day or Black Friday.
In 2022, Amazon trialled an additional sale event in the lead up to Black Friday, called the Prime Early Access Sale, which took place in October. It look place again in October 2023, under the name Prime Big Deal Days, so although nothing has been confirmed for October 2024, it's likely we could see another Prime Day type event taking place.
Not sure what to put in your wish list for Prime Day? Take inspiration from our guide to the best teacher gift ideas, the best perfumes of all time, or best gifts for new mums.
