Amazon Prime Day’s 48-hour sales event is set to start at 3 am ET/12 am PT on Tuesday, July 11, and go through Wednesday, July 12. Amazon has not revealed exactly how many items will be available for sale; however, past years have seen millions of items up for grabs with great deals that average 40% off.
Amazon starts with early deals on its products, and several early prime day deals can be shopped for now. The number of categories that will have deals available has not yet been announced either; however, you can likely expect deals from a wide number of categories during the main Prime Day event, including major TV brands, Smart Home devices, Fashion, Beauty & Wellness, Furniture, Pet Supplies, Tools, Fitness equipment, and more.
How to work the deals. Be fast!
Prime Day deals can expire in minutes, and some deals conclude when inventory is gone. Inside the Prime Day event are 3 different promotions:
- Spotlight Deals: These are typically larger, more expensive items that are available for a limited time.
- Gold Box Deals of the Day: These are smaller, less expensive items that are available for a limited time.
- Lighting Deals: These are the most popular type of Prime Day deal. They’re typically on very limited quantities of products and only last for a few minutes.
I rank these in order of least urgent to most urgent. The Lighting Deals almost always offer the best prices and last for a small window of time or when sold out – sometimes even just minutes. Even though it may look like a deal is gone, there’s a tip below that could provide an easy workaround to getting the deal anyway.
How to get a cheap Amazon Prime membership
You can still participate in Prime Day even if you’ve never had a Prime membership before. See below for all the available discounts.
Get a 30-day Free Amazon Prime trial
Simply use the free 30-day Amazon Prime trial and remember to cancel if you don’t plan to keep it. You can get the same deals with free shipping offers during the free trial. Sign up here.
Students: get 6 months of Amazon Prime free
If you’re a student, you can click this link to get 6 months free of Amazon Prime for students. Students will need to verify by providing their .edu email address. Sign up here.
Medicaid or EBT: Cheaper Amazon Prime
If you’ve got a Medicaid or EBT card, you can sign up for an Amazon Prime membership for $6.99 – almost half the cost of a typical membership. Sign up here.
How to share an Amazon Prime Membership
You can share your Amazon Prime membership with another adult in your Amazon Household. You and your invitee must both be adults and agree to link your accounts through Amazon Household and agree to share payment methods. This means that you will have access to each other’s payment methods, so you should only share your Prime membership with someone you trust. The person you share your Prime membership with will get the same Amazon Prime benefits as you for no additional cost. Both adults will keep their own personal accounts while sharing Prime benefits. To do this, once you’re logged in, add that person to your Amazon Household by following these steps.
How to add a person to your Amazon Household
- Log into your Prime account by clicking here
- Click Add Adult
- Give their name and email address and follow to onscreen instructions from there
My Prime Day battle plan tips
- Create a Wishlist on Amazon: Put everything you buy regularly throughout the year like dog food, light bulbs, staple goods, etc. Add upcoming birthdays and big-ticket items you have been holding off on buying, and get your holiday list done for Christmas gifts way ahead of time while saving huge
- “Join Waitlist” on sold-out products you want and missed: Think it’s sold out? Maybe not. Items sitting in another shopper’s cart expire if not purchased within 15 minutes. If you are on a waitlist, you could get notified that the deal is yours.
- Download the Amazon smartphone or tablet app to see deals first: The app shows deals coming first and allows you to create a “Watch this deal” list to get notified when a deal is going live.
- Say “Alexa, what are your deals?” for exclusive offers: You can power through this audio form of deals by saying “Alexa, next” as they are being described to advance to the next deal. Voice shopping is a complete hassle, and Amazon knows it. That’s why they are tempting us to try it with even better deals that you can find on the site.
- Compare prices at other retailers: look at prices for brands like BestBuy, Walmart, Kohl’s, and Target since so many other sources are taking advantage of the Prime Day excitement.
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Watch out for these losing Prime Day mishaps
- Avoid Unknown Brands that can often disappoint
- Avoid Fake Reviews by using fakespot.com. Instead of adding their browser extension, just link to the search field to copy and paste an Amazon product listing. Fakespot will analyze to show a letter grade and explanation. The goal is to weed out fake reviews and identify troubled listings.
- Avoid overpaying by checking the lowest price history at camelcamelcamel.com. A price history of almost every Amazon item is recorded here to show if you are getting the lowest price.
- Avoid the Amazon Assistant browser plug-in for privacy concerns. While Amazon’s browser plug-in can make comparing items and tracking deals convenient, it also comes at a cost to your privacy in the way it can track your web browsing activity.
How to find the best Amazon Prime Day deals
Amazon also offers early Prime Day deals before the real Prime Day if you wish to get a head start. Check out my picks below.
34 best Amazon Prime Day deals – best discounts still available
5 Prime Day deals to turn your living room into a media theater
https://cyberguy.com/security/prime-day-deals-to-amp-up-your-home-security/
Kurt’s key takeaways
Prime Day is one of the biggest online shopping days of the year, and you deserve to get all the products you want. Make sure you’re taking all my tips into account and getting yourself prepared beforehand because the last thing you want is to have to pay full price on an item you’re dying to get.
Do you feel like you’re saving more this year versus last year? What items would you like to see get discounted during Prime Day? Let us know by commenting below.
FOR MORE OF MY SECURITY ALERTS, SUBSCRIBE TO MY FREE CYBERGUY REPORT NEWSLETTER HERE
Related:
- How this latest Amazon feature helps prevent buyer’s remorse
- Amazon may soon offer free wireless phone service
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