How to Save on Amazon Prime Day

Amazon Prime Day, 2024. July 16+17

Are you excited for Amazon Prime Day? This now-massive sale event kicked off on July 15, 2015, as a 24-hour sale. Each subsequent year through 2019, Prime Day occurred in the second week of July and the sale grew from 24 to 48 hours. 

Then the Pandemic hit in 2020, flipping retail on its head in myriad ways.  Prime Day 2020 was postponed until October and occurred over 48 hours, serving as an unofficial start to the holiday shopping season that year.

These days, there are two annual Prime Day sales; one in July and one in October, and the dates are often a mystery until a couple of weeks before. Heads up: this year’s July sale will be on the 16-17th!

Here are the Best Prime Day Shopping Tips:

Amazon Prime Membership is Required

Prime Big Deal Days sales are for Amazon Prime members only. If you are not a member, now is a great time to join so you can take advantage of all the discounts and benefits, like access to Amazon Video, Amazon Music, one free Kindle book per month, exclusive Amazon discounts, a free Grubhub+ membership, and lots more.

After a 30-day free Amazon Prime trial, Prime membership is $139 per year (or $14.99 per month) and includes unlimited two-day – or in some cases next-day or same-day shipping – all year long. If you don’t intend to continue after the trial, remember to cancel within that 30-day window. And if you’ve done a free trial before, don’t worry – you’re eligible for a free Amazon Prime trial every 12 months!

Amazon Prime Membership Discounts

Students with a valid ID can get a 6-month free trial, and then it’s $7.49 per month, or $69 a year, plus a slew of perks from other providers, like access to the Calm app and Grubhub.

If you are on public assistance and can provide an EBT or Medicaid card, you can get Amazon Prime for $6.99 per month.

What will be on sale?

Every Prime Day, millions of items across more than 35 categories will be on sale. The deepest discounts are typically on brands Amazon owns, like Kindle, Ring, Fire, etc. We also see discounts on small tech, like headphones and smartwatches, as well as small home appliances, like air fryers and robotic vacuums.

Special Offers

Amazon often offers bonuses on top of their Prime Day discounts. A previous offer was that you could receive a $10 Amazon credit when you purchased a $40 Prime Day gift card. This gift card could be gifted to someone else, or be applied towards your Prime membership or future purchases. Look for offers like this for Big Deal Days.

Select brands will have their own special deals on Amazon. For example, on Prime Day in July 2023, if you ordered $75+ of P&G products, you received a $20 Prime Day Credit. Look for deals like this from your favorite brands.

Sign up for Amazon’s Credit Card 

If you are a regular Amazon shopper, consider applying for the Amazon Prime Visa. Periodically, Amazon offers an instant bonus upon approval. Right now, you can receive a $200 gift card upon approval!

This card has no annual fee and allows you to earn 5% back on your Amazon and Whole Foods purchases, and 1-2% back on other purchases. These earnings can be applied to future Amazon purchases.

During Prime Day, you can earn extra bonuses on select eligible items just by using your Prime Rewards Visa. This often applies to Whole Foods purchases as well. 

Throughout the year, you can earn up to 10% back on select items through Prime Bonus offers. There are also benefits for foreign travel, like no transaction fees and travel insurance. Like many store cards, this card has a fairly high APR, so buy only what you can pay off in full each month.

Use Amazon Cash

If you don’t have a debit or credit card, you can still shop with Amazon by using Amazon Cash. You do this by adding a Gift Card Balance of $5-$500 to your Amazon Account at select store locations.

Tips for Deal Spotting

You can use Lists to look for deals and track discounts. You can even create multiple lists for things like Prime Day, birthdays, and other occasions. You can share lists with others to let them know what you are interested in.

1. USE LISTS – once you have added item to a List, you can ask Alexa to notify you if it’s going on sale.
   • On Amazon.com: Use the Wishlist feature (or create a List) to identify items you are interested in. You can find this feature at the top of the page under “Accounts and Lists”.
   • Use the App: Using the App, click the 3 lines at the bottom of the page and then select “Lists.” You can elect to be notified of price drops or available coupons for these items using the App.
   • On Product pages: As you browse, you can add products to your list from the product page. The option to add to a list will be on the right.
   • Use ALEXA: You can also ask Alexa to add items to your lists.
2. SIGN UP FOR EMAILS
   • Once you sign up for Amazon’s emails, you’ll be notified of available deals.
3. INVITE-ONLY
   • When you’re browsing, you might see an option near “add to cart” where you can sign up for an invite-only deal. Select customers will receive an invitation for exclusive savings.
4. DEAL ALERTS
   • In the Prime Day event page in the App, you can set deal notifications for items you’ve searched and products you have viewed.
5. TODAY’S DEALS
   • During the Prime Day event, click on Today’s Deals for deal intel. Some items will be on sale before Prime Day, so visiting this page before the 16th could be a good move.
6. LIMITED TIME DEALS
   • Amazon is known for their “Lightning Deals,” which come and go very quickly. If you download the Amazon app, you’ll be able to see upcoming Lightning Deals before they are available.
7. SAVE FOR LATER
   • Another smart thing to do is to add things that you want to your cart before Prime Day and click “Save for Later.” That way, on Prime Day, you can easily view all those items on one place and see if they are on sale. I’ve had success doing this!
8. SET DEAL ALERTS
   • Other large retailers, like Target competitive deals on Prime Day.  To ensure you get the lowest price, set deal alerts for specific items on Slickdeals.com. You’ll receive a notification when those items go on sale on Amazon or elsewhere.  Also, bookmark the Slickdeals Prime Day page for all the best deals in one place.
9. COMPARE PRICES
   • Don’t check out on Amazon before installing the Paypal Honey browser extension. Once installed, Honey will provide historical pricing so you can determine whether to buy now or later. You can also elect to add items to the PayPal Honey Droplist, so you’ll be notified when the item goes on sale.

See What’s New

To commemorate Prime Day, Amazon usually launches a whole host of items, many with introductory pricing. Stay tuned!

Related post:

How to Save Money on Amazon

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