With Amazon Prime Day less than a week away, it’s a good time to start thinking about the things you’ll want to look for once the wave of deals arrives. Everything from gadgets to clothing and essentials will be on sale during the 48-hour event, and if you’re a Prime member, you’ll have access to all the deals on Amazon’s site. Engadget will showcase all the best tech deals we can find, both on Amazon and elsewhere, but there are a few important things you need to know in advance so you can get exactly what you want from this year’s Prime Day.
When is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day 2022 will begin at 12:00 PT on Tuesday, July 12 and end at 23:59 PT on Wednesday, July 13. The two-day shopping event will feature exclusive offers for Prime members, which means you’ll need to be a Prime subscriber on Prime Day to take advantage of any of the savings. Amazon is still offering a free 30-day trial to new Prime subscribers, so you can start your free trial now and participate in the event.
If you don’t pay Prime and don’t intend to do so, you should still check Amazon on Prime Day to see the sales available to all buyers. In addition, other retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy and Target will also have their own competing Prime Day sales during this time period.
Amazon Prime Day Deals
Amazon Prime Day may officially be just two days away, but in recent years, the company has started bidding long before the official event begins. This is also true this year. You can find a number of items on sale right now as part of Prime Day’s first sales. Not surprisingly, some of the best initial deals are on Amazon devices like Eero Routers, Fire TV and more.
Speaking of, Prime Day is the best time of year to pick up gadgets from Amazon. You can safely bet that Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers, and Fire TV devices have record low prices for Prime Day, so if you’ve had your eye on one of these items, now is the time to get -lo. Prime Day only coincides with Black Friday in its discounts, so while that means you’ll probably have another chance to get this smart speaker at a very cheap price, it probably won’t be until the season holiday shopping.
The story goes on
Make no mistake, Amazon gadgets won’t be the only items discounted on Prime Day. You’ll find clothes, shoes, household items, appliances, accessories and more on sale, but here at Engadget, of course, we’ll focus on electronics. We hope this year’s Prime Day is like last year, as it will offer big discounts on headphones, earphones, gaming accessories, SSDs and microSD cards, robot vacuum cleaners and more.
Indianapolis – Around July 2019: Amazon Prime delivery van. Amazon.com is entering the Prime branded van delivery business
It’s also worth mentioning the types of deals you can expect to see on Prime Day. Some offers will be live for the full 48 hours, while others will be only first or second day sales. These are the hardest to predict, as Amazon usually gives no indication of how long a given sale will last. Our recommendation is to buy the things you like the most as soon as you see them drop in price, this will ensure that you get it while the discount is available and while the item is still in stock.
You can also expect to see some flash sales during Prime Day. Fortunately, they are usually clearly labeled with the amount of time left to get the offer listed on the product page. In our experience, only a handful of these flash sales are really worth your money, but if you see something that has been on your low price wish list for the next few hours, it is in your best interest that the grab immediately.
How to prepare for Prime Day
We’ve all hinted at it, but it’s best to get into Amazon Prime Day as prepared as possible. This basically means knowing exactly what you want to look for to stay focused and avoid distractions. All of Amazon.com will be overwhelming on Prime Day, so the less time you spend navigating aimlessly, the more your wallet will appreciate it later.
Two simple things you can do before Prime Day are make a list and mark up a price tracker. For the first, take note of the most important items you want to pick up on Prime Day. You can do it the old-fashioned way with a sticky note, or you can use Amazon’s wish list feature. For the latter, add the items you want to buy at Prime Day to your wish list (or, better yet, make a wish list dedicated only to your desired Prime Day) and return to that list during the Prime Day event. shopping. Not only will you have everything you want in one place, but you’ll also be able to see which of these items are cheaper on Prime Day than when you originally added them to your list.
When it comes to price tracking, sites like CamelCamelCamel allow you to control the price of specific items on Amazon. You can view graphs of price history on the site and create your own price drop alerts, receiving emails when something you want is discounted. CamelCamelCamel also has some browser extensions that you can download so you don’t have to deviate from a product page to check your price history.
We know that not everyone, not even all Prime members, will go to Amazon during Prime Day. Whether you’re finding such blatant consumerism shows or you just don’t want to give more money to Amazon, there are many reasons why you might skip Prime Day. But that doesn’t mean you have to skip all the sales that will take place on July 12th and 13th. Stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others will have competing Prime Day sales and many of them will match the ones you’ll find on Amazon. We recommend you take a look at them if you want to pick up a couple of things for less without spending money on Amazon.
Engadget will cover both days of Prime Day, so if you have a lot of technology on your shopping list, be sure to check back here on Prime Day for the best tech sales we could find. We’ll make sure to include gadgets for all levels, from headphones to robot vacuum cleaners to gaming equipment, in addition to the best “anti-Prime Day” deals you can find at other retailers. You can also follow your Twitter account @EngadgetDeals and subscribe to the Engadget Offers newsletter to stay up to date on the latest discounts. The volume of offers will be daunting, but we analyze them all and choose the best ones to make your Prime Day a little easier.