Whether you’re looking to get a very early start on holiday shopping or you’re just looking to snag some great tech deals for yourself, Amazon Prime Day is the time to shop. Amazon’s annual sale kicks off on Tuesday, July 12 at 3 AM EDT and lasts for a full 48 hours, with the last deal vanishing on Thursday, July 14 at 3 AM EDT. As the name implies, you’ll have to be an Amazon Prime member to participate ($139.00/year or $14.99/month), but you can also sign up for a free trial to shop without any extra cost.
Expect to find sales that rival Black Friday season: you'll find plenty of deals that take 50% (or more) off your favorite tech products. While Amazon is the one pushing Prime Day and has huge markdowns on its own products, most manufacturers also offer big sales. Be sure to check out the model number. Some manufacturers will use Amazon Prime Day to sell off older stock or models that have poor reviews. And if you're unfamiliar with a brand (or even if you've heard of it), be sure to confirm that the product rating hasn't been inflated by fake reviews. Fakespot and ReviewMeta have browser extensions that show an adjusted product rating on the Amazon page.
Though you’ll be tempted to click the buy button to be sure you don’t miss out on any sales, you want to check prices, so you get the very best deal – even if it's from another retailer. The quickest way to check prices is by using a browser plugin to do the hard work for you. The Camelizer our favorite Amazon price tracker. It shows you a price history of an item right on the Amazon page, letting you know if today’s price is actually the lowest price. Even on Prime Day, some sales only offer middling discounts, and you may be better off buying later.
Once you've confirmed the deal, it’s not always easy to grab. While some sales will stick around for both days, the best of the best are often Lightning Deals, which come and go quickly. These fast-moving sales can encourage you to overspend on impulse buys, so it’s best to head into Prime Day with a game plan in place.
These are our top tips for making the most of Prime Day 2022.
Know your Lightning Deals
There will be sales across the site, but the very best will be Lightning Deals. These sales last for a limited time and offer a limited stock of items: when time runs out or stock is gone, the deals are gone. On Prime Day, you can typically find new Lightning Deals every five minutes.
Even if you click “add to cart” before the deal is gone, you only have 15 minutes to complete your purchase, so you have to act fast. Don’t dally: if you want a Lightning Deal, add it to your cart and check out immediately.
If you just missed a Lightning Deal, though, you could still have a chance to snag a sold-out item. You can join a waitlist by clicking “join waitlist” on the product page. If any shoppers don’t complete their purchase within that 15-minute period, you’ll get an alert in your browser or the Amazon app if it becomes available again. The waitlist ends with the lightning deal expires.
Find the latest Lighting Deals on the Prime Day page or the Today’s Deals page.
Watch upcoming deals
Don’t wait until deals go live to start shopping: you can browse upcoming deals now and track them, so you’ll be notified the second they’re available. If there’s something you really want, this is the way to get it.
The easiest way to do this is via the Amazon mobile app, which will let you know about the latest deals without forcing you to stay glued to your computer.
- Open the Amazon app
- Select the triple bar menu icon.
- Select "Today's Deals."
- After the "Recommended deals for you" section, look for the "availability" button and tap it.
- Select "Upcoming."
- Now, you can see deals that have a "Watch this deal" button. Be sure you have notifications turned on for the Amazon app to get an immediate alert when your deal of choice goes live.
If you prefer to shop on your computer, you can also watch deals on the web. Open Amazon’s Today's Deals page and click on "Upcoming" in the left-hand column. Just like the app, scroll to browse and click "Watch this deal" to monitor the latest sales, but there’s one more step: you need to install the Amazon Assistant browser plug-in to get notifications. It only takes a minute to install and set up, and it’s definitely worth it if you’ll be shopping on the Amazon website.
Start shopping now
While the bulk of deals will start on Tuesday, July 12, early deals are already live on Amazon. Start making your shopping list and get ready to take advantage of Prime Day deals on Tuesday!
Updated on 7/6/2022 with Prime Day 2022 information
[Image credit: Techlicious/Smartmockups]
Elizabeth Harper is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience covering consumer technology and entertainment. In addition to writing for Techlicious, she's Editorial Director of Blizzard Watch and is published on sites all over the web including Time, CBS, Engadget, The Daily Dot and DealNews.
