Amazon has made Prime Day longer than ever this year. It’ll occur over 48 hours, making it more like “Amazon Prime Days”. Starting July 15th at midnight PST, you’re going to be able to save big on a ton of products that Amazon has to offer on its website. Everything from smartphones to Instant Pots, to clothes, and even toilet paper, will be on sale.
But, that’s on July 15th. That’s still a couple of weeks away. So how can we prepare for Prime Day? Here are five things you should do to prepare for Prime Day so you can hit the ground running on July 15 when the flood gates are opened.
Make sure your Prime Membership is still valid
This is a pretty simple one. But you’re going to want to make sure that your Prime Membership is still valid, come Prime Day. Amazon normally discounts Prime on Prime Day, so a number of customers likely have their expiration or renewal date around Prime Day. And it can’t hurt to double check to make sure that your Prime Membership is all up-to-date, so you don’t run into any issues, come Prime Day.
If you are not a Prime member, make sure to sign up for a free trial – you can grab one here. Amazon Prime is only for Prime members, so without that membership, you can’t take advantage of these crazy good deals that Amazon will have available. But the good news is, you don’t need to pay $119 for a year of Prime to take advantage of Prime Day. Or pay anything at all.
Amazon offers free trials to those that have never subscribed to Prime. For regular accounts, it’s good for 30 days – so it’ll be good through Prime Day. If you’re a student and have a student account, you can get a six month free trial. Which is perfect, as Amazon Prime is great for getting those textbooks and other things you may need for the school year.
Don’t forget that Amazon Prime offers so much more than just free two-day and next-day delivery. There’s also Amazon Prime Video which has a ton of great content – particularly kids content – as well as Amazon Prime Music and much more. You’ll also be able to save an additional 10-percent at Whole Foods when you do your grocery shopping, which is a nice added perk. So while that $119 per year does sound like a big investment, it really is well worth it. And that’s really only about $10 per month, less than Netflix is now.
Bottom line, go double check that Amazon Prime membership, now.
Download & Login to the Amazon App on your smartphone and/or tablet
If you don’t already have the Amazon app installed on your smartphone and/or tablet, now is the time to go do that. Though most of you likely already have it installed on your smartphone anyways.
Downloading and logging into the Amazon app is going to make things so much easier than trying to buy items through the website on the mobile browser. For one, there’s 1-Click purchasing settings in there, so you can make sure to buy the item before it is sold out – which is bound to happen pretty quickly. You will also see deals sooner than on the website, if last year is anything to go by.
You can download the Amazon app for Android here, from the Google Play Store.
Make a list of items you want to buy on Prime Day
Much like Black Friday, there’s going to be a ton of products on sale, many of which you probably don’t need to buy. So it’s a good idea to make a list of things you want to pick up on Amazon Prime Day. That way you are spending wiser and not just buying stuff because it’s on sale.
For instance, if you have a kid (or kids) going back to school in September, and already know some of the stuff they are going to need to go back to school, Prime Day is a great time to pick those things up. Electronics are usually the big sellers and the items that are discounted the most during Prime Day. Making it a good time to get a laptop, a tablet or even a new smartphone. It’s also a good time to grab some new clothes, especially with Amazon coming out with its own line of clothing now. You’ll be able to get clothes that were already pretty inexpensive, at even cheaper prices. And who can complain about that.
It’s the same advice that we give out around Black Friday, as many of us can’t afford to just go out and buy everything because it’s on sale for a limited time. Buy stuff you know you’re going to need to buy later on, and save some cash while you’re doing it.
Subscribe to the AndroidHeadlines newsletter
If you’ve been following AndroidHeadlines for the past few years, then you know that we take these shopping holidays like Prime Day, pretty serious. And that will be happening again this year.
We will be going through all of the Amazon Prime Day deals to find you the very best deals that are available, and writing about them. So if you are only interested in the good stuff – or maybe don’t have time at work to refresh Amazon’s website every few minutes – then you’re going to want to pay attention to AndroidHeadlines’ newsletter. We already send out the newsletter everyday with the latest Android news and the biggest deals of the day. But during Prime Day, we’ll be stepping it up and doing more deals in the newsletter. So you’ll be able to just keep an eye on your inbox for the latest deals on Prime Day.
Of course, you can also just pay attention to AndroidHeadlines.com or watch our Twitter feed. Any good Lightning Deals that we see, we will be posting directly to Twitter. That is because these deals will go very quickly – usually within 10 minutes. So it’s faster to put it out on Twitter for everyone to see.
There you have it. Three ways that you can stay updated with the best deals during Prime Day, all thanks to your friendly neighborhood Android news website.
Don’t just look for deals on Amazon’s website
Finally, it’s important to remember that Amazon Prime Day isn’t just at Amazon. Since Prime Day has become such a big deal for Amazon, other retailers are looking to cash in as well. eBay will have a ton of deals available, on many of the items that you’ll see on Amazon’s website. Other retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and many more, will also be competing with Amazon on Prime Day.
The marketing line for those retailers is, the fact that you don’t have to pay for a subscription to take advantage of these deals. That’s a smart one too.
The summer months are usually pretty dead when it comes to retail. So Amazon’s competitors are taking Prime Day as a way to recreate Black Friday, in the summer. It has helped many companies to bring up their balance sheets in the third quarter of the year, and it also kickstarts the back to school season. Which is the second best time of the year for retailers – besides Christmas. So while Amazon gets all the branding, other retailers do still get a pretty big boost in sales.
So when you’re looking for Prime Day deals next month, also look at other retailers, and look more than just on July 15th and 16th. As there will still be plenty of deals going on the rest of that week, and likely all month long. Not only at other retailers but also at Amazon as well. As sellers on Amazon want to get some more items sold, before heading into the back to school season.
Wrap Up
Amazon Prime Day was initially a pretty boring and subpar shopping day. The very first Amazon Prime Day, back in 2014, was a complete bust. Many of the deals were on boring things like toilet paper and paper towels. Stuff you need, but not stuff you get excited for saving a few bucks on. There were some big deals during the first Prime Day, but the quantities were so limited, that they sold out in seconds – literally.
Amazon has luckily learned from its mistakes in the first year or two, and has made each Prime Day since then bigger and better. Not only increasing the time that Prime Day is taking place, but also increasing the products that are on sale. In fact, Amazon sellers now know that they must take part in Prime Day, otherwise they won’t be selling much of anything through the summer. So it not only helps Amazon, but also its sellers. And let’s face it, without its sellers, Amazon wouldn’t be where it is today.
So there’s five ways that you can prepare for Amazon Prime Day. Make sure to mark your calendar for July 15, which is when Prime Day will get started, at midnight PST.