Amazon Prime Day deals: what you need to know for next year

amazon prime day deals on top ten reviews
(Image credit: Future)

The second instalment of Amazon Prime Day, Big Deal Days, has drawn to a close. I saw some epic price drops across the site, and their rivals, which paves the way for the best Black Friday deals.

Whilst it is all over for (almost) another year, it's time to reflect. Some of the best deals that I saw was on Amazon own-brand. This includes the Ring Video Doorbell which dropped from $99.95 to $54.99 at Amazon, $5 less than the record-low set during Black Friday, and the Blink Video Doorbell which was dropped from $49.99 to $29.99 at Amazon.

I also spotted that a number of Prime Day deals were still up for grabs after the event - and you didn't need to be a Prime member. The iRobot Roomba s9+ Self Emptying Robot Vacuum, for example, was $999.99 and dropped to $688 at Amazon. I've saw a bunch of incredible Roomba deals during the event which always seem to be popular during this holiday sales event, and others such as Black Friday. 

I'll update this page as soon as we get word on the next instalment of Amazon Prime Day deals, so stick with Top Ten Reviews for the best discounts. 

Best Amazon Prime Day deals

Amazon Prime Day deals 2023: what you need to know

Amazon Prime Day

(Image credit: Amazon)

When was fall Prime Day?

Prime Big Deal Days landed on October, 10 - 11 2023. This is as we predicted when we first heard about the event, and feels similar to the Prime Early Access Sale that the retailer held last year.

We spotted that there were a number of epic Prime Day deals available in the couple of weeks running up to the event earlier this year, so shoppers could bag a bargain pretty earlier on. Some discounts remain live several days following the event itself, too, which can appeal to any last-minute deals hunters.

We're unsure when the next Amazon Prime Day deals will land, but it's likely to be around the second week of July 2024 as it has been for the past couple of years.

What is Prime Day?

Amazon Prime Day is a mega two-day event full of epic deals on Amazon own brands, and other favorite brands including Dyson, Ninja and Shark. It's exclusively for people with Prime membership, so you won't see the deals unless you're signed up. 

According to Amazon, we'll see new deals land as often as every five minutes, which means that the 48-hour event will be similar to previous Prime Day deals we've shopped. In addition to this, Prime members will be able to request access to invite-only deals by signing up on select products.

How do I become an Amazon Prime member?

In order to get access to Amazon Prime Day deals deals you'll need to be an Amazon Prime member. This costs $14.99 per month and you can cancel any time.

However, if you haven't subscribed to become a member before you can take advantage of the 30-day Amazon Prime free trial to buy the deals. You won't be eligible for this if you've used it in past Prime Day sales or if you've signed up to the subscription service before.

Whilst on the free trial you can get all the other membership benefits including free, next day shipping, access to Prime Video and so much more. You can cancel for free any time during the trial whilst you're in the 30-day window, so it's worth considering for sale events such as this.

How does Prime Day work?

Assuming you've signed up for Amazon Prime and you've logged into your account, you'll see discounts across the whole site. In previous years, Amazon Prime discounts have been clearly marked across the site's 12 million+ products, so you know that you're getting the deal because you're a Prime Member.

There are always deals that run throughout the whole of Prime Day, which you can access at any time. Then there are daily Amazon Prime Day deals, which run for 24 hours, or until stock is depleted. And finally, there are Lightning Deals, which appear every few minutes, and run until all the stock of a particular item has been bought up. Sometimes Lightning Deals run for hours, sometimes minutes. Depends what the product is.

Once you've checked out with all your stuff, that expedited Prime delivery will see the products in your home within a few days. It used to be overnight in most areas, but since the explosion in at-home shopping during 2020, deliveries – while still free – can take a little longer.

Amazon Prime Day vs Black Friday: what's the difference?

When it comes to scouting for Amazon Prime Day deals and Black Friday deals, both of these major shopping events will have the products and / or devices that you want, for less. There are a couple of key differences, however:

The biggest difference is that Amazon Prime Day provides exclusive discounts and offers only for their Prime members, whereas other retailers share discounts and deals during Black Friday with all shoppers. The timings of the two events are different, too, with Prime Day running two events in the year of late - one in the summer, and the other in fall, - with Black Friday historically taking place on the last Friday of November.

Up until recently, Prime Day was a fantastic opportunity to buy smart home devices such as the best video doorbells, smart speakers and smart lights, and Black Friday was an opportunity to obtain large appliances, furnishings, mattresses and other household goods. However with Prime Day now becoming a fixture not once but twice in the year, and a growing demand, brands listed with Amazon are jumping on the band-wagon so that you can get your hands on a wider selection of products.

It feels like Amazon have perfectly timed Big Deal Days to act as a teaser to Black Friday, as they did last year. This means that it's likely you'll see greater discounts on Amazon before Black Friday which are exclusive to their Prime members and therefore act as a reward for being a member. That said, this doesn't mean that other retailers won't offer competitive deals and discounts during Black Friday.

How to get the best Amazon Prime Day deals

Amazon Prime Day

(Image credit: Amazon)

1. Sign up for Amazon Prime membership

The first thing to remember with Amazon Prime Day is that you need to be an Amazon Prime member to take part. While many people will already be members, many aren’t. Signing up for Amazon Prime is easy. If you’ve never been a member before, you can make use of the 30-day trial that allows for free Prime membership. If you want to cancel when the month is up, you can do so easily and it won’t have cost you a dime - besides what you spend on Prime Day itself, of course. 

If the free trial is not an option for you, Prime membership currently costs $12.99 a month or $119 for a year. You’ll get faster delivery options, Prime Video, ad-free music streaming on Prime Music, and access to unlimited photo storage and Prime Reading all thrown in, so there’s little not to like. 

2. Know what you want to buy

Amazon sell literally 1000s of products for the home, yard and hobbies so it can be all too easy to get distracted. Having an idea of the type of product that you want to buy can help to narrow down the search, and stay focused when it comes to choosing the best Amazon Prime Day deal for you.

It could also be worth it to stays flexible with your product choice. If you know you want an air fryer, for example, we wouldn't advise settling on one particular brand; do some research into a few contenders. There are a number of brands that have made the cut onto our best air fryers guide for all very different reasons so, take it from us; the air fryer you've heard the most noise about may not necessarily be the best option for you during the deals event.

However, it's also worth looking at the features that you want in that new product you're looking at buying. It may be a case of sacrificing a couple of specs in order to save the most money, or to get what you really want.

3. Make a wishlist

One of the many perks of Prime membership is that you can (also) share several benefits with another person in your Amazon Household. This means that you could get the a variety of Prime Big Deal Days discounts without paying for an account yourself. Your willing benefactor will simply need to invite you from the Membership section of their Prime account.

Or, if you're feeling generous and want to share your own Amazon Prime benefits, you'll need to visit your Membership hub, find the "Share your Prime Benefits" section, head to Manage Your Household and then add the name and email address of the lucky person that you want to give benefits to. 

Once you've got access to your Prime benefits, you can then be on the prowl for  best deals of the day. You can do this by sticking with us, Top Ten Reviews, so we do the research for you, then you can go into Amazon Prime Day having a rough idea of what products you actually need or want to buy.

4. Set Alexa deal notifications 

It would be a good idea to free up your calendar and have Alexa set up an event reminder. This will mean that you can be alerted at the start of Prime day by saying, “Alexa, set a reminder for Amazon Prime Day.”

You can also subscribe to receive deal alert notifications related to recent Amazon searches and recently viewed items. All you have to do is visit the Amazon Prime Day event page on the Amazon Shopping app to create deal alerts. Once Prime Day arrives, you will receive push notifications on available deals you’ve subscribed to.

5. Download camelcamelcamel

This is one of the tools of the expert deals hunters. It's a free Amazon price tracker which monitors the prices of products on the online store and alerts you when there's a price drop. This means that you could get the chance to buy a product or device for it's lowest ever price. Download camelcamelcamel and add the price history charts to your browser as an extension for a super-easy deal find.

The pricing history works both way too. If you spot that the price hasn't dropped as far down as other retailers, then you know that you're going to be getting a better deal elsewhere.

6. Add products to you basket like, now

If you know what you want, and it's on Amazon, then add it to your basket to save time when the Amazon Prime Day arrives. There is a chance that the product won't be discounted and / or it'll go out of stock, but if you are happy to wait then this tactic could pay off.

Bear in mind that the absolute best deals are probably going to be kept under wraps until the event. And lastly, if you see a genuinely amazing deal on the day/s– and some are definitely better than others – be sure to hit check out sooner rather than later.

Jennifer Oksien
Editor

Jennifer Oksien is the Editor of Top Ten Reviews. Jennifer (Jen) has over a decade of experience as a digital product writer specialising in appliances, smart tech and mattresses for some of the UKs leading retailers and magazine titles such as TechRadar, Real Homes and Ideal Home. Generally, you’ll find her watching the latest Netflix series, digging around in the garden or making a cake.