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Everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2023: Dates, invite-only deals, and the competition

News Desk

a man in a yellow shirt holding a pile of amazon boxes against a background of amazon boxes

UPDATE: Jul. 7, 2023, 2:12 p.m. EDT This story has been updated with a preview of Best Buy’s Black Friday in July deals and advice on what not to buy during Prime Day.

Amazon‘s flagship Prime Day sale may not be as singular as it once was, but the members-only savings event remains a huge draw for inflation-weary shoppers hunting for summer deals.

Here’s what you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2023.

When is Prime Day 2023?

Amazon announced that Prime Day will run from Tuesday, July 11 at 3 a.m. ET through Wednesday, July 12 in 2023, with new deals dropping every 30 minutes during certain periods. This lines up with its historical preference for early-week slots in mid-July, so it should come as little surprise. (For reference, 2022’s dates were Tuesday, July 12, and Wednesday, July 13.)

Early access to select Prime Day deals began Wednesday, June 21, in case you don’t want to save all of your shopping for the day of.

What is Prime Day?

Prime Day is an annual sitewide sale that Amazon puts on for members of its Prime subscription service. First held in 2015 in honor of Amazon’s 20th anniversary (with mixed success), it was originally plugged as a “one-day-only event filled with more deals than Black Friday.” In the years since, it’s morphed into a 48-hour affair that’s preceded by a few weeks of preview offers. “Prime Day” is a misnomer at this point.

What’s new or different about Prime Day this year?

Amazon is back to bragging that it will offer “millions of deals across categories” during this year’s Prime Day sale — “more deals than any Prime Day event before,” in fact. This is a return to form of sorts and a shift from its reined-in 2022 advertising, which emphasized “Amazon’s lowest prices ever on select products” and a wider selection of items from third-party sellers instead of a massive deal dump. (TL;DR: We are so back.)

Amazon has also introduced a brand-new “invite-only” deals program for ten products it expects to sell out on Prime Day (see: a $ 100 43-inch 4K smart TV), which should alleviate some of the frenzied chaos that typically surrounds its doorbusters. Prime members can visit these products’ listings to request an invitation ahead of the event. If chosen, you’ll receive an email with a unique link to buy the item during Prime Day.

SEE ALSO: Amazon’s invite-only deals for Prime Day are seriously impressive: Here’s how to shop them

Amazon hasn’t explained how it’ll be picking these lucky eligible shoppers; all we know is that they’re exclusive to Prime members (paid and trial).

What are the best early Prime Day deals?

Prime Day has always been Amazon’s favorite excuse to discount its own devices and services, and this year is no different. Its early deals include steep savings on gadgets like the all-new Echo Pop (55% off), Echo Show devices and bundles (up to 56% off), the new Echo Buds (30% off), the Fire HD 8 (45% off), the Amazon Smart Thermostat (35% off), Kindle bundles (up to 41% off), eero WiFi router bundles (up to 69% off), Fire TV 4K streaming devices (up to 55% off), and a slew of Fire TVs from several different brands. This includes the bestselling 75-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni QLED Series 4K smart TV, the new 32-inch Amazon Fire TV 2-Series smart TV, and a countertop-friendly 24-inch Insignia smart Fire TV that comes in at only $ 65.

Need something new to watch on your new TV? Select titles in the Prime Video library are currently on sale for up to 50% off — rentals included — and a handful of channels are only 99 cents/month for two months. (That includes Starz, Cinemax, and Hallmark Movies Now.) Two-month Paramount+ and AMC+ subscriptions are also half off through July 12.

For those trying to catch up on summer reading lists, a Prime membership now unlocks three months of Kindle Unlimited (normally $ 11.99/month) if you haven’t tried it before. If you’re more of a podcast or audiobook person, you can take advantage of a free three-month Audible Premium Plus trial (valued at $ 14.95/month) until July 31.

Prime members can also claim bonus classic games like Prey and Baldur’s Gate II in the leadup to Prime Day (via Prime Gaming), as well as bonus content for newer titles like Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Pokémon GO.

SEE ALSO: Prime Day 2023 isn’t for a few weeks, but these deals aren’t waiting

If you need to restock your pantry, your Prime membership will save you 20% on a $ 50-plus order of Amazon brand everyday essentials like snacks, school supplies, groceries, toiletries, and pet products for a limited time. The same discount applies to any Amazon Fresh order of $ 50 or more from your local store through July 10.

Once Prime Day officially starts, our usual suspects for doorbusters include robot vacuums, headphones, video games, fitness equipment, pet supplies, cookware, and basically every Apple product under the sun. (Amazon has been holding the second-gen AirPods Pro at $ 200 and wasted no time in putting the new 15-inch MacBook on sale, so the pressure’s on for some extra-good Prime Day offers.) The sale will also be a good opportunity to invest in some new outdoor gear— end-of-season clearance offers are plentiful this time of year — as well as luggage for any fall trips you’re planning. Check out our giant running list of the best early Prime Day deals to see what’s up for grabs.

What not to buy on Prime Day

Not all of those “millions of deals across categories” will be worth adding to your cart. After covering Prime Day for years, here’s what we’d recommend skipping:

  1. Anything from Ring. The home security company’s popular video doorbells always get really cheap during Prime events since Ring is an Amazon brand, but they’re ultimately a privacy nightmare.

  2. Toys. Amazon is offering some good early Prime Day discounts on Barbie toys and apparel as a tie-in to the iconic doll’s big-screen debut later this month, but otherwise, it’s best to save your toy shopping for Black Friday — the holiday season brings new releases and a boatload of deals.

  3. Video game consoles. Hold off to upgrade until holiday sales and bundles start trickling out in November unless you’re interested in a PlayStation 5: Sony’s God of War Ragnarök bundle is $ 60 off on Amazon ahead of Prime Day, which is a fantastic deal that basically nets you a free game.

  4. Almost anything sold and shipped by a third-party seller. Third-party merchants on Amazon aren’t scammers across the board, but buying something from one of them is riskier than going directly through the retailer itself. (Fake reviews and counterfeit listings are way more common — and convincing — than you’d think.) Stick with products that have “Ships from Amazon.com” and “Sold by Amazon.com” under their “Buy Now” buttons just to be safe.

  5. Any deal that seems too good to be true. Amazon has a bad habit of inflating MSRPs to make discounts appear better than they really are. You can verify whether a deal is legit or not by comparing prices across other major retailers and running the product through camelcamelcamel, a free Amazon price-tracking site.

  6. Anything you get the urge to impulse-buy. Are you buying a new TV because you actually need a new TV, or just because it’s $ 100 off right now?

Wait, didn’t Amazon just host a Prime shopping event?

The last Prime-exclusive sale isn’t all that far in our rearview mirror. The inaugural Prime Early Access Sale (an unofficial “Prime Day 2”) ushered in exclusive discounts across the site last Oct. 11 through 12, kicking off the holidays extra-early and marking the first time Amazon has hosted two such events in the same calendar year.

No word yet on whether we’ll get another Prime Early Access Sale in 2023, but the first iteration’s relative success points to a likely “yes.”

Can you shop on Prime Day without being a Prime member?

You can snag Prime Day deals without committing to a paid Prime membership by scheduling a 30-day free trial around the event. Just remember to cancel it as soon as the sale is over to avoid getting charged. (Now’s an especially good time to join Amazon’s ranks, for what it’s worth: Select new members get a free $ 10 credit to use on Prime Day, including those on the trial tier.)

Who’s competing with Prime Day?

Walmart, Target, and Best Buy have all thrown their hats into the anti-Prime Day ring.

The former announced a new summer savings event called Walmart+ Week, a seeming expansion of last June’s Walmart+ Weekend that more directly competes with Prime Day. It’ll run on the Walmart website from Monday, July 10 at 12 p.m. ET to Thursday, July 13 at 7 p.m. ET. (More like Walmart+ Three Days And Some Change, but I digress.)

SEE ALSO: How to earn up to $ 30 in credits for your Amazon Prime Day order

Members of the big box store’s Walmart+ subscription service will get early access to the sale for the first 24 hours before it opens to the public on Tuesday, July 11 at 12 p.m. ET. That only includes paid Walmart+ members, so you’ll have to upgrade from its free trial tier if you want to participate. (Good news: Annual memberships are 50% off until July 13.) Here’s a sneak peek of some of the top deals you can expect to see:

Several exclusive promotions will also be offered to Walmart+ members during the event, including buy-one-get-one Six Flags tickets, $ 5/month Panera Unlimited Sip Club subscriptions, free Rover credits, and 30% off all SpaFinder gift certificates.

Meanwhile, Target plans on hosting one of its semi-annual Circle Week sales from Sunday, July 9 to Saturday, June 15. (A whole actual week!) Billed as its “biggest sale of the season,” the event is open to members of the retailer’s totally free Target Circle loyalty program and runs online, in stores, and on the Target app. Highlights will include:

  • 50% off select inflatable pools, water toys, and other outdoor gear from Target’s Sun Squad line

  • 30% off select kids’ apparel

  • 20% off all Barbie products

  • Dyson V8 Origin — $ 299.99 $ 429.99 (save $ 130)

  • Lenovo IdeaPad 3i (Intel Core i5-1235U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) — $ 389.99 $ 739.99 (save $ 350)

  • Keurig K-Mini — $ 59.99 $ 89.99 (save $ 30)

  • Get a free $ 15 Target gift card when you spend $ 50+ on household essentials

  • Get a free $ 10 Target gift card when you spend $ 40 on beauty and health products

Finally, Best Buy is reviving its Black Friday in July event from Monday, July 10 to Wednesday, July 12 in stores, online, and on its mobile app. The sale will be open to everyone, but members of the retailer’s new paid My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total plans get access to special promotions and better discounts on certain items. (Subscriptions cost $ 49.99/year and $ 179.99/year, respectively.) Keep an eye out for the following deals once things get going:

Prime Day shopping tips and tricks

Aside from aggressively lurking on Amazon’s dedicated Prime Day page (and reading our coverage of the sale), there are several ways to ensure you don’t miss out on a great deal:

  1. Sign up for those invite-only deals. We’ve flagged the best ones if you need some guidance.

  2. Preview upcoming Prime Day deals. The top of Amazon’s event page features a scrollable banner of select deals that’ll go live during Prime Day. Each one has a corresponding button that says “Watch this deal”; click it for a notification when it’s officially up for grabs.

  3. Organize your Amazon Wish List. Amazon’s virtual shopping list feature puts all of your must-haves in one convenient spot so you’re not constantly flipping between links and tabs. You can even rank items based on how much you want them. Once Prime Day rolls around, you’ll be able to see which ones are on sale at a glance. (Check out Mashable’s guide to “wishlisting” for more intel.)

  4. Download the Amazon Shopping mobile app. The app features a Prime Day event page where you can set deal alerts for your recent Amazon searches and views; you’ll get pinged with a push notification as soon as an offer goes live during the event.

  5. Take advantage of Alexa’s advanced deal alerts feature. Amazon’s virtual assistant can notify you of a sale on an item in your Wish List, Shopping Cart, or “Saved for Later” queue up to 24 hours before it goes live. Enable the feature on a newer-gen Echo smart speaker, and you’ll see its light ring turn yellow (or you’ll get a pop-up alert) whenever an item you’ve saved has a discount in the pipeline. You can then ask for more information about the deal, set a reminder for when it’s available, and even give Alexa permission to order it for you using your default payment info when the time comes.

Mashable

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