Amazon Prime Day July 2018: When does it start, how long does it last and what deals are on offer
Amazon’s own version of Black Friday will be on 16 July, so here’s a roundup of everything you need to know before the shopping frenzy begins.
What is Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day is a limited-time-only online shopping event, exclusive to those who are members of its premium subscription service Amazon Prime.
This year will be the company’s longest Prime Day ever, clocking in at a total of 36 hours. Starting at 12pm on Monday 16 July in the UK, Amazon has promised there will be 40 per cent more Spotlight Deals this year, and more than 1m deals available globally.
You can expect better deals on Amazon’s own products
The tech giant is promising double the amount of deals on Amazon devices for Prime Day 2018, with the biggest deals it’s done so far on Alexa products like the Echo, Fire TV and Fire tablets.
As a sneak preview, Amazon has already started marking down some of its services.
Right now, you can get up to 50 per cent off Prime Video, DVDs and Blu-Ray, pay only 99p for a four-month trial of Amazon’s answer to Spotify, or get three months of unlimited Kindle e-books for free.
How will the deals work?
New discounts will be released online every five minutes, and will be split into categories like food and drink, home security, and technology. All deals exclusive to Prime Day will have a blue tag on them letting you know that they’ll expire at the end of the 36-hour period.
You can start adding items that you think you’d like to get into your wish list now, and if you install Amazon Assistant onto your desktop, you’ll get notifications when deals go live.
What deals should I go for first?
Our advice would be to go for whatever usually sells best, so that you don’t miss out when stockpiles empty.
Last year, the best-selling product on Prime Day in the UK was the Oral B Smart Series electric toothbrush.
Worldwide, Amazon’s Alexa-powered Echo Dot was snapped up the most. Other popular products included a subscription to the online gaming network Playstation Plus, Finish all-in-one dishwasher tablets, and the Sodastream Crystal 2.0.
These were some of the best deals on the site last year.
There’s a live London event for extra chances to win a discount
On Sunday 15 July, Amazon will host a so-called unboxing at a secret location in London with a host of exclusive entertainment experiences for all the family.
From what we know so far, there’ll be a screening of Paddington 2, an intimate reading from Ant Middleton of his book First Man In, and will end in an exclusive live music concert from Take That. But you’ll have to be fast to snap up tickets!
“Prime members will enjoy a day (and a half) of our best deals, with 36 hours to shop more than one million deals worldwide,” said Jeff Wilke,Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer.
“More than 100 million paid Prime members around the world will find our best Prime Day celebration yet.”