Everything You Need To Know About Amazon Prime Day

What is Prime Day?

Three years ago, to celebrate their 20th anniversary, online retail giant Amazon created an annual flash summer sale especially for their most loyal customers. The Prime sale runs for exactly 36 hours, starting midday on Monday 16th July until midnight on Tuesday 17th July.

While shoppers in the US struggled to grab themselves some bargains after the influx of customers caused Amazon.com to crash, and Amazon workers in Germany, Spain and Poland have decided to strike over Prime Day, UK users have had a fairly easy ride, bagging themselves bargains on anything from food to electronics to beauty.

How much is Amazon due to make?

Prime Day is the perfect marketing tool for the monolithic company. As noted by Wired.com, there are more than 100m Prime members – and 16% of those users as signed up to Prime for the sole purpose of getting access to those Prime Day deals. Last year, Amazon’s Prime Day turnover rose to 50% higher than in 2016 and was their biggest day ever for signing up new members.

While numbers haven’t been released on how much they’re due to make on Prime Day – although it’s thought it easily takes over Black Friday and Cyber Monday in terms of their sales figures – the main aim of the sale is to market their Prime subscription service. “What Amazon is really selling on Prime Day is Prime itself,” Matti Littunen from Enders Analysis told Wired, adding that the positioning of Prime Day, in between Amazon’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, “nicely acts as a recurring reason to stay on as a Prime subscriber.”

Amazon Prime is only available to those who are signed up to a Prime membership. It offers a number of different benefits, from same-day delivery to unlimited access to streaming music, television and film. The cost of a membership is £7.99 a month – but you can sign up to a free 30-day trial to see if Prime is the one for you.

Should I get involved?

Absolutely. If you’re dubious of sales, you can use a price tracker site like CamelCamelCamel. The site tracks Amazon’s price history, so you’re able to see if products are regularly discounted or whether the price you’re paying on Prime Day is a genuine one-off special offer.

And if you decide to dive into the Prime sale head-first, there’s a wide range of products to add to your basket – plenty of people associate these kind of flash sales with electronics (probably because we can’t get the image of people fighting over televisions in Tesco on Black Friday), but Amazon’s sale spans a whole host of items, even food and drink. So if you want to grab a bottle of Aperol alongside your discounted Amazon Echo, then this is the day to do it.

Here’s all the deals you can’t miss….

Beauty

Don’t panic, but there is a significant discount being applied to our favourite ghd products – 20% off their Air Hair Dryer bring the price down to £79.50, and a whopping 38% off the original straighteners brings the price from £109 to just £67.99 – meaning there’s never been a better time to buy a back-up pair, just in case. Other beauty deals include a Nailstar Professional UV and LED nail lamp and dryer; 67% off a Kabuki make-up brush set; and up to 60% off fragrances by Jimmy Choo, Elizabeth Arden and Marc Jacobs.

Entertainment

If you’ve been dying to splash out on a new TV, now’s the time to do it. A 43-inch 4K LG Smart LED TV has been reduced from £599.99 to just £349 – a saving of 42%. So whilst you’re watching Love Island on the big screen, keep your partner occupied with an Xbox bundle, featuring a console, two controllers and a plethora of games including Sea of Theives and Minecraft, down to £199.99 from 319.99.

Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Spot and every other iteration of Alexas also have a hefty discount (you can save a massive 40% on a Dot). But we get it – it’s halfway to payday. If you’re looking for something a little smaller, then there’s some great deals on cool little gadgets – Fitbits are going for as little as £79.99.

Amazon Pantry

Is there any better time to stock up on party essentials? The sun shining, and we need to celebrate with a barbecue and multiple cocktails. Bulk-buy a case of six Campo Viejo Cava Brut for just £42; Aperol Aperitivo for £8.99; St Germain Elderflower Liqueur for £18; and Bowmore 15 Year Old whisky for £37.99. That’s the beginnings of a great summer party, right there.

Visit Amazon.co.uk for more.