How to shop Prime Day deals
Prime Day is a members-only event, meaning you'll need to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to make the most of the big sale. If you'd like to participate when it's expected in July, you can sign up and get a 30-day free trial, plus free and fast delivery on millions of eligible products, and access to a lot of other Amazon services, including Prime Video, Prime Reading and Prime Gaming (a premium experience on Twitch).
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While we don’t yet know the dates for the next Amazon Prime Day, we have strong reason to suspect the popular sales event will make a return in July 2023.
If we’re correct, this will be one of your first big chances to shop incredible deals, particularly on Amazon’s own devices such as Kindle ereaders, Ring home security gadgets and the Echo range of smart home speakers and displays.
If you haven’t shopped on Prime Day before, you should know that Prime members are most likely going to get access to the best deals over the sales period. If you’ve never had an account, you can grab a 30-day free trial (opens in new tab) to be eligible for the Prime-exclusive deals – after that, a subscription costs AU$6.99 a month or AU$59 for a year – but you can cancel anytime. If you want to shop for free on Prime Day, we recommend holding out until closer to the date to sign up, which is likely going to be in mid-July.
When is Amazon Prime Day 2023?
Amazon has not confirmed an official date for Prime Day 2023, but going off dates from previous years, we feel quite confident the next Amazon Prime Day will arrive in the middle of July. In 2022, Prime Day ran from July 12 to July 14, and it also had a July date back in 2018 and 2019. There were two years where Prime Day did not occur in July, but that was during the height of the pandemic when global supply chain issues forced Amazon to change dates.
Now, however, all signs point to Amazon Prime Day sticking to its historic July time slot. We’re predicting it will arrive in the second week of July, though we won’t know for sure until about two weeks out from the event.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Prime Day began as a 24-hour sale in the US in 2015 to celebrate Amazon’s 20th anniversary, and it quickly became a hugely popular sale event for the retail giant. With a higher volume of deals than in November’s Black Friday sales, and with bigger discounts on offer, it proved to be a money mill for Amazon, and the company has carried on hosting the big sale ever since.
The event has grown and is now held in several countries, and also runs for over 48 hours in many locations. In Australia, however, we get a whooping 65 hours to enjoy shopping. That’s because we get to purchase items that are imported from the US and the UK, so the sale carries on for us until it ends on the US West Coast.
The bulk of deals on Prime Day are available exclusively to Prime members, so to get the best savings out of this event you will need to be an Amazon Prime member (opens in new tab). In Australia, Amazon Prime costs AU$6.99 per month, or AU$59 if you pay for an entire year upfront and is a decent saving too.
This small fee not only gives you access to great deals and savings, you also get free expedited shipping on thousands of eligible items, as well as free international shipping for items costing AU$49 and over. You also get access to other Amazon services including Prime Video, Prime Reading and Prime Gaming (a premium experience on Twitch).
How can you get a free Prime account for Prime Day?
So, we know that the best deals on Amazon Prime Day are likely going to be exclusive to Prime members, but there is a way to get a Prime account for free on Prime Day. The catch is, you can’t have had a Prime account before. First-time subscribers can get a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime (opens in new tab), and still reap all the benefits of a paying Prime member.
That means you’ll get early access (typically 30 minutes before other shoppers) to popular Lightning Deals – which is when Amazon drops the price on a limited quantity of hot products for a set period of time – plus free delivery on hundreds of eligible items, and free access to the aforementioned Prime Video, Prime Reading and Prime Gaming.
If you decide to stick around after the free trial, Amazon Prime costs AU$6.99 a month, or AU$59 each year. Unlike in the US, Amazon Australia does not offer discounted student memberships or a family plan. We also miss out on some other US perks, like unlimited Amazon Photos storage and same-day delivery, but then we also pay less than half of what it costs our US counterparts.
What were the best Prime Day deals in 2022?
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(opens in new tab)How to find the best Prime Day deals
Shopping on Amazon Prime Day can be an exhausting and overwhelming experience if you aren’t prepared for what’s ahead – and trust us, there will be thousands of deals landing on the site, with new ones added throughout the duration of the sale.
While Prime Day is a great chance for deal hunters to snag some of the best discounts of the year, it can easily go wrong if you aren’t sure what to look for, or how to look for it. With that in mind, here’s our expert advice for shopping on Amazon Prime Day, and how to save the most money this year.
Don’t just shop at Amazon: This one may surprise you, but hear us out. Since Prime Day has gotten so popular over the years, many retailers have begun trying to get in on the action by running their own Prime Day-like sales alongside Amazon. Stores such as JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and even eBay Australia are ones to watch, so don’t be afraid to shop there as well. You could be surprised by what kind of discounts you can find.
Trust your gut on reviews: Amazon’s review system isn’t very good at filtering out useless and unhelpful feedback. If you head to almost any major product released in the past year, you might see one-star reviews with a single sentence clearly expressing dissatisfaction and nothing else. You may even find "fake reviews" to help deter you from a good product or even steer you towards buying a bad product. If it’s something you truly want and it’s on sale, you can use free services like Fakespot to make sure the user reviews are genuine.
Compare prices: This applies to everything. Clothing, electronics, pet supplies, you name it. If it’s on sale during Prime Day, chances are most major sellers stocking it are dropping their prices, and they are all competing against each other. What you may not know, however, is that it may be cheaper at alternative sellers, so don’t be afraid to click that "see other buying options" button from time to time.
Stick with us: If you don’t want to spend too much time and energy on bargain hunting during Prime Day, then bookmark this page as we’ll be doing just that for you. T3’s deals team will be on hand to pick out the juiciest offers on a wide variety of tech and lifestyle products, and we’ll list them right here in an easy-to-navigate page.
