We've been covering Amazon sales at T3 for over six years and we're all set to help you get the most out of the many opportunities that will come with Prime Day 2022. This year, Amazon Prime Day will begin on July 12th with local deals running for 48 hours until 11:59PM AEST on 13 July.
Amazon Prime Day 2021, which took place in June last year, saw some of the best deals that not only matched but beat previous Prime Day sales. This year, we expect it to be even bigger with deals across the entire selection of categories Amazon has to offer.
Shop all early Prime Day deals available now! (opens in new tab)
But the past is that past, and now we can look ahead to Prime Day 2022 with bright eyes and high hopes as we're less than a month away. In the lead up to Amazon Prime Day this year, we'll be covering the latest news, early deals, and best Amazon deals today to get you psyched and ready to save.
If you're impatient however, we're on track for another big weekend of savings in early July. 4th of July sales are just around the corner, and we'll be covering some of the greatest included 4th of July appliance sales (opens in new tab) and even retailer specific savings events such as the Best Buy 4th of July sale (opens in new tab).
Be sure to check back regularly for news, hot deals, updates and more in the lead up to Prime Day 2022!
Amazon Prime Day 2022 News & Updates
6/24 – Wouldn't you know it, Prime Day seems to have unofficially kicked off early with a plethora of deals dropping this week on TVs, Amazon devices, and much more. You can start shopping for the best early Prime Day deals (opens in new tab) right now!
6/16 – Amazon has confirmed the dates for this year's Prime Day are July 12-13.
6/9 – With only a month to go, we're getting our Prime Day shopping hats primed and ready to go. Preparation is key with any sale if you want to save the most money, so be sure to avoid the 5 mistakes everyone makes on Amazon Prime Day (opens in new tab). It may just help you out more than you know!
5/11 – Looking for ways to save using Amazon Prime? Here's some helpful tips on using the service to maximize your savings. Check out T3's how to save money on Amazon Prime (opens in new tab) guide for ways to stretch your dollar even further.
5/3 – In a recent press release, the Amazon Prime Day date (opens in new tab) was confirmed for a July time frame. While were predicting a mid-July window, Amazon's press release narrows the possible date range even further.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day is the second largest sales day of the year (next to Black Friday), and is a two day sale that offers one of the largest selections of discounted products and deals all year. While Prime Day has become somewhat of a "Black Friday" type savings event, it's a sale that tends to focus more around Prime Day devices, smart tech and Amazon brands.
There are, however, supposed to be over 2 million individual products going on sale this Prime Day. So while the focus of what you'll see when browsing Prime Day deals is turned squarely on Amazon's line of products, just about everything you can think of gets a discount during the two day event.
When is Amazon Prime Day 2022?
In a recent press release detailing Amazon's first quarter results for 2022, Amazon sneakily threw in that Prime Day 2022 will be happening sometime in July. This follows suit from Prime Day 2021, where it kicked off on Monday the 11th.
We estimated that a date for Amazon Prime Day in 2022 would be somewhere around the same as last year's date. In 2021, Amazon held its Prime Day sale on Monday, June 21 and Tuesday, June 22, but this is actually a full month earlier than the usual time frame. However, we now know that Amazon Prime day will take place from Tuesday, June 12 to Wednesday, June 13 in 2022.
Starting at a minute past midnight PST (3:01 am EST) on the Tuesday and finishing on Wednesday at 11:59 pm PST (2:59 am EST Thursday), so though a day later, like last year it'll be a 48-hour event (minus two minutes).
Amazon has also been toying with the idea of adding an additional sale day later in the year, similar to Amazon Prime Day, yet held around the time of Black Friday. Two Amazon Prime Day sales in a single year? They just may be the ones crazy enough to do it!
- Don't want to wait? Browse today's deals at Amazon.com (opens in new tab)
That mid-July date prediction is echoed by a report at Digital Commerce 360 (opens in new tab) which cites an announcement from Amazon (opens in new tab) to sellers who use the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service. The post is titled "Plan your shipment early for Prime Day 2022" and it says that sellers have until 29 April to submit their deals for Prime Day consideration. It also says: "Plan and send your shipment so that it arrives at fulfillment centers before June 20."
The Digital Commerce 360 report quotes Fahim Naim from ecommerce consulting agency Advantage Unified Commerce as saying: "Barring any major any setback, and based on the data and the timing of the information on Seller Central, all the stars are lining up for July 11 or 18." The same report says it is "extremely unlikely" Amazon Prime Day will be on the first Monday in July which is Independence Day in the US. Naim gives 11 July a 70% probability rating, and 18 July a 30% probability.
What to Expect for Amazon Prime Day 2022
Since Amazon offers fairly similar deals and offers each year, guesstimating just what deals we'll see isn't quite as difficult as many may think. Below are the deals Amazon announced ahead of Prime Day 2021. While many are no longer available, they can give us a pretty good idea of what we can expect to see on sale come Prime Day 2022.
Amazon Devices: Ring Video Doorbells starting at $44.99 with discounts on battery packs as well as eero mesh routers.
Fashion: Save up to 20% on Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger apparel, and find additional savings on men’s and women’s active wear from Amazon brands.
Health & Wellness: Save 20% on healthcare products from Amazon Basic Care along with wellness and personal care products from other Amazon brands, including Solimo, Revly, and Amazon Elements. Save on 23andMe Personal Genetic Service DNA Test Kits.
Pets: Save on Friends Forever Orthopedic Dog Beds and 20% on pet supplies from Solimo.
Toys: Save on select Green Toys, Calico Critters, and Thames & Kosmos products.
Electronics: Save 72% on the Norton 360 Deluxe and get a $10 Amazon Gift Card; up to 50% on select Xbox and Ubisoft titles, up to 30% off Amazon Basics
Kitchen: Save on Ninja blenders and coffee makers as well as the Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker Pro.
Home: Save on select vacuums, air purifiers, irons, steamers, and fans, as well as dehumidifiers from iRobot, Bissell, Toshiba, Levoit, Black & Decker, and more.
Household Essentials: Save 20% on household essentials from Amazon brands, including Solimo and Presto!
Home Improvement: Save on select Moen kitchen and bathroom fixtures, Makita tools, and Kasa smart light switches, as well as CRAFTSMAN 20V lithium ion and Duracell batteries.
Grocery: Save up to 30% on candy and gum, and 20% on snacks and grocery products from Amazon brands, including Happy Belly and Amazon Fresh.
Sports & Outdoors: Buy one, get one 20% off World Famous Sports camping equipment.
Amazon Launchpad: Save up to 50% on the Kids Against Maturity Combo Pack and $80 on the Tertill Weeding Robot Bundle.
Panera Bread: Panera is fueling Prime Day shoppers with a sweet (and savory) deal. Prime members who sign up for MyPanera rewards will get a $3 shopping credit and 40% off their Panera online order on Prime Day.
Best Amazon Prime Day 2021 Deals
Of all the deals available over Prime Day 2021, some of the biggest discounts were unsurprisingly on Amazon's own devices. While the top selling product this year was the Fire TV Stick 4K (opens in new tab), some other popular deals included price drops on Echo devices, Halo bands, Luna controllers, Fire TVs, Fire tablets, Kindles, Eero Wi-Fi spots, Blink security cameras and Ring doorbell cameras.
However, as expected PS5 and Xbox Series X games saw a huge surge this year thanks to some pretty tasty discounts. The latest generation of consoles unfortunately have had a bit of a gaming drought, but Prime Day gaming deals on some of the latest titles made it a bit easier to jump into something new.
Prime member rewards
In 2021, Amazon had a few extra incentives and rewards for Prime members including extra cashback rewards on select Prime Card purchases, increased discounts on select products and more.
For Prime Card (opens in new tab) holders, there were a few different offers to take advantage of during Prime Day 2021:
- 10% back on select LG and Sony 4K TVs
- 10% back on select Small Business brands
- 6% back on Amazon.com purchases
- 6% back on Whole Foods Market purchases
Each year it seems Amazon changes these rewards up, so while we can expect to see something similar during Prime Day 2022 it's hard to predict what they'll be. Prime Card holders got a bit more love this, as 10% cash back is a pretty large sum of money to get returns on.
Prime Day free product giveaway
Prime members who spent their time on Instagram were able to win free daily prizes including Canon digital cameras, movie projectors, Amazon gift cards (opens in new tab) and more.
Each day, Amazon had a different prize available which required no purchases for a chance to win. The Amazon Photos Giveaway (opens in new tab) landing page listed all the prizes available, and there were some pretty tantalizing wins.
Note that the giveaway is officially over and Amazon is no longer taking entries. Expect a very similar contest next year though through some form of social media.
Giving back on Amazon Prime Day
During Prime Day 2021, Amazon’s charity initiative AmazonSmile offered Prime members the opportunity to double their donation rate (1% instead of 0.5%) to the charity of their choice throughout the entire 48-hour event.
For Prime members who activated AmazonSmile via app, there was even more to gain for charities. AmazonSmile also donated 5% of the net purchase price (10X the regular rate) on the first qualifying AmazonSmile purchase on Prime Day. This special rate was for every Prime member who activated AmazonSmile in their Amazon App from 2nd June through the end of Prime Day 2021 on 22nd June.
Amazon Prime Day 2022 FAQ
Is Prime free on Prime Day?
If you have not had an Amazon Prime account before then, yes, you can get a free Prime trial for Prime Day (or for any other day). Amazon offers all customers a free 30-day trial of Prime, while students get a massively generous six-month free Prime trial. You can cancel at any time during the trial and you won't be charged a thing.
If you decide to pay for Prime once your trial ends, that'll cost you $119 a year. Student Prime accounts cost just $6.49 a month.
If you live in a household where someone else has a Prime account then you can form an Amazon Household and share some of their Prime benefits at no cost to yourself – including unlimited one-day delivery plus same-day delivery in eligible areas, and access to those all-important Prime Day deals. It also provided a 30-minute early access to Lightning Deals with Prime Early Access.
Here's how to get your free Prime account and how to set up an Amazon Household.
Is the Amazon Prime price going up this year?
It has recently been confirmed that an Amazon Prime price increase is indeed happening this year. While this comes as some unwanted news for many, the 17% price bump is the third increase since Prime's inception.
You can still lock in the current price ratings before the hike later this year, but you'll want to head over to the Amazon Prime sign up page (opens in new tab) today. You can also try it out for 30 days before you make the decision of keeping it, but if you're like us (and the millions of Prime members out there) you'll most likely keep it. The benefits of the service still outweigh the cost in our minds, and while we don't like seeing the price of something go up Amazon Prime is something that offers a plethora of benefits for the price.
The price increases are as follows:
- Yearly: $139 (was $119)
- Monthly: $14.99 (was $12.99)
In an earnings call last October Amazon said it had nothing to announce around Prime price increases. However, some analysts speculated that there could be an Amazon Prime price increase on the way. As reported by MarketWatch (opens in new tab), analysts at Jefferies reckoned a price hike was due this year, pointing out that Amazon increased the Prime membership price in March 2014 and May 2018. The same report adds that analysts at JPMorgan also believed that a price increase for Amazon services, including Prime, is coming.
"Increasing the fee again this year seems reasonable and would maintain the latest cadence of about four years," the report quotes the Jefferies analysts as saying, adding that both previous increases were by $20.
Is Amazon Prime Day happening in Canada and India?
Prime Day did not take place in June 2021 in Canada or India due to the Covid-19 situation. Amazon confirmed to CNBC (opens in new tab) that it is pausing the event in both countries. It did not provide a rescheduled date. In the same report, CNBC said that Amazon confirmed that Prime Day will continue on schedule in the UK, US, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Spain, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Netherlands, Mexico, Luxembourg, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, China, Brazil, Belgium, Austria and Australia.
How to find the best Prime Day deals
Shopping Amazon Prime Day can be an exhausting and overwhelming experience if you aren't prepared for what's ahead. While Prime Day is some of the most fun deal hunters will have all year, it can easily go bad if you aren't sure what of to look for – or how to look for it. Here are some helpful suggestions to shopping Amazon Prime Day and tips on how to save the most money this year.
Don't just shop at Amazon: This may be a weird one to hear, considering this is Amazon Prime Day we're talking about, but hear us out. Since Prime Day has gotten so dang popular over the years, many retailers out there are trying to get in on the action by running their own Prime Day-like sales alongside Amazon. If you've got a favorite store you like to shop at, don't be afraid to shop there as well. You'll be surprised what kind of discounts you can find.
Trust your gut on reviews: Here's the thing with Amazon's review system, it's not very good at filtering out useless and unhelpful feedback. If you head to almost any major product released in the past year, you'll see one star reviews with one 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, reviews may help but at the end of the day it's your money!
Compare prices: This applies to everything. Clothing, electronics, you name it. If it's on sale during Prime Day, chances are every seller who has it is dropping their prices. What you may not know, however, is that it may be cheaper in some cases to check out alternative sellers. Don't be afraid to click that "see other buying options" button from time to time.
Are Prime Day deals worth it?
The question of "Are Prime Day deals worth it?" gets asked quite a lot around this time, and quite frankly there's a yes and a no answer to this one. Depending on what exactly you're hoping to buy, Prime Day could be the perfect chance to get the best discount while it may be more beneficial to wait until Father's Day sales, Labor Day sales or even Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales.
That said, Prime Day deals are definitely worth if when it comes to electronics, smart tech and of course Prime services. Most Prime services, including Prime Video (opens in new tab) and Amazon Music Unlimited (opens in new tab) get some pretty sweet offers for newcomers and Prime members alike.
That mid-July date prediction is echoed by a report at Digital Commerce 360 (opens in new tab) which cites an announcement from Amazon (opens in new tab) to sellers who use the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) service. The post is titled "Plan your shipment early for Prime Day 2022" and it says that sellers have until 29 April to submit their deals for Prime Day consideration. It also says: "Plan and send your shipment so that it arrives at fulfillment centers before June 20."
The Digital Commerce 360 report quotes Fahim Naim from ecommerce consulting agency Advantage Unified Commerce as saying: "Barring any major any setback, and based on the data and the timing of the information on Seller Central, all the stars are lining up for July 11 or 18." The same report says it is "extremely unlikely" Amazon Prime Day will be on the first Monday in July which is Independence Day in the US. Naim gives 11 July a 70% probability rating, and 18 July a 30% probability.
Are Amazon Prime Day deals real?
This is a question that gets asked a lot and not just on Amazon Prime Day, but Black Friday, too. And there are two answers – but both center on what you consider a 'deal' to be.
The first is that, yes, you do get products discounted on Amazon Prime Day, and sometimes they are discounted down to prices that they have never been at before. That in many people's eyes is a deal.
The thing is, though, as proved by numerous studies such as this 2022 report by Semrush (opens in new tab), a lot of deals offered up during sales events such as Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday don't actually offer that good a discount.
The practice of artificially spiking prices on items in the weeks or months running up to a sales event, only so that they can then offer what looks like a large discount percentage, is rife within the industry, and what goes from being a jaw-dropping deal ends up, in reality, being just a small to modest price cut.
Of course, if you've wanted that product then you've still got it, and got it for marginally cheaper than it has been available for before, so in that sense, you could say you've still got a deal.
Another thing to factor into if a product is a 'deal' or not is where the product is in its lifecycle. If a 4K OLED TV is $400 off and it's been on the market for a year, then that's more just end-of-life price degradation in advance of its replacement coming out. Of course, the counterargument to that is that just because a product has been on the market for a while doesn't make it bad, or buying it at that point a bad deal.
Lastly, it is important to note the other elephant in the room – Black Friday. According to that Semrush report linked to above the biggest discounts of the year come during the Black Friday sales period, which coincides with the months of November and December.
As such, while Amazon Prime Day 2022 will be a great opportunity to buy discounted products, there's no guarantee those products won't be cheaper still during the Black Friday sales this year.
Will there be a second Prime Day in 2022?
While Prime Day has gone back to it's standard schedule of mid-summer savings, previous year's have seen the savings event get pushed back or even doubled-up to provide even more savings.
This year, chances are we won't see two Prime Days as Amazon has announced that it has gone back to it's July timeframe again. That doesn't mean Amazon won't be running more savings events throughout the year, as there's still Memorial Day, Labor Day and other big holidays to cover.
