5 Tips for Amazon Prime Day Shoppers (#4: Shop Somewhere Else)

Move over, Memorial Day and Labor Day. While those three-day holidays have traditionally offered the most high-profile sales of the summer, the rise of Amazon Prime Day (and competitor sales) over the past decade has made mid-July a contender.

More than 80 percent of consumers told RetailMeNot that they planned to shop Prime Day sales this year, and shoppers expected to spend an average $300 each on the online event. 

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This year, Prime Day will run July 16-17, and the retailer promises to offer deals on millions of products in dozens of categories, including electronics, clothing and kitchen products. Last year, the first day of Prime Day was the largest shopping day in the company’s history.

“Prime Day is that second big sales event that really competes with Black Friday,” says consumer savings expert Andrea Woroch. “Although you may be a little bit more limited on the types of brands that you’ll find on sale, oftentimes the savings are the same discounts that we would see on Black Friday.” 

The deals are exclusive to Amazon members, but if you’re not a member, you can get a free trial membership for 30 days. If you don’t want to keep the membership, be sure to set a calendar alert for yourself to cancel it before that promotional period ends.

Here are five tips for shoppers on how to make the most of the Prime Day sale:

1. Make a shopping list

Given the wide range of deals available, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or to make impulse purchases that can push you over your shopping budget. To be more mindful about shopping during the sale, think about the purchases that you want or need to make before you even log on to the site.

If you’re making a big-ticket purchase, spend some time now doing research to determine which specific model you want to purchase. Woroch says she spends some time ahead of Prime Day looking around her home for broken items that may need replacing and thinking about upcoming events like a wedding, for which she may need both a dress and a gift. 

2. Focus on Amazon-branded products

Well-known Amazon-owned brands, such as Kindle e-readers, Ring video doorbells and Alexa devices, tend to see the biggest discounts during Amazon Prime Day. But other Amazon-branded items also go on deep discount during the sale. So it’s a great time to stock up on nonperishable items under the Amazon Basics brand, which includes everything from batteries to bathroom towels.