Basic Guide to Amazon Prime Day 2016

Amazon is holding its second annual Prime Day on 12 July 2016. The sale starts at 3:00 AM Eastern Time in the US (in other countries, it will launch at midnight, local time). It’s offering more than 100,000 deals across nearly all its categories. Here’s the basics you need to know:

WHO

It’s exclusively for Amazon Prime members. Don’t have Prime? That does not mean you have to pay for the $99-a-year service. New Prime customers can sign up for a FREE 30-Day trial to take advantage of the sale (do remember to cancel if you don’t want to pay the fees after the trial).

Members in the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium, and Austria can take part. The deals will differ slightly in each country.

WHAT

Prime Day is a one day event (only on 12 July this year). Amazon promises the best pricing we have seen thus far on some of the most popular items on their site, even better than the prices we saw last Black Friday.

Amazon prime day 2016

There are 3 types of deals on Prime Day.

  1. Spotlight: best deals of the day – and are featured until inventories run out. Popular items like TVs will likely sell out fast.
  2. Lightning: limited time only – typically lasts only a few hours
  3. Prime Savings: run all day – and are less likely to sell out

New sales will become available throughout the day as often as every five minutes.

WHY

Amazon launched Prime Day last year to celebrate its 20th birthday. And it became the biggest global sales day for the company up to that date.

Competitors

Other retailers are also feeling the pressure. For example, Wal-Mart is offering free shipping all week. Target are also offering deals of their own.