The Only Good Tip for Amazon Prime Day Shopping
It’s not an official holiday, but Amazon Prime Day (“Days” really) has been a capitalist tradition since 2015. This year, the mega retailer will be offering discounts on thousands of products of all kinds to Amazon Prime members starting Tuesday. , July 12, and will last until Wednesday, July 13.
Despite plenty of online guides on how to take advantage of the savings, there’s only one piece of advice you really need on Prime Day if you’re looking to save money: don’t buy anything you haven’t already planned on buying. . There’s another corollary: if you still find a bargain for something you wanted, make sure it’s actually a bargain.
Why you should only buy things on Prime Day that you already planned to buy
Leaving aside the more difficult question of whether or not you should buy anything on Amazon on any given day, you should only buy what you’re already planning on Prime Day because Amazon wants you to do the opposite. The entire promotion is to encourage you to buy things you don’t want or need and get you to sign up for an Amazon Prime membership.
The summer months are traditionally the worst time of the year for online retailers: customer engagement and sales volumes are low, and people are more likely to do summer activities outside rather than make spontaneous purchases on their laptops. Amazon’s summer sale is an attempt to boost those numbers by creating a “ticking clock” and a false sense of scarcity – which is why “lightning deals” have limited time windows and limited stock. They take advantage of people’s fear of missing out on prospective deals that are often not deals at all.
Amazon Prime Day deals can be misleading
In the chart above (made with Keepa , an extension that compares Amazon prices over time), you can see the Amazon Echo Dot 4th Gen price volatility over the past few months. While the current “lightning deal” price of $19.99 is low, Amazon can only say it’s “60% off” because the off-sale price has been raised to $49.99 from $27.99. which they charged in the middle of June. So it’s really more like a 28% discount – a good deal, sure, but not a sizeable “I have to buy this even if I don’t want to” deal.
How to get the best Amazon Prime Day deal on an item you were going to buy anyway
If you’re heading into this Amazon summer sale with eyes open and a heart of steel determined to resist trying to make stupid purchases, below are the steps you should take to maximize your chances of success and keep yourself from buying impulsively.
Take advantage of the free Amazon Prime trial
You will not be able to take advantage of any Prime Day offers without signing up for an Amazon Prime membership. The service costs $14.99 a month or $139 a year, but they offer a 30-day free trial so you can sign up, get your Instant Pot, and then cancel it for free. Just set an alarm so you don’t forget.
Amazon also offers Prime discounts for students ($7.49 per month) and a price of $6.99 for recipients of EBT and other government assistance.
Use Amazon Wishlist to Your Advantage
You can use Amazon’s wishlist feature to keep shoppers disciplined – just go to the Amazon listing page , create a new list called “Things I was going to buy anyway” and add the items you hope will go on sale. Tell yourself that you will only buy these products, no matter how attractive these 64% discount LED bulbs look.
Take advantage of Amazon promotional offers
Amazon offers various promotions to get free credits that you can use to buy Amazon products, from opting for slower shipping to watching an Elvis movie. I’ll go into more detail about Amazon promotions in the next article, but in the meantime, check out the Prime Days specials and buy as much as is reasonable.
Set your prices
Retail comparison tools can be used to make sure your Amazon deal is really good. For example, CamelCamelCamel provides a price history for each item on Amazon and will send you an email when your selected items drop to a certain price. You can import your “Things I was going to buy anyway” wishlist into CamelCamelCamel and then set the maximum price you will pay for your items. This will give you the option to completely ignore Amazon during Prime Day unless you get a “buy” signal in your inbox.
Compare with other retailers
Even if the item you were planning to buy is already up for sale on Amazon at the price you like, don’t rush to click buy. It may still not be the best deal. Due to the popularity of Prime Day, other retailers ( Walmart , Best Buy , Target , and others) offer their own promotions, so check prices at these retailers before purchasing.
You might want to wait until autumn
If you can stand the wait, you may be able to get a better deal in a few months. No matter how Prime Day is touted, the biggest retail savings and discounts are still around the Christmas shopping season. Black Friday savings in general are likely to be larger than main day savings, unless you’re buying things like school supplies and outdoor furniture that don’t usually go up for sale in November.