My top Amazon Prime Day tips for shopping the sale
I've been writing about both Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day for seven years now, so I've learnt a thing or two about how to get the most out of the online giant's sale. I also know that not every deal is as good as it may seem, as well as exactly how to spot the best savings amongst the sea of offers that have landed.
To help you get the best deals during Amazon Prime Day, I've compiled a list of my top tips for shopping the sale. Before you start adding items to your basket, have a read through to ensure that you're not left paying more than you should. From checking the price history of a product to the fake discounts that can catch you out, here's my advice for shopping Amazon's July Prime Day sale.
1. See if you can get an Amazon Prime free trial
The first thing to remember is that you need to be a Prime member to shop for the discounts on Prime Day. However, that's not the only perk – you'll also get free next-day delivery and often same-day delivery at no extra cost for qualifying orders.
Amazon Prime costs £8.99 per month or £95 per year. If you're not already a Prime member, you might be eligible for a free 30-day trial of Prime. It's only available to Amazon customers who have never been a Prime member before or haven't been a Prime member in the last 12 months.
If you're between the ages of 18 and 22, you can also get an even longer six-month free trial, as well as half-price memberships, meaning you'll pay just £4.49 instead of £8.99 per month.
2. Make a wish list
It's easy to get overwhelmed during the Amazon Prime Day sale and buy things you don't need because they have a big discount. Just remember that a deal isn't a deal if you don't actually need it. This is the first time the sale has lasted four days, so you have plenty of time to think about what you want to buy.
I recommend making a wish list of the things you've been eyeing up this year but have struggled to afford. For example, I've been waiting to buy some new running headphones, and I'm on the lookout for a new electric toothbrush. If I see significant price drops on these items, I'll add them to my basket.
3. Compare the price of the product against other retailers
Amazon can be a little sneaky by adjusting the RRP of its products. It reportedly changes the prices on its website 2.5 million times per day, so you can never really be sure if the original price is the price that the manufacturer is charging. I recommend doing a quick Google search to see how much it costs at other retailers.
For example, if I'm looking for a new iPad, and it's currently on sale at Amazon, I'll check Apple's website for the original price, just so I know that the apparent discount is legit. If it is, I'll head to other retailers such as Argos, John Lewis, Currys and AO.com to make sure it isn't the same price (or cheaper) there. If it is, I might consider shopping at the other retailer if it offers better perks, such as a longer warranty or a better trade-in deal.
4. Be wary of electric toothbrush deals
Amazon is notorious for playing with the RRP of leading electric toothbrushes in sales periods. The retailer sometimes raises the RRP of an item to an exorbitant price, and then discounts it by upwards of half price, so it looks like a much better deal than it actually is.
For example, a £50 electric toothbrush might be given a new RRP of £100 in the run-up to the sale. During the sale, Amazon will then 'discount' it to the original £50 price. If you're coming to the deal that day, it looks like a huge 50 per cent discount, but you're really paying the retail price.
Some of the more expensive brushes bounce up and down in price, spending exactly two weeks at full price, then two weeks at half price – rinse and repeat. Again, check other retailers for the actual price of the electric toothbrush and make a call. You'll still find good savings on Oral-B and others; they just won't be as big as Amazon might have you think.
5. Use Amazon price history tools
It's sometimes difficult to know if a deal is exclusive to the sale. That TV or laptop you've been considering could have been discounted to that sale price weeks before Amazon Prime Day even started. A deal that looks great today could have been even better a few months ago, and the new sale price could even be higher than the old retail price.
To find out if a discount is actually exclusive to Prime Day, use Amazon price history tools such as CamelCamelCamel, which records price changes on Amazon. These tools give you historical data on a product's lowest, highest and average prices, giving you an idea of whether it's a deal you should pick up now, or leave until it goes down even further.
6. Watch out for no-name brands
There are a host of no-name brands on Amazon that churn out poorly-made products, such as laptops, just to exploit the Prime Day sale. These products usually have steep discounts, but they are poorly made.
It's easy to be caught out by this because of how difficult it can be to decode the technical jargon of a laptop. We will only bring you deals on laptops that we've tested from well-respected brands, so try not to get caught out. This applies to every product category on Amazon, but particularly so for laptops.
7. Check out our Amazon Prime Day live blog
As well as curating guides of the best Prime Day deals, we'll also be running a rolling liveblog until Friday, 11 July. The live blog is run by a team of deals experts, who will be busy rifling through thousands of discounts to bring you the offers worth caring about.
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