The Amazon Prime Day 2020 date has leaked and we’re likely less than three weeks away from finally seeing the best Prime Day deals, according to a new report.
The date is said to be Tuesday, October 13, and that lines up with prior rumors that stated Prime Day would be in early October. Amazon itself admitted that this year’s Prime Day deals on laptops, TVs, Kindles, and more would arrive in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Prime Day was delayed, not canceled, like some had thought. It’s a switch from the July timeframe for Amazon’s annual sale, but Covid-19 has changed a lot of things, including our shopping habits and Amazon’s shipping times for non-essential items. Prime Day is coming when much of the world is on the rebound.
If the leaked date is true, Amazon Prime Day will be a little over a month ahead of Black Friday 2020, and likely days before US retailers launch their early Black Friday deals. So we don’t think that the date will be any later than mid-October.
The leaked date sounds credible, so we’re going to start with our Prime Day deals predictions on this page. There’s a lot of pent up demand for buying right now, and we don’t have long before we start seeing price cuts on just about everything.
Amazon Prime Day 2020 date
The newest leaks strongly suggest that Amazon Prime Day 2020 starts October 13, which is a Tuesday in 2020. Why that date? How long will it last? We’ll explain.
The unconfirmed October 13 date comes from a report via CNET that says full-time Amazon warehouse employees have blacked out vacation dates from October 13 to October 20. That’s really strong evidence of the start time for Prime Day.
No, Prime Day won’t be a full week long in 2020, according to our deals experts. It’s just that Amazon employees will see an uptick in processing and shipments several days after Prime Day ends, presumably on Wednesday, October 14.
One notable change: Past Prime Days have started on Mondays and extended into Tuesdays. If Amazon makes this year’s Prime Day deals 48 hours long again, it’ll be on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday will just be another day.
Officially, the only thing we know for sure is that Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said Prime Day 2020 will happen in the fourth quarter of 2020 during an earnings call. Given early Black Friday deals typically start on November 1 (or sooner at some American retailer stores), October 13 makes a lot of sense.
Prime Day 2020 was postponed, but why?
Why delay Prime Day 2020? It made sense to delay the start of Prime Day deals because consumers are facing an economic downtown and probably wouldn’t have been in the mood for a lavish buying spree in July (when the usual Amazon Prime Day date happens), as well as giving the brand time to increase its bandwidth to deal with the huge increase in orders it was seeing over lockdown.
Why still have Prime Day at all? Firstly, there’s the back to school wave that still hasn’t fully broken on the shore of deals, so having an event for key supplies will make a lot of sense.
Also, lots of sellers and manufacturers will relish an Amazon-heavy time to get people interested in sales. It might be close, but being at least a month clear of Black Friday will mean there’s likely to be a upswing in interest in any sales – especially those that are more geared towards personal gifting, which Prime Day deals often are.
There’s also the fact that it’s already happened in India and Amazon has indeed promised the other parts of the world will get serviced with Prime Day sales, so it’s certainly happening.
Buy on Amazon Prime Day? Or wait until Black Friday?
This question was a lot easier when the Prime Day 2020 date was set for July, but now it’s likely to be so close to Black Friday that there’ll almost be a gravitational pull of deals.
The key thing here is the difference in the kinds of deals we’ll be seeing. The Amazon Black Friday sales are tipped to begin at the end of October, so the Prime Day deals will have to be different to stop Bezos’ brand from just running a sale for three months straight.
What’s interesting, when you compare the Hitwise data from last year, is that in both cases the top purchases mirrored the mood of the time – in both Prime Day and Black Friday, Amazon products saw the biggest sales, but the AirPods Pro snuck in during the November period where it was a personal water filter and a DNA kit that made the top 10 in July.
Prime Day 2020 deals list: what will be on sale?
The Amazon Prime Day deals list, while a mystery until the deals go live, quite often follows the same trends every year, so we can safely assume what to expect.
The best Prime Day 2020 will almost certainly feature deep discounts on Amazon’s own tech. We’re talking about Kindle deals, Echo price drops, and Fire TV discounts.
We’ve also seen Prime Day become known for good laptop deals, no matter what you’re interested in. That includes cheap Chromebooks, Windows laptops and a few Apple MacBooks. Now the latest MacBook Pro is on sale, expect it to go fast.
Let’s get into the stats that we alluded to above though – as expected, it’s going to be Amazon bringing down the cost of its smart home items that will perform strongly.
The top product during Black Friday last year for Amazon was, according to Hitwise, the Echo Dot, where it was the Fire TV Stick 4K during Prime Day. However, the top-five purchased products on both holiday periods was dominated by Amazon goods, with the only variance in the top 10 coming with Instant Pots being more popular in November, as well as Amazon gift cards.
When we look at the searches during Prime Day though, we see a different story. The Prime Day Nintendo Switch deals are certain to be massive if a decent one pops up, as that’s what people were looking for last year – and thanks to lockdown, the clamor has only grown.
TV deals, Fitbit deals and headphones deals were also incredibly popular, and while there clearly weren’t the barnstorming offers that we see during the holiday buying period, Amazon will be hoping to steal a march on rivals if it can offer some of these.
How to shop on Prime Day in 2020
1. Check out our deals predictions and, eventually our Prime Day deals list
There are also too many deals available on Prime Day. It’s never a problem finding discounts, it’s always an issue of figuring out what deals are worth your money. That’s why we always set up a curated list during the 48-hour sales marathon.
We spent some good time last Black Friday thinking about smart ways to shop on Amazon – they’re still some great Prime Day tips and tricks.
2. Amazon Prime Day has historically required being a Prime member, so be sure to have a subscription on Prime Day
Amazon started Prime Day in 2015 as a clever way to drive up its Prime subscription count, and this online shopping marathon – conveniently opposite Black Friday – accomplished just that.
You’ll need to sign up for Prime (you can get a free 30-day trial), which comes with two-day free shipping and Prime Video access, among other smaller perks. In some cities, Amazon has rolled out free one-day and same-day shipping on certain items.
3. Create a wish list to curate what you want, as there will be loads of deals
You’re also going to want to create a wish list ahead of time, which will let you sort out what you want and how much everything costs. This will give you a head start. You’ll be able to see which deals dropped in price and which did not.
4. Snap up the best Prime Day 2020 deals before they’re gone
The numbers don’t lie. Last year’s Amazon Prime Day stats gave us insight into what sold in big quantities nearly 12 months ago. It’s shocking, really.
The retailer shipped 100,000 lunchboxes, 100,000 laptops, 200,000 TVs, 300,000 headphones, 350,000 luxury beauty products, 400,000 pet products, 650,000 household cleaning supplies, and more than one million toys.
We often find the best deals to go in a matter of minutes, at which time Amazon rolls out a waitlist for those who were just behind the curve.
Will Amazon rivals try to spoil Prime Day?
Yes, almost certainly. Walmart, Best Buy, B&H Photo and other US retailers have, in the past, run deals during or surrounding Prime Day, kicking off Black Friday in July. There was less fanfare for these deals, but they still provided tempting discounts.
In fact, if you do venture onto Walmart, Target, eBay during Amazon Prime Day 2020, you won’t be alone. Searches on these major rivals soared 225% during Prime Day last year compared to the preceding days, according to MarketWatch.
If we see good deals that price match Amazon (or, better yet, beat it), we’ll be sure to include them in our Amazon Prime Day 2020 deals list.
Last year’s best Amazon Prime Day deals
Amazon Prime Day 2020 is undoubtably going to be different than any other as the date shifts to later in the year. But we suspect many of the deals will mirror what we saw last year.
Last year Prime members were snapping up products throughout the 48-hour event with over 175 million items sold. That’s more than Amazon sold on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
That’s why we’re re-posting some of the top deals from last year’s Prime Day event. It happened in mid-July, meaning some products may change (for example, where a sequel has launched since), but the low prices should match come Prime Day 2020.
Echo Dot (3rd Gen) Smart Speaker $49.99 $22 at Amazon
The 3rd generation Echo Dot was on sale for just $22 during Prime Day. That’s the lowest price we had ever seen for the smart speaker that plays music, answer questions, checks the weather, and more with the command of your voice.
Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Remote $39.99 $14.99 at Amazon
A Prime Day best-seller, the Fire TV Stick was on sale for just $14.99 during the 48-hour sale event. That’s a $25 discount and the lowest price we’ve seen for the streaming player that features an Alexa voice remote.
Fire TV Stick 4K with Alexa Voice Remote $49.99 $24.99 at Amazon
The popular 4K Fire TV Stick was 50% off during Amazon Prime Day. The streaming player includes an Alexa voice remote and allows you to stream your favorite content in 4K resolution with HDR too.
Amazon Smart Plug $24.99 $4.99 at Amazon
If you owned an Alexa-enabled device, you could ask Alexa to order an Amazon Smart Plug for just $4.99. The smart plug turns any appliance into a smart one so you can use your voice to control the device.
Ring Wi-Fi Enabled Video Doorbell $99.99 $69.99 at Amazon
A best-seller every year, the Ring Video Doorbell was on sale for $69.99 at Amazon. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for the Wi-Fi enabled doorbell that sends you alerts when motion is detected.
Fire 7-inch Tablet $49.99 $34.99 at Amazon
The best-selling Prime Day Fire tablet was on sale for $34.99. That’s a $15 discount for the 7-inch tablet that works with Alexa and features 8GB of storage.
Kindle Paperwhite $129.99 $89.99 at Amazon
The waterproof Kindle Paperwhite saw a $40 Prime Day price cut. That’s the best price we’ve seen the 2018 Paperwhite that packs an impressive 8GB of storage.
Ring Video Doorbell Pro with Echo Dot $298.99 $199 at Amazon
A popular Prime Day bundle deal, you could save $50 on the Ring Pro doorbell and receive a free Echo Dot. That’s a total savings of $100 for the Alexa-enabled devices.
Ring Alarm Home Security System $268.98 $144 at Amazon
The Ring Alarm has always been a best-seller during Prime Day and this year the 8-piece security system was on sale for $144. That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for the home security system that will alert your phone when doors or windows open, or when motion is detected.
Toshiba LF621U19 43-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart Fire TV $330 $190 at Amazon
A fantastic Prime Day TV deal, Amazon had the Toshiba 43-inch 4K UHD TV on sale for $190. That’s a $140 discount for the smart TV that has the Fire TV experience built-in.
iRobot Roomba 690 Robot Vacuum $374.99 $229.99 at Amazon
The popular robot vacuum allows you to use the iRobot app to clean your floors from anywhere. The iRobot Roomba was $145 off during the Prime Day shopping event.
Instant Pot DUO60 6 Qt Pressure Cooker $99.95 $49.99 at Amazon
The Instant Pot DUO60 was down to its lowest price ever for Amazon Prime Day. The popular pressure combines seven kitchen appliances in one and and includes 1000+ recipes and guides from the compatible app.
23andMe DNA Test $199 $99 at Amazon
Prime members saved 50% off the popular 23andMe DNA test That’s the best price we’ve seen for the ancestry service that includes 85 DNA-based reports on health predispositions, carrier status, and wellness & traits with just one test.
Learn more about the membership you’ll need with our guide to What is Amazon Prime?
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