Amazon Prime Day 2020 is approaching, the period where Prime members can grab multiple bargains and most sellers on Amazon use the opportunity to offer discounts to some degree.

We're expecting the Amazon Prime Day 2020 date to be sometime in October, according to many media reports, so while the Prime Day deals haven't landed in July as usual, we're still expecting a big slew of Amazon savings.

Why October? Well, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday not too far away, if Amazon is still going to do Prime Day 2020 then it will need to be soon - and given Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said Prime Day 2020 will happen in the fourth quarter of 2020 during an earnings call, it seems likely that the Prime Day 2020 date will be October to avoid any big shopping-period clashes.

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.

(Image credit: Amazon)

Amazon Prime Day news

If you're looking for up-to-the minute info on when Amazon Prime Day is going to be and what form it will take, then we're tracking the newswires to find anything that could give us a good clue.

September 14: Amazon is going to recruit an additional 100,000 warehouse workers as it moves to keep up with demand from the increase in sales from more people staying at home. However Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfillment, has said that this is on top of the 'seasonal' needs that the holiday season brings, so the company is clearly anticipating a busy quarter coming up.

Amazon is going to recruit an additional 100,000 warehouse workers as it moves to keep up with demand from the increase in sales from more people staying at home. However Alicia Boler Davis, Amazon’s vice president of global customer fulfillment, has said that this is on top of the 'seasonal' needs that the holiday season brings, so the company is clearly anticipating a busy quarter coming up. September 7: A possible date for Amazon's Black Friday sale beginning is leaked by Tamebay, putting that sale at the end of October, which would suggest that Prime Day would be coming earlier in the month if October does indeed prove to be the Prime Day date.

A possible date for Amazon's Black Friday sale beginning is leaked by Tamebay, putting that sale at the end of October, which would suggest that Prime Day would be coming earlier in the month if October does indeed prove to be the Prime Day date. August 18: As Prime Day looks likely to be later in the year, the knock-on effect could be felt during Black Friday as well and could cause other retailers to begin sales earlier than ever. “July’s loss of Prime Day will bring another layer of change to the 2020 holiday season, with retailers already preparing to compete with the event, effectively moving Black Friday up by more than a month,” said Marshal Cohen, e-commerce analyst firm NPD Group’s chief retail industry adviser told Market Watch.

The official Amazon Prime Day date is reportedly in October, according to CNBC who saw an email to third-party sellers with the placeholder date of October 5. Despite this, Amazon has spoken and and said that no date has been announced.

As we mentioned above, given that Prime Day 2020 is certainly happening, October is by far the smartest date for the price plunges on the site.

Recent reports had plugged it as 'mid-October', but these were proven to be false, so the current guesswork of when we'll see Prime Day still stands.

Last year's Prime Day deals lasted 48 hours, so there were two full days of discounts, and we expect something similar in 2020. Amazon has historically picked a Monday to start the deals and Prime Day usually runs through Tuesday.

If October is indeed the month and it begins on a Monday (which October 5 is), that leaves one of four choices for the start of Prime Day 2020:

Monday, October 5, 2020

Monday, October 12, 2020

Monday, October 19, 2020

Monday October 26, 2020

Amazon's Prime Day page says: "Prime Day is an annual deal event exclusively for Prime members, delivering two days of special savings on tons of items. Prime Day 2020 dates for the United States have not been announced yet".

Apart from India, that applies to the rest of the world too - and we're waiting for that date to become clear given nothing happened in July as we expected.

But when did Amazon Prime Day get postponed? Well, the shift from July to "at least August" was reported by Reuters on April 3, and then a source for The Wall Street Journal indicated September was the confirmed Prime Day date, with the cause being the coronavirus outbreak, after Amazon limited the number of items it ships, often prioritizing essential goods.

But, keep in mind that even though we're maybe only a month or two away, having no Amazon Prime Day date is still not out of the ordinary.

The company doesn't announce the date until mere weeks ahead of the kick off, when it teases a fraction of its deals list. So, even if it were earlier than October, we still wouldn't know today.

As soon as we catch wind of the Prime Day 2020 date, we'll be sure to update this page so you can prepare your Amazon wish list.

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

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 Amazone 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.

(Image credit: Amazon)

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.



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