Amazon Prime Day 2020 is October 13 – we know that for sure now that Amazon has plastered the date news all over its website. No more Prime Day delays and no more thinking that 'Prime Day is cancelled'. It's finally happening.
Prime Days deals in the US will run from the start of Tuesday, October 13 to the end of Wednesday, October 14. That means you'll see discounts available for 48 hours, though some of the best Prime Day deals will sell out in a matter of minutes.
The date – or dates – switch things up over the usual 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.
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. Here's what we expect.
Amazon Prime Day 2020 date and timing
Amazon Prime Day 2020 starts on October 13, which is a Tuesday. That's a notable change: past Prime Days have started on Mondays and extended into Tuesdays.
Since this year's Prime Day deals last a full 48 hours, you'll see things on sale on Tuesday and Wednesday. Monday will just be another day.
The Amazon Prime Day date is a little over a month ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2020, and likely days before US retailers launch their early Black Friday deals. So we don't see the deals stopping from October 13 through the end of 2020.
New on Prime Day 2020
The Amazon Prime Day 2020 homepage is already touting early deals exclusive to its Prime members, including the Amazon Echo Dot 2-pack for $39.98 and the Amazon TV Recast for $129.
Amazon also announced that it's going to be offering a $10 savings on buying from US small businesses during Prime Day. The only catch? You have to spend at least $10 to save another $10. That seems like an excellent way to build support around the mega-retailer that's often seen as hurting small businesses.
Prime Day 2020 was postponed, but why?
It made sense to delay the start of Prime Day date to October 13 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.
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 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.
Amazon Prime Day laptop deals: what to expect
While we've seen demand for cheap laptops rising over the past year, Amazon's Prime Day laptop deals may still offer some excellent discounts. We've seen Apple's range of luxury MacBooks taking some particularly impressive price cuts over the past few months, especially on the already-cheap MacBook Air 2020, and models like the Asus Vivobook, Acer Swift, and HP Chromebook have all offered lower budget savings as well.
That means we'd recommend checking out this year's Amazon Prime Day laptop deals for a computer between the $300 and $800 price range. There are more savings to be found further up the price scale at Amazon, on the Dell XPS, Asus Zenbook Pro Duo, and MacBook Pro, for example, but more specialized creative retailers like B&H Photo or the manufacturers themselves have proven to have the edge of price here over 2020.
On the flip side of this rise in demand, however, sits stock issues, most accurately epitomized by the plight of the Chromebook shopper in 2020. Last year we saw HP and Lenovo Chromebooks sitting well under $200 in Amazon Prime Day laptop deals. However a surge in demand has left these machines pushing $250 - $280 sales prices at best in recent months. Plus, over Labor Day we saw HP itself offering far better prices on its HP 15z configurations, so don't discount manufacturer offers in the cheaper ranges either.
Gaming laptop deals have, however, found a home at Amazon in the past 12 months. Again, you're better off heading to Dell for Dell G-Series or Alienware rigs, but the cheaper Acer Nitros and HP Omens have had a good record so far in the year, and may be a strong source of Amazon Prime Day laptop deals as well.
If you're looking to spend between $500 and $1,200, however, you might be tempted to hold off and see what manufacturers offer during Black Friday. While we do typically see higher value laptop deals later on in the year, this isn't a typical year and with Prime Day coming much closer to the November sales, we don't know how far Amazon is going to go to try and compete in the busier shopping period.
While it's likely that there will be flash sales offering lower prices over Black Friday, you'll have to fight for them. We might, however, see Amazon Prime Day laptop deals, even if they are lightning offers, worthy of last year's Black Friday-level attention, so don't hold out expecting cheaper offers in November as they're not guaranteed, and competition may be higher as well.
Amazon Prime Day TV deals: what to expect
Amazon Prime Day TV deals often excel in the cheaper and top end of the price spectrum, with budget sets discounted to extra low prices and top of the line LG or Sony OLEDs or Samsung QLED displays taking bigger discounts over the shopping period.
We see cheaper budget models like Insignia, TCL, and Hisense TVs regularly on sale throughout the year, and 2020 has been no different. So far, we've seen these sets drop to between $219 and $299 at their cheapest points, so if you're simply looking to upgrade from a standard HD TV without breaking the bank, signs are pointing to a healthy supply of Amazon Prime Day TV deals.
We'd recommend checking Amazon's prices against retailers like Walmart and Target, however, as these supermarket TVs can become a bidding war during bigger sales periods and you may be able to swoop on a better price once Amazon has made its discounts. We see this behaviour particularly with Insignia and TCL displays at Walmart.
However, you might want to stick with Amazon if you're looking for its exclusive Fire TV and Amazon Alexa compatibility. Amazon often bakes its smart assistant straight into these sets to gain the edge over competitors, and as a more premium feature in itself, you can sometimes pick up a far higher value Prime Day TV deal at Amazon.
If you're looking for a display that sits well above these budget models, for full display brightness, color clarity, and perhaps some extra features as well, you're in luck. Last year, Amazon discounted the LG OLED C9 down from $2,499 to $1,699 over its Prime Day TV deals, so if you're looking to splash the cash you might find a win here.
However, Amazon struggles to compete in the mid-ranges in the US, so if you're looking for a TV deal between $300 and $600 (the newest Samsung and LG 4K TVs, for example), you might want to check out other retailers' competing sales or wait until Black Friday.
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.
