Everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2017.
We’re halfway through the year, which means it’s time for Amazon’s annual Prime Day. It all began back in 2015 as a way to mark the site’s 20th anniversary, and while they’re still honing the finer details, if they’ve listened to customer feedback, this year should be pretty decent.
What is it?
Amazon Prime Day is like Black Friday, except that only one retailer is participating and it’s restricted to the internet, exponentially reducing your chances of getting crushed to death in a sale-related stampede by manic shoppers.
Prime Day is a day of flash sales that will seduce you into opening up your wallet and blowing a load of cash all over the shop.
There are deals to be had on everything you care to think of as Amazon streamlines its inventory.
When does Amazon Prime Day start?
Amazon Prime Day officially begins on July 11, but early deals kicks off on Monday July 10 at 9PM ET on Amazon.com and 6PM on Amazon UK. Eager beavers can start watching them on July 9, before they go live.
You can keep up by checking the Prime Early Access deals page.
All sorts of items will be discounted and you can check out Spotlight and Lightning deals. New deals will be popping up as often as every five minutes for the 30 hours that the promotion is running, so keep a weather eye out.
Is Amazon Prime Day for Prime members only?
Yes. Yes, it is. Although if you haven’t tried the the service before, you can sign up for a free trial which makes you eligible for all of those juicy deals.
There are some pretty good deals elsewhere on the site that aren’t Prime exclusive, and we’re rounded up our top picks further down the page.
How do I become an Amazon Prime member?
Head over to Amazon.com or Amazon UK to sign up for Amazon Prime membership.
The cost for annual membership is $99/ £79 which is $10.99/ £7.99 a month. Prime membership will get you unlimited one-day delivery on a ton of products, access to Amazon Prime’s streaming service, and if you use Twitch, then the recently added Twitch Prime is going to be right up your street.
Plus if you join up between now and August 20, you can take advantage of the offer for Twitch Prime subscribers who will get a Golden Loot Box for Overwatch, as well as five loot boxes in August, and another five in October.
You can cancel your membership at any time. If you sign up for the trial and forget to cancel it, you can get a full refund provided you haven’t used any Prime services since the trial ended.
What’s more, Amazon Household means you can share your Amazon Prime perks with another adult member of your household. Think of it as a plus-one invite.
If you’re a student, Amazon is currently offering a 6-month free trial for Prime, with a 50% discount on membership once the trial expires.
Amazon Prime Day special offers
Amazon UK is currently running a promotion for the chance to win £100,000. All Prime members have to do is stream Amazon Video on their TV, the Amazon Video app, Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, game console, set-top box, or Blu-Ray Player. Anywhere you care to think of, essentially.
That’ll get you automatically entered into the competition.
You have until midnight on Tuesday July 11 to throw your hat into the ring, and you can enter up to five times by streaming Amazon Video content at least once a day between July 7 and July 11.
Watch out for Amazon deals on games and peripherals
Amazon Prime Day is a few hours away and they’re already teasing deals on games, headsets, and other peripherals.
Deals officially kick off at 6pm, but Prime members get early access to sale items. Right now, upcoming deals include the official PS4 Wireless Headset, Glacier White PS4 controller, Venom Xbox 360 Twin Docking Station, Turtle Beach XO One Amplified Stereo Gaming Headset for Xbox One, Destiny: The Collection for PS4, and a boatload more.
