How to Get Primed for Prime Day 2019

The Story

Found: your excuse to do some shopping. Amazon Prime Day has arrived. Everyone and their mom(’s account) is ready to shop the best deals and biggest you-know-whats.

Don't make me say it.

Doorbusters. It had to be said. Moving on...

So...what is Prime Day?

Prime Day is Amazon’s global shopping event (slash made-up holiday) that lets members shop millions of products at discounted prices. But it’s not all rainbows and discounts. Last year, Amazon struggled to keep up with the site traffic and workers protested poor work conditions in Europe. FYI, this time around, workers at Amazon’s fulfillment centers in the US are planning to strike over working conditions.

What else is new this year? 

2019 is big for Bezos and Co. They kicked things off five days early with a concert (T-Swift was there) and Prime Day will run a full 48 hours. Members can shop from 12am PT on Monday, July 15 to 11:59pm PT on Tuesday, July 16. This is the longest event in the history of Prime Days. What a time to be alive.

Did you say members-only?

Sure did. But you can sign up for a free 30-day trial...and cancel before paying at the end of the trial. Just set up a reminder to cancel as soon as you sign-up. If you don’t have commitment issues, an annual membership costs $119 a year, or $12.99 a month. They also offer discounts for students and people on government assistance. 

Got it. Sign up first. Then what? 

Click, Forrest, click. Usually, the best deals are Amazon’s own items like Alexa, Kindle, and Fire TV products. Otherwise, it’s going to be a lot like a foamy latte. Read: bloated. But that’s what we’re here for. Bookmark our Prime Day page for theSkimm-approved deals. We’ll be updating it ‘round the clock so you can get back to doing literally anything else.

Nice. How else can I make sure I get the best deals?

There's an Amazon App for that. You can “watch” the best deals and get alerted as soon as they go on sale. Cause ain’t nobody got time to browse the world’s biggest shopping mall (unless, again, you’re us). Here’s how to begin your watch: 

• Open the Amazon Shopping app (Android and iOS)

• Open the top-left menu and tap on Today’s Deals

• In the nav bar, tap on the Upcoming tab to preview en route deals

• When you find an item you want to set an alert for, tap Watch This Deal below the item. Allow notifications if this is your first time.

• When the deal goes live, you can add the item to your cart or buy with 1-Click from the Watching tab.

• PS: you can go back to check on on the status of the deals you're eyeing on the Watching tab.

The app is the easiest way to watch deals, but if you don’t want to download it, you can add an extension to your browser. It’s called the Amazon Assistant, and you get $5 off orders over $25 just for downloading. Oh, and wherever you’re watching everything will be on sale only until supplies run out, so act fast. 

Anything else?

Things that are Prime Day Lightning Deals. They’re limited quantities of certain items that go on sale every hour. And they sell out like, yep, lightning. They’re some of the best deals, so items are deleted from a person’s shopping cart after 15 minutes if the purchase isn’t completed. You can click the “Join Waitlist” button on Lighting Deal items that you want, and you might get an alert if it becomes available after someone leaves it in their cart for too long. Boom.

To keep shopping...you know, fun, we recommend adding things you already know you want to buy (Prime Day or not) to your Amazon cart. That way, you have it at the ready and don’t need to scramble when the price drops.

Sure that’s it? 

Fine, one more thing. Amazon basically made today a national holiday, so other retailers are throwing their own shopping party. Like Target. And Walmart. And eBay. Woo, capitalism.

theSkimm

Now you’re primed (sorry, had to). If you need a place to start, shop our favorite picks so far. Fingers at the ready.