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Everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2023: Start times, invite-only deals, and the competition

2023-07-12 15:55
A quick look at some of the best Prime Day deals (so far): Best Echo
Everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2023: Start times, invite-only deals, and the competition

A quick look at some of the best Prime Day deals (so far): Best Echo deal Amazon Echo Pop (opens in a new tab) $17.99 with Prime (save $22) Get Deal (opens in a new tab) Best Fire tablet deal Amazon Fire Max 11 (opens in a new tab) $149.99 with Prime (save $80) Get Deal (opens in a new tab) Best Kindle deal Kindle Paperwhite (8 GB) (opens in a new tab) $89.99 with Prime (save $50) Get Deal (opens in a new tab) Best Fire TV deal Amazon Fire TV 43-inch Omni Series 4K UHD smart TV (opens in a new tab) $99.99 with Prime (save $300) Request an Invite (opens in a new tab) Best eero deal Amazon eero 6+ system (3-pack) (opens in a new tab) $194.99 with Prime + free Fire TV Stick 4K Max (save $159.99) Get Deal (opens in a new tab)

Amazon's flagship Prime Day sale may not be as singular as it once was, but the members-only savings event remains a huge draw for inflation-weary shoppers hunting for summer deals.

Here's what you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2023.

When is Prime Day 2023?

Prime Day began on Tuesday, July 11 at 3 a.m. ET and runs through Wednesday, July 12 in 2023, with new offers dropping every 30 minutes during certain periods.

What's new or different about Prime Day this year?

Amazon is back to bragging that it's offering "millions of deals across categories" during this year's Prime Day sale — "more deals than any Prime Day event before," in fact. This is a return to form of sorts and a shift from its reined-in 2022 advertising, which emphasized "Amazon’s lowest prices ever on select products" and a wider selection of items from third-party sellers instead of a massive deal dump. (TL;DR: We are so back.)

Amazon has also introduced a brand-new "invite-only" deals program for ten products it expects to sell out on Prime Day (see: a $100 43-inch 4K smart TV), which should alleviate some of the frenzied chaos that typically surrounds its doorbusters. Prime members can visit these products' listings to request an invitation; if chosen, you'll receive an email with a unique link to buy the item at some point during the event.

Amazon hasn't explained how it's picking these lucky eligible shoppers; all we know is that these special deals are exclusive to Prime members (paid and trial).

What are the best Prime Day deals?

Prime Day has always been Amazon's favorite excuse to discount its own devices and services, and this year is no different. Beyond Amazon's in-house lineup, our usual suspects for Prime Day doorbusters include robot vacuums, headphones, video games, fitness equipment, pet supplies, luggage, outdoor gear, cookware, and basically every Apple product under the sun. Check out our giant running list of the best Prime Day deals to get a broader view of what's up for grabs, but here's a quick look at our top picks in the hardest-hit categories.

Note: All newly added deals are marked with a , while deals with a 🔥 have dropped to an all-time low price. Amazon's exclusive invite-only deals are marked with a 📨. Deals with a strikeout were either sold out or expired at the time of writing.

Best Amazon device deals

Amazon streaming, audio, and gaming deals

If you need to restock your pantry, your Prime membership will save you 20% on a $50-plus order of Amazon-brand everyday essentials like snacks, school supplies, groceries, toiletries, and pet products for a limited time.

Robot vacuum deals

Apple deals

TV deals

These are organized by size and then price.

What not to buy on Prime Day

Not all of those "millions of deals across categories" will be worth adding to your cart. After covering Prime Day for years, here's what we'd recommend skipping:

  1. Anything from Ring. The home security company's popular video doorbells always get really cheap during Prime events since Ring is an Amazon brand, but they're ultimately a privacy nightmare.

  2. Toys. Amazon is offering some good Prime Day discounts on Barbie toys and apparel as a tie-in to the iconic doll's big-screen debut later this month, but otherwise, it's best to save your toy shopping for Black Friday — the holiday season brings new releases and a boatload of deals.

  3. Video game consoles. Hold off to upgrade until holiday sales and bundles start trickling out in November unless you're interested in a renewed Xbox or a Nintendo Switch: Best Buy and Walmart's Prime Day counter-programming feature some decent deals on the standard and OLED models, respectively.

  4. Almost anything sold and shipped by a third-party seller. Third-party merchants on Amazon aren't scammers across the board, but buying something from a seller you don't recognize can be risky. (Fake reviews and counterfeit listings are way more common — and convincing — than you'd think.) Stick with products that have "Ships from Amazon.com" and "Sold by Amazon.com" under their "Buy Now" buttons just to be safe.

  5. Any deal that seems too good to be true. Amazon has a bad habit of inflating MSRPs to make discounts appear better than they really are. You can verify whether a deal is legit or not by comparing prices across other major retailers and running the product through camelcamelcamel, a free Amazon price-tracking site.

  6. Anything you get the urge to impulse-buy. Are you buying a new TV because you actually need a new TV, or just because it's $100 off right now?

Who's competing with Prime Day?

Walmart, Target, and Best Buy are all throwing their hats into the anti-Prime Day ring.

The former is hosting a new summer savings event called Walmart+ Week, a seeming expansion of last June's Walmart+ Weekend that more directly competes with Prime Day. It's live on the Walmart website from Monday, July 10 at 12 p.m. ET to Thursday, July 13 at 7 p.m. ET. (More like Walmart+ Three Days And Some Change, but I digress.)

Members of the big box store's Walmart+ subscription service get early access to the sale for the first 24 hours before it opens to the public on Tuesday, July 11 at 12 p.m. ET. That only includes paid Walmart+ members, so you'll have to upgrade from its free trial tier if you want to participate. (Good news: Annual memberships are 50% off until July 13.) Here's a quick look at the best Walmart+ Week deals we've come across so far:

Meanwhile, Target is running one of its semi-annual Circle Week sales from Sunday, July 9 to Saturday, June 15. (A whole actual week!) Billed as its "biggest sale of the season," the event is open to members of the retailer's totally free Target Circle loyalty program and runs online, in stores, and on the Target app. Highlights include:

Finally, Best Buy has revived its Black Friday in July event from Monday, July 10 to Wednesday, July 12 in stores, online, and on its mobile app. The sale is open to everyone, but members of the retailer's new paid My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total plans get access to special promotions and better discounts on certain items. (Subscriptions cost $49.99/year and $179.99/year, respectively.) Here's an overview of its top deals:

Prime Day shopping tips and tricks

Aside from aggressively lurking on Amazon's dedicated Prime Day page (and reading our coverage of the sale), there are several ways to ensure you don't miss out on a great deal:

  1. Sign up for those invite-only deals. We've flagged the best ones if you need some guidance.

  2. Organize your Amazon Wish List. Amazon's virtual shopping list feature puts all of your must-haves in one convenient spot so you can see which ones are on sale for Prime Day at a glance (instead of flipping between links and tabs). Check out Mashable's guide to "wishlisting" for more intel.

  3. Download the Amazon Shopping mobile app. The app features a Prime Day event page where you can set deal alerts for your recent Amazon searches and views; you'll get pinged with a push notification as soon as an offer goes live.

  4. Take advantage of Alexa's advanced deal alerts feature. Amazon's virtual assistant can notify you of a sale on an item in your Wish List, Shopping Cart, or "Saved for Later" queue up to 24 hours before it goes live. Enable the feature on a newer-gen Echo smart speaker, and you'll see its light ring turn yellow (or you'll get a pop-up alert) whenever an item you've saved has a discount in the pipeline. You can then ask for more information about the deal, set a reminder for when it's available, and even give Alexa permission to order it for you using your default payment info when the time comes.