Maximize your Prime Day savings with these Amazon shopping tips

Amazon has officially kicked off its Prime Day event in October. For just two days, October 8 and 9, you can get unbeatable deals in virtually every category: books, e-readers, laptops, home appliances, fashion – you name it. If you can find it on Amazon, you can also find it on sale for Prime Day.

To prepare yourself for a successful Prime Day, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to keep in mind during the two-day event. Some may seem obvious, but some you may not have thought of before. And let’s say we know our way around an Amazon sale.

To learn more, don’t miss these essential Amazon shopping tips you need to know.

Get a free trial of Amazon Prime

First of all, you need to make sure that you actually have an active Amazon Prime subscription. Without one, you won’t have access to all the exclusive Prime sales happening during the October sales events, so it should be an essential part of your Amazon shopping prep.

Fortunately, you don’t have to be a paid Amazon Prime member and you can actually join the Free Prime Trialas long as your 30 day period overlaps with the event days, which will be the case if you start your trial today.

Prime Day requires an Amazon Prime membership, although you don’t have to be pay member to take advantage of the savings. Start your 30-day Prime free trial now and you can get the best deals without paying for a subscription. Don’t forget to cancel the subscription before it renews.

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Start shopping early

Although the official Amazon Prime Day sale dates are October 8 and 9, in reality the savings are already pouring in, as is often the case with these shopping events. There are currently several deals available on Amazonso you don’t have to wait to save, although the discounts can be significant during the official event days.

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Know your objectives

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the offers during sales like Prime Day, so it’s wise to decide in advance which products you want to try and grab on sale. Amazon makes it super easy to add products to your wish list or Save for Later section, making it much easier to check things off your shopping list once the sale starts.

Better yet, if you have Alexa devices you can even be alerted if a product you’ve saved goes on sale during the Prime Big Deal Days sale. We really live in the future.

Be open to alternative choices

Sometimes the price of the product you really want just won’t budge. Instead of staring at the Amazon listing and missing out on other great deals, you might want to keep a few backup choices in mind in case this situation arises. That way, you can still be sure you’re saving money on a product that suits you, even if it might not have been your favorite choice.

Think about what makes your top choice the most attractive choice, assess its pros and cons, and see if other products tick some of the same boxes. Chances are there’s an alternative product that can get you 90% of the way and save you a decent amount of money on Prime Day.

Don’t ignore anti-Prime Day sales

This sounds counterintuitive, but some of the best Prime Day deals don’t actually appear on Amazon. Walmart and Target have already launched their own anti-Prime Day sales, and if you’re specifically looking for electronics, gaming, TVs, or home appliances, Best Buy is also running its own anti-Prime Day sale.

Competition is good news for consumers, especially if you’ve been putting off major purchases until the fall sales season.

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Keep coming back

Amazon deals are constantly changing, especially during events like Prime Day, so you’ll want to check sales regularly throughout the event to make sure you’re giving yourself the best chance to score the best deals.

As with previous events, we expect the first tranche of Prime Day deals to go live at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET) when the event officially kicks off on October 8, with a second batch launching simultaneously on Day 2. of the event. That said, super short lightning deals will pop up and expire over the two days, and Amazon will also do its best to match the great sales on offer at other retailers. There are a lot of moving parts and the prizes rarely stand still for too long during event opening hours.

Let us do the work for you

The CNET Deals team will be hard at work all October to surface the very best deals for our readers, so follow our coverage if you want to separate the signal from the noise during Amazon’s Prime Day sale.

Check out some of our coverage now with our guides to the best Prime Day deals under $100 and the best Prime Day headphone deals.