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Amazon Prime Day 2021 is coming!
Amazon has announced that June 21st and 22nd will be Amazon Prime Day 2021, an annual event that is a huge hit with online shoppers. It involves 48 hours of hot deals and bargains, providing the chance to get some of those must-have items for a fraction of the price.
This means that it's almost blast-off! But if you’ve not participated in Amazon Prime Day before, what can you expect to find? The answer is virtually everything!
There are fantastic deals to be had on all types of products from big-ticket items such as TVs and laptops to smaller electronics including Kindles and iPads. It’s not all just about technology though, there are household goods such as Dyson cordless vacuum cleaners and instant pots up for grabs too.
Although it’s called “Amazon Prime Day”, it’s not strictly speaking just one day as there are two full days of big discounts.
As the world tries to regroup and recover from everything 2020 and 2021 has sprung on us, there’s now a growing desire to splurge and treat yourself. In other words the Amazon discount sale has come at the perfect time, with price cuts enticing buyers to add those goods to their basket.
Do I have to be an Amazon Prime member to get the best deals?
Yes. Although anyone can still purchase goods on Amazon Prime Day, if you want to get the sale prices and take advantage of the whopping discounts, you’ll need to hold an Amazon Prime account.
There is a workaround though; if you don’t want to sign up for full membership, you could opt for the 30-day trial membership instead. This won’t cost you a penny, and you can cancel at any time within the first 30 days with no strings attached. As long as you don’t cancel your membership before the 21st and 2nd of June, you’ll qualify for the Amazon Prime Day discounts without cost!
Of course, lots of people choose to keep their Amazon Prime account once they realise that it costs very little and offers excellent benefits. At £7.99 per month (or you can pay a one-off subscription cost of £79 per year) you’ll receive fast, free shipping as well as access to Prime Video.
As restrictions are slowly easing up the appetite for spending money is growing, making it an ideal time for Amazon to hold their sales.
Now that we know when Prime Day will occur, the question remains: what should you look out for? What are the hottest deals you should scroll around for? And are the sales really worth it or should you wait till Black Friday to splurge? So many questions - but we have the answers. Keep reading to find out more.
In which countries is Amazon Prime Day happening?
This year Amazon Prime Day will take place in 20 countries. 18 of those countries will take part in the event on the 21st and 22nd of June 2021, however Prime Day has been temporarily postponed in Canada and India for now. Here is a list of all countries that will be part of Amazon Prime Day:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- India
- Japan
- Luxembourg
- Mexico
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- Singapore
- Spain
- Turkey
- UAE
- US
Our Hot Tips: The Best Deals to Look for in 2021
If you’re a seasoned Amazon Prime Day shopper, you’ll have probably realised that there are certain trends which seem to pop up every year. While there are some surprises, there are patterns which allow some accurate predictions to be made. Although nothing is cast in stone, it’s possible to forecast which are the likely Prime Day deals to watch - and how much money you could save.
The hot talking point for 2021 revolves all around Amazon’s tech so if you’re looking for Fire tablets you could be in for a treat.
However, Amazon tech goes beyond their original Kindles and similar devices as they now have much more on offer. Look out for Echo smart speakers, Ring Doorbells and of course, everyone’s new favourite digital assistant: Alexa.
Is it worth waiting for Black Friday to nab a deal?
Although you’ll certainly have the chance to pick up a bargain on Amazon Prime Day, there are huge savings to be enjoyed on Cyber Monday and Black Friday. If you’re thinking of purchasing a gadget, for example, the Eero Wifi Router from Amazon, when should you buy? Will you get a bigger bargain on Prime Day or would it be better to wait?
The Easy Guide to Prime Day 2021 Shopping
If you think you want to dip your toe into the waters of Amazon Prime Day deals, our simple checklist will walk you through exactly what you need to do:
- Keep tabs on our predictions for the best deals, and then when Prime day is here, check out our list of the top deals being offered
- Don’t forget to organise your Amazon Prime membership so it’s in force and ready for Prime Day - don’t leave it until the last minute to sign up!
- If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed with the possibilities, create a Wishlist. The Wishlist facility on Amazon is really useful and will enable you to track the prices directly.
- Don’t wait too long to snap up what’s being offered. The items on Amazon sell in enormous numbers and if you hesitate, you could miss out. Just look at last year’s numbers:
- 100,000 lunchboxes
- 100,000 laptops
- 200,000 TVs
- 300,000 headphones
- 350,000 luxury beauty products
- 400,000 pet items
- 650,000 household cleaning items
- 1,000,000+ toys
When you see these numbers laid out, it’s not difficult to see why some products go out of stock quickly. The rule of thumb is if you see something that you like at a price that can’t be beaten, just trust your instincts and make the purchase.
If you miss out on a deal, you’ll be added to a waiting list, but the likelihood of success is slim.
Amazon Prime Day 2020: Did Customers Get a Good Deal?
It may all look tempting but is Prime Day all that it claims to be? PR Newswire reported results from Minderest - a company that tracks prices - on the subject. Minderest looked at the top 566 sought-after products from Prime Day and compared the prices to competitors via Google Shopping. Amazon UK was cheaper in 58.05% of cases while in the US, the numbers were even greater with 81.9% of goods cheaper on Amazon during Prime Day.
These stats demonstrate how tight the UK market is, and the narrow margins that exist between competitors. One potential reason for the results is that many rival stores now hold their own sales on Prime Day, or price-match to Amazon.
For you, this means that it’s a good idea to shop around before you buy as you might find a better deal elsewhere. Just because Amazon has slashed prices, don’t assume that you won’t find another store that has done as well.
There were some items which performed especially well in the Prime sale. Alexa and Echo smart speakers at Amazon enjoyed some of the biggest price cuts with almost half off, a bigger discount than the previous year.
It was the same for other Amazon products such as Ring Doorbell and Kindle tablets. Customer research surveys suggested that almost two-thirds of Amazon buyers were very happy with the deals that were on offer during Prime Day.
The Best Deals from 2020 Amazon Prime Day
Although we can’t be exactly sure what’s going to happen this year, especially with everything that’s occurred in 2021, it’s worth taking a peek at Prime Day 2020. There’s very good reason to suspect many of the best deals on offer will be very similar to those which were made available last year.
In 2020, 175 million items were sold during the 48-hour Prime Day event. To put that into context, that number is more than everything that was sold on Amazon on both Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined! It is however worth noting that Prime Day 2020 was in October last year and therefore occurred very close to Black Friday.
How Did Amazon’s Competitors Measure Up on Prime Day?
The buzz around Amazon’s Prime Day has a habit of firing up the competition who often go all out to try and compete with the offers.
Curry’s are one of Amazon’s big rivals. The retailer showed some smart moves by launching its own “Black Tag” bonanza ahead of Prime Day, keeping the event going until after the Amazon sale had passed. Curry’s did very well in their Black Tag event on laptops, TVs and gadgets, as well as white goods. It’s worth mentioning that Amazon doesn’t have a huge interest in the last category, preferring to focus on the former.
For Google Home products which weren’t available on Amazon, John Lewis performed well. However, the iconic store didn’t show any innovation in setting out its own deals, seemingly happy just to price-match its competitors. It did offer a two-year warranty for free with most of its goods, a big plus in its favour.
The only real downside of John Lewis was the delivery cost for smaller items. Having to pay delivery for sales totally less than £50 proved to be a disincentive for customers to bother buying cheaper items, and highlights where John Lewis need to improve if they want to stay competitive in the market.
One useful metric on the performance of other retailers is gathered from their apps. With so much browsing and buying being done via mobile, it’s now possible to track performance via AppsFluer. This showed that the top 100 retailer apps saw a significant drop while Prime Day was active.
New installations dropped and 53% of retailers experienced a reduction in sales. And with Amazon’s own app running smoothly and without the technical glitches, which had occurred in the past, it means that the online giant is set to go from strength to strength.
Prime Day saw a surge in mobile shopping on the Amazon app and that’s expected to continue. In the past, it was normal to browse on your mobile but hop onto the laptop to make the purchase but that’s not the case now. Mobile apps make it possible to close the deal on the spot and of course, on Prime Day you won’t want to risk the item selling out by the time you’ve logged into your computer.
Our last piece of advice? Don’t miss out!