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Amazon Prime Day: How to bag a bargain

Emma Lunn
Written By:
Emma Lunn
Posted:
Updated:
18/06/2021

Amazon Prime Day is actually a two-day online sale with deals exclusively available to Amazon Prime members.

This year Prime Day is on 21 and 22 June – Monday and Tuesday next week – and promises Prime members discounts on thousands of products across all Amazon departments.

Shoppers need to be a member of Amazon Prime to take part. If you’ve not been a member before, you can sign up for a free 30-day trial to take advantage of the sale. After that Prime is £7.99 a month or you can sign up for a year for £79. Students get six months free membership, then pay £3.99 a month or £39 a year.

Here are eight tips to successful shopping on Prime Day

Start shopping now

Some products have already been discounted for Prime members. For example, you can buy a Ring alarm for £129, down from £219; or an Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip for £1319.97, instead of £1,499.99.

Plan ahead

Make a list of what you want to buy and your total budget. Otherwise, impulse-buying without strict spending rules will likely result in purchasing items you don’t need, ending up with a pile of items you don’t want.

Check you’re getting a good deal

Before you start shopping look up the products you’re interested in on CamelCamelCamel. This is a free Amazon price taker which highlights the price history of products, enabling you to see if you’re really getting a good deal.

Watch out for Lighting Deals

Lightning Deals are flash sales which run for up to 30 minutes. You can find them on the Today’s Deal page or the Prime Day page. You’ll need to check out quick if you go for one of these deals as the products are limited in number and aren’t kept aside for you whilst they’re in your basket.

Have a chat with Alexa

Asking ‘Alexa, what are my Prime Day deals?’ will result in her revealing a list of recommended products based on your shopping history.

Don’t be swayed by reviews

Amazon reviews can be handy, but they can also be manipulated. An investigation by Which? found some brands bribe or incentivise shoppers to post glowing product reviews or remove negative ones.

Know your refund rights

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 and the Consumer Contracts Regulations Act from 2013 cover everything from damaged deliveries to missing orders.

These laws give you 14 days to send back almost anything you’ve bought online back, for any reason at all, and get a full refund.

The retailer – not the delivery firm – is responsible for getting your purchases to you. That means anything missing or damaged is their responsibility to fix as your contract is with them, not the people dropping it to your door or the manufacturer.

Use a credit card for purchases more than £100

If you make your Prime Day purchases on a credit card, you’ll have an additional layer of protection.

With any purchase costing between £100 and £30,000, you’re automatically protected under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 if you paid with a credit card. This means you have the right to apply for a refund from your card provider as well as the retailer if something goes wrong with the purchase.