Don’t get cheated by sites which share deals that are supposed to be related to Prime Day, if these deals come weeks or months before the real Prime Day.
Have you seen in your newsfeed the articles from leading news sites announcing “early Prime Day deals on Amazon devices,” or claiming that “Prime Day deals have arrived early”? Don’t trust them. There is no such thing as “early Prime Day deals.”
Prime Day is a shopping event run by Amazon in the first half of July. It’s addressed exclusively to members of Prime multi-benefit subscription.
Unlike Black Friday (when early deals and special offers are being revealed by online stores from the beginning of November), Prime Day is limited to two days.
In other words, you can get Prime Day deals only during these two days in July – and only if you are subscribed to Prime.
Keep reading to learn about what’s wrong with these premature deals, and when to get ready for real Prime Day.
1. No deals you find on Amazon before July are related to Prime Day
News articles announcing early Prime Day deals have started to appear at the end of April. These articles were pointing to deals that Amazon is usually offering at this time of the year. These deals were addressed to users who wanted to shop for Mother’s Day gifts.
As you know, Amazon runs attractive deals every day. What’s more, major shopping events – when the deals are better than usual – are taking place every month. Valentine’s Day, National Reading Month, Mother’s Day, or Father’s Day are the popular events that precede Prime Day.
Amazon calls these deals accordingly and is never trying to connect them to the upcoming Prime Day. Why? Because for Amazon, the major reason to run Prime Day is to get new Prime subscribers. And the best way to do it is to give potential subscribers the shortest possible time to make a decision – and combine it with huge benefits (read: price cuts).
This strategy works. During Prime Day 2018, Amazon welcomed more new Prime members than any previous day in the company’s history.
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2. Why do news sites are so eager to be first in sharing Prime Day deals?
Prime Day is a huge shopping event. Every year, Amazon sells more products on Prime Day than during the preceding Black Friday & Cyber Monday. It’s a money-making machine not only for Amazon but also for companies which sell their goods via Amazon, as well as affiliate marketers.
The sites sharing early Prime Day deals want to build their authority for Prime Day related keywords. Thanks to that, when real deals are being released by Amazon, these sites would rank higher in Google web search results. Thanks to that, they would get more traffic and earn more money from Amazon affiliate program.
Year after year, the competition for Amazon-related search keywords is getting tougher, as customers of the leading online store switch from using Google to using Amazon’s internal search ecosystem.
From 2015 to 2018, Amazon surpassed Google for product searches. Google’s share declined from 54% to 46%, while Amazon’s jumped from 46% to 54%.
As a result, many sites see a decline in Prime Day related traffic. They get more aggressive in hunting for Amazon customers who are still using Google to search for products and product deals.
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3. These deals are not even Prime exclusive
Trying to connect any current deal offered by Amazon to Prime Day is just wrong.
None of the deals sold since April under the “Prime Day” umbrella met a basic condition – Prime exclusivity.
In other words, all the deals on Kindle devices, Echo smart speakers or iPads that we’ve seen since April were available to all Amazon customers – even those who were not subscribed to Prime membership program.
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4. Price drops are usually less attractive than during Prime Day
Obviously, it’s easy to explain that using the phrase “early Prime Day deals” was meant to stress these deals were as good as what you can expect to see on Prime Day.
The thing is that in most cases they are not.
We track deals on Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets for several years, and there are two shopping events where you can save the most: Black Friday & Cyber Monday, and – since July 2015 when it was organized for the first time – Prime Day.
We can say with 100% certainty that no deals that are offered in between are better. At best, you can say that “early Prime Day” deals are almost as good as the real ones.
Anyone who says that “these deals are better than on Prime Day” is either about cheating you or referring to previous events.
Lets’ look at the example – deals that were offered for Kindle Paperwhite 4 in the first half of 2019. The regular price of the newest waterproof Kindle is $129.99 for the version with 8 GB of internal memory and special offers.
- Valentine’s Day 2019 – price: $99.99; price cut: $30
- National Reading Month 2019 – price: $99.99; price cut: $30
- Mother’s Day 2019 – price: $89.99; price cut: $40
- Father’s Day 2019 – price: $99.99; price cut: $30
Our prediction is that the middle-range Kindle model will cost between $79.99 and $89.99 during Prime Day 2019.
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5. Real Prime Day deals will start the day before the main event
Amazon will reveal this year’s Prime Day deals at the beginning of July. This doesn’t mean they will be automatically available.
The reason is simple. If you could shop for deals at the beginning of July, you’d use your current annual Prime subscription (the one you started during last year’s Prime Day), and cancel your membership before it automatically renews and your credit card is charged.
Instead, you will learn about all the big deals that are coming, mark your day for shopping – and most probably decide to keep your Amazon Prime.
When is Prime Day 2019? It should start on Monday, July 15, and end on the following Tuesday, July 16, at midnight.
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