On a tight budget? Here are steps to take to stretch your dollars on Amazon Prime Day.
Amazon Prime Day, considered one of the biggest shopping events of the year, will be a test of how much spending consumers have left in them after a year of high inflation and quickly rising interest rates.
Amazon’s 48-hour sale starts Tuesday at 3 a.m. EST (midnight PT) for Prime members to get exclusive access to Amazon’s lowest prices this year on select brand-named products. New deals will drop every 30 minutes during select periods throughout the event, Amazon said.
Prime members may have already begun to shop with “early-access deals” on select Amazon devices and products from brands like Ruggable and Quip and from small businesses like Madison Reed, the online retailer giant said.
As alluring as the deals may be, consumers said, they plan to resist.
“After a year of contending with inflation, shoppers plan to tighten their Prime Day budgets this year − for the second year in a row,” according to coupon site RetailMeNot, which surveyed 1,000 adults April 10 to April 21. The poll found that the average Prime Day shopper plans to spend $250 on this year's Prime Day (and other retailers’ simultaneous sales), down from $388 in 2022 and $594 in 2021.
With smaller budgets, how can people stretch their dollars?
As with any sport, bargain hunting requires a strategy. Here are some tips for success:
Prime Visa. Through July 26, you can apply for a Prime Visa and, if approved, you'll receive a $200 Amazon gift card. You'll also earn 5% back on Amazon purchases, meaning you'll save even more on your future Amazon shopping sprees as long as you pay with the Visa.
Buy a $50 gift card by July 10. You’ll get a $5 credit for Prime Day.
Try Amazon Photos. Amazon’s offering $15 if Prime members upload a picture onto the company's photo storage app. “For Amazon Prime subscribers, that’s ostensibly free money,” said Tercius Bufete, executive editor of commerce at Reviewed, part of the USA TODAY network.
Use extensions like CamelCamelCamel to check price histories. From that, you can determine if your item usually goes on sale around Prime Day and for how much. That way, you can see if a deal is truly a deal or if it's the same modest discount that popped up a month ago. "If it's something you aren't really interested in and it frequently goes on sale, you can hold off until later and focus on finding the rarer bargains that only pop up once or twice a year,” said Julie Ramhold, Consumer Analyst with DealNews.com.
Check if your credit cards offer bonuses for shopping on Amazon via their app and activate the offer. “For instance, a Chase credit card I use offers 20% cash back on Kindle eBook purchases,” Bufete said.
How can I ensure I won’t miss my deal?
Download the app. “You won't be able to see Prime Day deals just yet but go ahead and start looking at upcoming offers and mark any you're interested in as "watching,” Ramhold said. “When the deal goes live, you'll receive a notification and can jump on it quickly, hopefully before it has a chance to sell out.”
Load your cart now. “That way, if you do take advantage of a Lightning Deal, you aren't racing the clock to get everything else you need - it's already in the cart, waiting for you to check out,” Ramhold said. “Then you can just add the Lightning Deal to your cart and checkout immediately. However, make sure you're tossing items into your cart that you're definitely already sold on - you don't want to have to spend precious minutes trying to decide whether or not you need that random item in there on Prime Day itself.”
Sign up for Invite-only deals. With the all-new Invite-only deals program, Prime members can request an invitation to score some of Prime Day’s best deals that are expected to sell out, Amazon said. Selected members will be notified during Prime Day with instructions on how to purchase the item at the exclusive deal price, it said.
Set up personalized deal alerts. Prime members can subscribe to receive deal alert notifications related to their recent Amazon searches and recently viewed items.
Use Alexa. Ask Alexa for deal notifications on products added to your Wish List, Cart, or Save for Later.
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What will people buy?
The overall winner, as usual, will be tech, with 59% of Prime Day shoppers expected to shop for electronics, RetailMeNot said.
Back-to-school items are expected to be popular again, too. “Prime Day’s midsummer placement makes it ideal for finding early back-to-school deals,” RetailMeNot said. “Of those who plan to shop for back-to-school this year, 76% of Prime members say they plan to shop for school items during Prime Day and related sales, compared to 42% of non-Prime members."
But Ramhold warns those sales may not be the best ones.
“The season for those is just beginning,” she said. “After Prime Day, we'll see a ton of sales devoted to back-to-school rolling out, so if nothing sounds good in the Prime Day sale, it's OK to hold off on things like school supplies, bedding for dorms, backpacks, and yes, laptops, until just a week or two later.”
Other categories could surprise, though.
“Every year, home and garden categories tend to dominate, but this year we may see them get even more attention because shoppers are leaning into practical purchases and stepping away from discretionary spending,” Ramhold said. “It may be that the most popular deals on Prime Day this year are related to things like groceries or household essentials, rather than a new TV or something similar.”
A possible spending surprise?
Planned spending is different from actual spending, RetailMeNot noted.
“Prime Day has been growing in terms of dollars spent every year since its inception, including last year, when consumers told us they planned to dial their spending back,” RetailMeNot said.
Adobe Analytics forecasts the two-day sale will drive $13.1 billion of online spending, an increase of 9.5% over the Prime Summer event last year.
After all, Prime Day is "the biggest shopping event before Black Friday," Bufete said. "So, if you have events that require you to buy presents between now and then, it’s just smart to get that out of the way. Just make sure not to keep them for yourself. … Or do. I won’t tell."
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and personal finance reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at mjlee@usatoday.com and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for personal finance tips and business news every Monday through Friday morning.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amazon Prime Day's next week. How consumers can maximize their budget.
