How to Find the Best Amazon Deals for Prime Day and the Fourth of July [CNET]

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Here’s a rundown of top tips for making the most of Amazon’s big July sales events.

Adam Oram is a Senior Editor at CNET. He studied Media at Newcastle University and has been writing about technology since 2013. He previously worked as a Senior Writer at iMore, Deals Editor at Thrifter, and as an Apple Genius. His spare time is spent watching football (both kinds), playing Pokémon games, and eating vegan food.

Amazon’s Fourth of July sale is days away — and Prime Day deals follow shortly after, on July 16 and 17. These sales are your chance to kick-start your summer shopping, and if previous sales are anything to go by, both are going to be an absolute whirlwind of price drops and promotions, on everything from tech and gaming to household goods, fashion and fitness. 

Though we can’t tell you exactly what’s going to be on sale just yet or what the discounts will be, we can offer up some advice on how to ensure you find the best deals during these limited-time events. These Amazon sales events aren’t our first rodeo, and we’ve come up with several tips and tricks over the years to help make these sales a success for our readers. 

For more, here are our essential Amazon shopping tips.

Grab an Amazon Prime free trial

First things first, you’re going to want to make sure that you actually have an active Amazon Prime subscription. Without one, you’re not going to be able to access all of the Prime-exclusive sales that will run during the sales events in July, so it should be an essential part of your Amazon shopping prep. 

Thankfully, you don’t have to be a paid Amazon Prime member and can in fact be on the Prime free trial, as long as your 30-day period overlaps with the event days which, if you start your trial today, will be the case. 

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Prime Day and Fourth of July sales require an Amazon Prime membership, though you don’t have to be a paying member to get in on the savings. Start your 30-day Prime free trial now and you’ll be able to shop the best deals without paying for a subscription — just remember to cancel before it renews.

Start your shopping early

Though the official Amazon July sale events start Fourth of July week and continue on July 16 and 17, in reality, you’ll start seeing savings roll in much earlier — as is often the case with these shopping events. Plenty of deals can be found right now and the volume will only increase in the coming days. 

Know your targets

It’s easy to become overwhelmed with all of the deals during sales like Prime Day, so it’s wise to decide what products you want to try and grab on sale beforehand. Amazon makes it super easy to add products to your Wish List or Save for Later section, which will make it much easier to try and check things off your shopping list once the sale kicks off. 

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 truly live in the future. 

Be open-minded to alternative picks

Sometimes the price of the product you really want just doesn’t budge. Instead of staring at its Amazon listing and missing out on other great deals, maybe have a backup pick or two in mind in case this situation arises. That way you can still ensure you’re saving money on a product that will fit the bill, even if it might not have been your go-to choice. 

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

Don’t be limited to Amazon

This sounds counterintuitive, but some of the best Prime Day deals don’t actually crop up on Amazon. In recent years, competing retailers such as Walmart and Target have launched their own sales to coincide with Amazon’s big jamboree and try and steal away some buyers that are already primed to open their wallets. These July sales are no different, with sales already announced at Best Buy, Walmart and Target.

Competition is good news for consumers, especially if you’ve been holding out on making some big purchases until the fall sale season.

Keep checking back

Amazon deals are ever-changing, especially during events like Prime Day, so you’re going to want to peep the sale periodically throughout the event to ensure you’re giving yourself the best chance of scoring the best deals. 

Like previous events, we expect that we’ll see the first tranche of Prime Day deals go live at midnight PT (3 a.m. ET) when the event officially kicks off on July 16, with a second batch dropping at the same time on Day 2 of the event. That said, super-limited-time lightning deals will be popping up and expiring throughout the two-day span, and Amazon will also be trying its best to match any stellar sales offered at other retailers. There are a lot of moving parts, and prices rarely stand still for too long during the event hours. 

Let us do the work for you

The CNET Deals team will be hard at work throughout July surfacing the very best deals for our readers, so follow along with our coverage if you want to separate the signal from the noise during Amazon’s Fourth of July and Prime Day sales. 

For a great overview of the best price cuts, check out our picks for Fourth of July deals and our favorite Prime Day bargains.

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