Amazon Prime Day has snuck up on us again, with just days until the main deals kick off. This year the event will take place on Monday June 21, beginning at 12am AEST.
This year’s event is being held four months earlier than last year’s October one, and it means Prime Day will take place in the final weeks of Australia’s end of financial year sales. But that just means there will be more deals to choose from, since more products are likely to be on sale concurrently across the two sales events.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
It’s a sales event by the e-commerce retailer Amazon. The event has been around since 2015. If you already know about Prime Day and you’re Australian, then you’re in the minority since a recent survey by digital marketing firm Criteo shows only 27% of Australians are familiar with it. Despite this statistic, Prime Day has become one of the biggest sales events in world, especially in the US where it rakes in billions of dollars each year. In fact, it’s only second to Black Friday in terms of revenue.
What do I need to do to access the sales?
If you are relatively new to Amazon Prime Day, there’s one caveat that you should be aware of: To access the best deals on offer on the Amazon website you will need a Prime account. That said, you won’t just find Amazon Prime Day deals on Amazon, since many retailers in Australia are piggybacking off the e-commerce opportunity by launching their own Prime Day promotions. To take advantage of sales from other retailers, you may not require an account.
Dreamstime: Daniel Draghici
Is it worth it?
The inaugural Amazon Prime Day wasn’t as well received as expected, with some shoppers disappointed with the selection of products on sale and others citing lacklustre deals, but since then Amazon has refined its sales pitch, promising more deals and heftier discounts for members on the day sales launch.
Some early bargains appearing online look promising – we’re seeing headphones, smartwatches and TVs with discounts ranging from 5-57% off the retail price, some of which amount to hundreds of dollars off the purchase price. If you compare the cost of an Amazon subscription of $6.99 a month to your prospective savings after shopping Amazon Prime Day, it’s likely you will offset more than a full year’s subscription fee with just one purchase.
It’s worth noting too that when it comes to Amazon Prime Day, Australian shoppers have a bit of an advantage over shoppers from overseas. That’s because they can shop for up to 65 hours instead of just 48 by accessing deals from the US through Amazon’s global store, until the deals end at 5pm, June 23, AEST.
Dreamstime: Daria Nipot
If you’re unsure if a Prime account is for you but you don’t want to miss out on the bargains, Amazon is offering a 30 day free trial to its subscription, so if you’re looking for a way to get amongst the bargains without having to pay a cent, that could be a perfect option.
Here, we’ve compiled a few early bargains to get you going, but bear in mind that these could be a fraction of the deals you’re likely to see on the actual day.
Smartwatches
The Amazon Prime Day sales usually have plenty of discounted smartwatches from leading brands like Huawei, Garmin, Samsung and Fitbit. Getting a smartwatch for a health kick makes a lot of sense right now in the middle of winter, and can be all the impetus you need to get active when the weather makes it extra tough. Selected smartwatch deals include:
- Garmin Swim 2, GPS Swimming Smartwatch, now AU$360, down from AU$399 (Save $39)
- Huawei Watch GT 2, now AU$199, down from AU$399 (Save $200)
- Huawei Watch GT 2e, now AU$179, down from AU$369 (Save $190)
- Samsung Galaxy Watch3, now AU$459, down from AU$699 (Save $240)
- Fitbit Sense Advanced Health Watch, now AU$348, down from AU$449 (Save $101)
- Samsung Galaxy Watch Active2, now AU$288, down from AU$306 (Save $18)
- Samsung Galaxy Watch Active, now AU$249, down from AU$349 (Save $100)
- Ticwatch Pro 2020 Smartwatch, now AU$349, down from $436 (Save $87)
- Garmin Instinct Solar Rugged Outdoor GPS Watch, now AU$480, down from AU$699 (Save $219)
TVs
While there aren’t a great many early deals going on TVs for Amazon Prime Day, it’s a no brainer that come the 21st, we can expect more deals to drop. Look out for price slashing on lesser known brands, especially in the 50-65-inch 4K category which offers some of the best value in TVs this year. Selected deals on TVs include:
- TEAC 65-Inch 4K UHD Smart LED TV, now AU$649, down from AU$999 (Save $350)
- Sony 49-Inch X7000G 4K Smart TV, now AU$888, down from AU$995 (Save $107)
- TEAC 58-Inch 4K UHD Smart TV, now AU$799, down from AU$649 (Save $150) .
- Blaupunkt 42-Inch Full HD Android TV, now AU$329, down from AU$499 (Save $170)
Gaming, computer and peripheral deals
- Nikon Z 6 II Mirrorless + Nikkor Z camera, now $3,394, down from $4,599 (Save $1,205)
- Nikon Z 5 + Nikkor Z camera, now $1,719, down from AU$2,699 (Save $980)
- PlayStation 4 Slim 500GB, now AU$379, down from AU$440 (Save $60)
- DualSense Wireless Controller for PlayStation 5, now AU$87, down from $110 (Save $23)
- ARCHERAX20 TP-LINK Ax1800 Dual Band WiFi 6 Router, now AU$163, down from AU$220 (Save $56)