The only way to maximise your savings during the Prime Day sale is to become a Prime member. Click on the link below to sign up and you'll get a 30-day free trial, plus access to a lot of other Amazon services, including Prime Video, Prime Reading and Prime Gaming (a premium experience on Twitch)
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It's official – Amazon Prime Day 2022 has a confirmed date and it all kicks off at 12am AEST on Tuesday, July 12. That's pretty close to what we had anticipated (we thought it would start on Monday, July 11) and now we have just two weeks to prepare.
Aussies will get a whopping 65 hours to shop, and this includes offers from Amazon US and Amazon UK, so there's going to be a staggering number of deals to check out. Prime Day is when Amazon offers the biggest discounts on thousands of items, and some are likely to be the lowest price.
However, to shop during Prime Day, you'll need to be a Prime member (opens in new tab). A few deals will slip through the paywall cracks but, for the most part, the offers will be exclusive to Prime members. The good news is, if you sign up now, you get a 30-day free trial with Prime Day 2022 falling right in the middle of that. If you cancel before your trial ends, you get all the benefits at no cost.
Best pre-Prime Day deals
When is Amazon Prime Day 2022 in Australia?
Amazon Prime Day is traditionally held in the middle of July each year, and typically starts at midnight on a Monday. This year, that date is July 12, which is actually a Tuesday. The last time – and only time – Prime Day has started on a Tuesday was the 2020 edition due to the knock-on effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kicking off at midnight (Australian East Coast Time) on July 12, the sale will continue on till 5pm AEST on Thursday, July 14.
Note that all domestic (aka Amazon AU or local third party) offers will end at 11:59pm AEST on July 13, with deals from the US and UK continuing on the next day. All told, it's a total 65-hour shopping marathon.
There's still a few weeks to go before Prime Day 2022 kicks off, but in the meantime, Amazon continues to offer some excellent discounts (opens in new tab) each day if you're looking for a quick bargain.
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day began in the US in 2015 as a celebration of the company’s 20th anniversary, with more deals on offer than Black Friday back then. Prime Day then quickly transformed into Amazon’s mid-year sales event where members of Amazon Prime get exclusive discounts on a wide range of items.
While it began as a one-day sale, by 2018 it had expanded to two days, and that meant that in Australia we could shop for 36 hours – i.e. until the sale ended in the US. In 2019, however, it got even bigger and Aussie shoppers were treated to a whopping 65 hours of discounts. 2020 brought 66 hours of the shopping spree only because of daylight savings in October, and it was back to 65 hours in 2021.
Why does Amazon have Prime Day? It's presented as a neat ‘thank you’ to its paying members, but one that involves giving Amazon more money and shifting a lot of stock at the same time.
Prime Day isn’t just about selling Amazon-branded products – many other brands and third-party sellers also save their best deals for Prime Day, completely aware that thousands of extra shoppers will be hitting the online store.
To make the most of Prime Day you’ll need to get yourself an Amazon Prime membership (opens in new tab) which, in Australia, will set you back just AU$6.99 a month or AU$59 a year – half the cost of the US subscription.
While you’re primarily paying for the privilege of free, swift delivery, signing up for Prime means you’ll also have free access to Amazon’s streaming services, including Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading and Twitch.
If you'd like to know more about how a Prime membership can benefit you, head to our dedicated page on Amazon Prime in Australia where we explain it all.
What to expect from Prime Day 2022
We’re not expecting shopping trends during Amazon Prime Day 2022 to change very much. The Nintendo Switch is still going to disappear within minutes of being discounted, and this could happen to the Switch Lite too if you aren’t quick enough. And given the stock issues still plaguing the next-gen game consoles from Sony and Microsoft, we're not sure you'll be able to score a PS5 or an Xbox Series X – although we can hope. You can, however, try your hand at virtual reality, as we're quite sure the Oculus Quest 2 will have a sweetener to tempt and it's been a very popular purchase the last couple of years.
Of course, Amazon’s Echo devices will likely be flying off the shelves like before, and we’ll still see the Paperwhite beating out the other Kindle ereaders in terms of sales despite its now-higher price tag. That's because it's an all-new Kindle Paperwhite sporting a bigger screen, bigger battery and USB-C charging port. You can even expect to pocket some decent savings on Ring’s range of security devices, including the Doorbells and the cameras, or get into smart lighting by snapping up a Philips Hue starter kit – they all get very good discounts on Prime Day. In fact, chances are quite high they'll be available at record low prices as Amazon proved possible on its Echo devices last Prime Day.
Premium headphones have been very popular on Amazon over the last couple of years and 2022 will likely see that continue, particularly for Sony and Bose headphones. With the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 one of the more expensive ANC cans on the market, Prime Day will be a great time to get a set for less, especially if Amazon offers a bigger discount than last year's AU$200 off.
More interestingly, Amazon now has an Apple Store on its shopping site and it's all official. We've seen some excellent offers on AirPods, including the 2021 AirPods, so keep your eye out of those again. There's been discounts on the 2020 MacBooks on Amazon, with up to 10% off, but we're yet to see any significant offers on the 2021 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, although stock issues could be putting a spanner in the works there.
As of early December 2021, Amazon began stocking iPhones as well, so here's hoping Prime Day 2022 sets an interesting precedent for finding significantly discounted iPhones.
If you're keen on updating your home entertainment system, keep an eye out for some truly spectacular soundbars to pair with your TV, or you could even consider setting up a new turntable for less if you're serious about vinyl. And the best part is you can even grab some records at a deep discount on Amazon.
It will also be a good time to get yourself a new fitness wearable, be it from Garmin’s very premium GPS sports watch range or more affordable options from Fitbit – while Garmin watches see up to 55% off during big sales, we're hoping Fitbit will get a similarly large discount in 2022. Likewise, cameras and drones will see a price drop, too, so keep that credit card handy – and it will mostly all be official stock considering the likes of Canon, Nikon and Panasonic have their own stores set up on Amazon Australia.
Home cooks can pick up Instant Pots and air fryers for less too, and we've seen plenty of big-brand robot vacuums getting deep discounts too and we're quite sure that trend will continue into 2022.
What happened during Prime Day last year?
Despite last year's Amazon Prime Day deals occurring barely 8 months after the 2020 edition, Amazon put on quite the show. According to Amazon Australia (opens in new tab), more Prime members shopped during the 2021 sale "than ever before", with small businesses listed on the Aussie site benefitting from the big sale thanks to the 'Shop Local' campaign hosted by the retail giant.
Amazon said that the Echo Dot, Fire TV Stick 4K and the Kindle Paperwhite (10th generation) were its top sellers in Australia, followed closely by the Oculus Quest 2 and Ecovacs' robot vacuums. Philips Hue smart lights and Yamaha sounds systems also were in big demand last year.
Other top tech items, as per Amazon Australia, were Soundpeats true wireless headphones, DualSense controllers for the PS5 and Philips XXL Air Fryer.
Want to know more? Here are a few of the best tech offers we saw during the most recent Prime Day deals event.
Are Prime Day deals competitive?
Amazon has a plethora of offers on its site each day and those are usually some of the best prices you can find on consumer tech. Whether you’re after a Samsung Galaxy S21 or a Nikon Z 7II camera, chances are you’ll get them cheaper on Amazon than any other Aussie retailer. It’s even more the case with Prime Day deals.
Leading the raft of deals during Prime Day 2022 will be Amazon’s own products, including all the Echo and Kindle products, not to mention Ring security devices. Amazon is also one of the most convenient places to score a discount on the Oculus VR headsets and, now, lay your hands on official stock of Samsung devices, Xiaomi phones, Instant Pots, Nikon and Canon photography gear, and Apple products, whether iPhones, MacBooks, Apple Watches or iPads.
You can easily score about 35% off on Amazon’s own devices during Prime Day which, for the rest of the year probably don’t drop more than 28% or thereabouts. If you’ve managed to score a AU$500 discount on Samsung or Huawei devices during one of Amazon’s regular deals, then it’s highly likely that the discount will be much deeper come Prime Day. It’s the perfect time to snag a Nintendo Switch or find the lowest prices on the best premium headphones – cheaper than any other retailer who will likely be scrambling to price-match.
How to shop on Prime Day in 2022
1. Check out our deals predictions and, eventually our Prime Day deals list
There are too many deals available on Prime Day. It's never a problem finding discounts, it's always an issue of figuring out what deals are worth your money. That's why we always set up a curated list during the sales marathon.
We spent some good time last Black Friday thinking about smart ways to shop on Amazon – they're still some great Prime Day tips and tricks.
2. Amazon Prime Day has historically required being a Prime member, so be sure to have a subscription on Prime Day
Amazon started Prime Day as a clever way to drive up its Prime subscription count, and this online shopping marathon – conveniently opposite Black Friday – accomplished just that.
You'll need to sign up for Prime (you can get a free 30-day trial) (opens in new tab), which comes with free shipping and Prime Video access, among other smaller perks.
3. Create a wish list to curate what you want, as there will be loads of deals
You're also going to want to create a wish list ahead of time, which will let you sort out what you want and how much everything costs. This will give you a head start. You'll be able to see which deals dropped in price and which did not.
4. Snap up the best Prime Day 2022 deals before they're gone
We often find the best deals to go in a matter of minutes, at which time Amazon rolls out a waitlist for those who were just behind the curve.
