Enough with the Amazon Prime Day 2020 date delays and speculation. The official details have been announced by Amazon and its Prime Day deals marathon will finally happen next month.
Prime Day 2020 deals begin on Tuesday, October 13 and extend into Wednesday, October 14, lasting a full 48 hours, according to the company. Like in past years, the sales will be exclusive to Prime customers, so you'll need a membership, or at least the 30-day Amazon Prime free trial.
Amazon has also told TechRadar that “throughout Prime Day, members can shop with confidence that they’re getting low prices that won’t be beaten this year” - which means when it comes to the retailers own-brand devices, you won't be seeing them plummet to a lower price during the Black Friday shopping period.
This Amazon Prime Day date has been a long time coming. Amazon's mid-year deals usually happen in July, a way to tide us over until Black Friday and Cyber Monday every year.
Now, because of Covid-19 delays, all three of these shopping events will butt heads. That seems like a good thing for consumers eager to see price drops on AirPods, cheap laptops and 4K TVs.
Spend early to help small business
One of the key differences this year in the build up to Prime Day is a new initiative from Amazon to encourage buyers to spend with small businesses - and can see you get bigger discounts on Prime Day deals.
If you spend $10 / £10 at selected businesses, Amazon will credit you back that amount to use on Prime Day itself as way of supporting these smaller outlets.
It's not all small business, and you'll need to head to Amazon's dedicated supporting small business page to find the qualifying products (it's not easy to tell which are part of the scheme just browsing the site, as you'll need to spot the little 'support small businesses like this one' banner at the top of the product listing) but if you're in the market for things like pet supplies or electronics accessories already, this is an easy way to get a $10 / £10 voucher come Prime Day.
Prime Day deals predicted
Amazon Prime Day 2020 will be very different from past Prime Days for a couple of reasons: the dates have shifted, new in-demand video game consoles are launching (namely PS5 and Xbox Series X), and people haven't been to stores in large numbers in months.
Prime Day deals could help relieve in that pent up demand for online shopping with big discounts and, in turn for Amazon, lure more members into the Prime subscription service.
No coincidence on the timing, Amazon also just launched a new lineup of Amazon Echo and Ring products. The new Amazon Echo (2020) range is spherical, more powerful and (apparently, as we've not been able to try it in these Covid-facing times) will sound more impressive too.
The Kids Echo range features animal prints on top to make them more friendly to speak to, and the new Ring Dash Cam is set to be a big push this year.
Our prediction is that the new Fire TV Stick, and especially the new Fire TV Stick Lite, are going to be huge Amazon Prime Day deals this year.
Having just been launched, it would be odd if they get discounted already (although we can't see a Prime Day where a Fire TV stick isn't on sale for lower-than-RRP, so maybe it will) but as part of a bundle with other devices, we reckon this is going to be a big hitter.
What else is happening?
In the US, Amazon is facing new competition from its biggest rival: Walmart has just launched something called Walmart Plus, which is aimed at competing with Prime, at least when it comes to speedy shipping and everyday item discounts.
We'd expect some other retailers and brands to be launching competing sales at the same time to gain some of the spending frenzy that usually accompanies Prime Day (remember, last year Amazon made more money in July on its own sale than it did throughout Black Friday, which shows the importance to this brand), and we'll be keeping you up to date with what the competitors are doing.
Oh, and let's not forget the strong rumors right now that the iPhone is set to launch on the same day - if you're an Apple fan and still want to pick up a cheap Echo, Ring Video Doorbell Pro or improve your home Wi-Fi network, make sure that you get your deals delving done early.
Prime Day gives Amazon a way to launch deals earlier than its competitors, as October isn't quite fitting for even the earliest Black Friday deals. In other words, it's going to be one long deals season over at Amazon, starting on October 13.
