Amazon Prime Day took place over June 21 and 22 this year, but now that the sale has come to an end many are wondering if the retailer is going to double down on its efforts in 2021. Last year Amazon Prime Day deals were pushed back to October 13, after the global pandemic saw increased pressures on the online giant's shipping system in the summer. The move sparked the beginning of three months of sale frenzies, running all the way from the early autumn right up to Black Friday and onto Christmas.
Adobe Analytics tracked $10.4 billion in sales over last year's October event, and $11 billion during the Prime Day 2021. That means an October event remains an incredibly lucrative prospect for the retailer, and now that it knows interest is sustainable throughout the year we may be entering a new era of the double Prime Day.
Amazon may wish to bring its October event back for 2021, then, and considering the wild success of the June event Prime members may want to keep hold of their subscription for a few months more. We're tracking all the latest October Prime Day rumors right here, as well as showing you exactly what happened during the summer event and looking ahead to Amazon Prime Day 2022.
Will there be another Prime Day in October 2021?
Last year's October date certainly didn't hinder Amazon Prime Day's growing momentum. In fact, the retailer had a record breaking year (before June 2021) despite the logistical move later in the year. Now that Amazon knows it can garner such attention during the autumn months, then, it may be looking to replicate that success and double down on its Prime Day earnings in 2021.
If that happens, we would expect another event to take place during the middle of October, at a similar date to last year's October 13 sale. For now, though, Amazon has not commented on whether another Prime Day is in the works, so we're keeping a close eye and bringing all the latest rumors right here.
Amazon Prime Day 2022: what to expect
Amazon Prime Day 2022 isn't marked on the calendar yet, we're still holding out hope for another crack at the sales in October 2021, but considering the attention the sales event has gathered over the past few years there's plenty to look forward to next year as well.
Of course, we expect to see more discounts on Amazon Echo, Fire and Kindle devices, with the fourth generation Echo speakers potentially dropping down to the price position we tend to see the third generation at today (under £20). However, Blink, Ring, and Eufy products are also likely to drop their prices once more come Prime Day 2022 as well.
We saw Amazon gathering more momentum with its range of laptop deals this year, and as the increased demand from the global pandemic further eases heading into 2022 we may see even more discounts in this category popping up. Typically Amazon offers gaming laptops, high performance ultrabooks, and a handful of cheap Chromebooks, but hopefully we'll see more mid-range devices at between £300 and £500 on the shelves by summer 2022.
With new M1 Macbooks on the way and considering the M1 iPad Pros will have had plenty of time to mature on the shelves (and perhaps a new generation already out in the wild) by next year, we're also expecting to see even better prices on Apple devices over Prime Day 2022.
However, timing is critical here - and largely dependent on Apple's own release schedule. If new models come too early or too late in the year we may also be caught between launches. These products do see big discounts when a new model lands, but they tend to fly off the shelves and stay off them. Amazon wasn't selling any 2020 iPad Pros or older 2020 MacBooks over Prime Day this year, so if we're too far away from a new generation stock may impede these discounts.
In general, though, Amazon Prime Day is getting bigger with every passing year, with more variety on the shelves and deeper price cuts. That means next year's sale event looks promising already.
What happened on Amazon Prime Day 2021?
Amazon Prime Day deals were available on a range of products in 2021, from laptops and 4K TVs to headphones and the Nintendo Switch, as well as home appliances including robot vacuums. While some categories were performing better than others, Amazon's range of Echo devices were the clear winners here. The retailer dropped the fourth generation Echo and Echo Dots to brand new record low prices over the summer, with some excellent savings on the Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 8 to boot.
Fire tablets and Kindles also saw their own record breaking discount, with particular attention paid to the Fire HD 8 and Kindle Paperwhite. However, the cheapest Fire 7 was noticeably absent from the proceedings, not dropping a single penny over the event.
Amazon Prime Day surprised us with a few high quality laptop deals this year as well, impressive considering previous efforts in this category have fallen flat over the year. That said, 4K TVs took a hit with very few discounts on LG and Samsung's 2021 models and returning sales on older 2020 devices. If you were after a 4K TV on Amazon Prime Day this year, options were somewhat limited to the retailer's own Fire-enabled displays.
You'll find all the best Amazon Prime Day deals we saw this year just below.
The best Amazon Prime Day deals in 2021
Amazon Prime Day FAQs
What is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day is an annual two-day deals extravaganza held exclusively for Prime members (although you can take part with a free 30-day trial of Prime). You'll find daily deals on everything from TVs and laptops to kitchen appliances, home and office items, fashion, and more.
When is Amazon Prime Day?
Amazon Prime Day typically takes place during the summer months, with 2021's date landing a little earlier than usual on June 21. Last year's sales event was delayed due to the global pandemic, a move which saw Prime Day kicking off in October and essentially sparking a whole season of discounts leading up to the holidays.
How do you find the best Prime Day deals?
1. Grab an Amazon Prime free trial
If you're not a Prime member yet you're not out of the running for this year's Prime Day deals. Closer to the event Amazon will likely be offering free trials of its Prime service, which means you'll be able to take part in the savings event and enjoy some extra time with Prime Video as well.
2. Know what you want to buy - but stay flexible
Having a good understanding of exactly what you want to get out of Amazon Prime Day will be key to winning. That way you'll be able to quickly recognise how good that discount really is, but stay flexible enough to know whether you should opt for another model.
For example, if you need a new 4K TV take a look at what features each brand offers, perhaps take a look at a few in person (Currys is great for displaying side by side comparisons in-store), and find a few options you would be happy to pick up. Get to know their prices and how cheap they can be so that you can identify a good deal quickly on the day.
However, it's also worth identifying the features that you could sacrifice in order to boost the specs that you really care about - you don't want to miss out on the best Prime Day deals just because the specific model you had in mind isn't taking part.
3. Keep some of that flexibility in your budget
Obviously it's never a good idea to get caught up in the heat of the moment and spend crazy money for the sake of a good deal. However, a little room above your maximum spend will be helpful in securing the best value deals available.
Sometimes the best Prime Day deals aren't on the cheapest items available, but on the next level up that offers so much more without boosting the price too much. For example, if you're looking for a laptop you might be tempted by a super low price on a 32GB Chromebook. However, if the 64GB model is just £20 or £30 more expensive it's a far better investment.
4. Get in there early - but stick around for the full event
When the day itself comes, we'd recommend heading to Amazon as early as possible. This will give you first eyes on the biggest discounts Amazon is offering on the first day, and because many of the hottest Prime Day deals tend to run out of stock particularly quickly you may need to move fast.
However, just because you've managed to secure an incredible discount straight away shouldn't mean your work is done. Amazon releases plenty more high profile savings throughout the course of the two-day event, so it's worth checking back in throughout as well.
5. You're not limited to Amazon - price check and price match
Amazon Prime Day isn't strictly limited to Amazon. We see more and more retailers offering competing discounts these days, and that extra competition often drives prices even further down. It's worth checking other shops aren't beating your Prime Day deals, but even if they aren't, some like Currys will be offering price matching guarantees and you may snag additional extras as well.
How do I prepare for Amazon Prime Day deals?
Amazon Prime Day deals move pretty quickly, which is why research into the products you're looking for, the features and specs you're after, and the price you should be expecting to see can pay off massively once you're in the thick of the sales. Whether you need to find another choice because your chosen TV or laptop isn't discounted, or if you spot another price that may offer up a better deal, the homework you do now will help you navigate Amazon's loft aisles on the big day.
First up, you'll need to work out exactly what you need and what you want from Amazon's Prime Day deals. Whether you're after a new TV, laptop, or set of headphones, for example, take some time to mark out which features and specs you need to be picking up, and which ones are more luxury nice-to-haves. This will help you find a second or third choice, widening your net for the best offers on the day.
From there, make sure you price up your options. That means picking apart the lowest price these models have ever dropped to, as well as where they fell over Amazon Prime Day last year. You can use a tool called CamelCamelCamel as a starting point for this information.
Once you have a good idea of what could be on offer, and what the best Prime Day deals look like for you, we'd recommend keeping a close eye on your chosen products in the run up to the big event. Discounts happen all the time, and you might be able to walk away with your perfect deal before the competition starts to surge.
Amazon Prime Day vs Black Friday: should you wait?
Both Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday are well known for offering some of the best deals of the year, and while last year's offers were a little closer together due to Prime Day's delayed date, it's worth considering whether you should be waiting for November's sales in 2021. In general, we see the same devices discounted during both Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day deals. However, there are some key differences in how each sale period operates that can change how easy deals are to find and whether you'll be able to get your hands on them before they sell out.
Prime Day deals are, obviously, limited to Amazon, which means most of the discounts are limited to one retailer and others looking to compete with them. Deals are therefore easier to find and price checking is a lot faster, which means you're less likely to lose out on top items that are selling particularly quickly.
Black Friday, however, is set across a massive range of retailers with far more variety on offer and a bigger pool of competing shoppers. That does mean we see prices fall a little further as retailers are all competing with each other, rather than just Amazon, but with flash sales offering the lowest of these prices and plenty more eyes on the shops you may not be able to get the deal you're hoping for.
While you may be able to save an extra few pounds in November, then, you're far more likely to get the best offer for you in Amazon Prime Day deals. If you need your tech now, then, you can rest assured that even if prices do drop lower on Black Friday, you've got a much better chance of actually securing those discounts in the summer.
What happened on Prime Day last year?
Last year's Amazon Prime Day deals event was pushed back to October 13-14. That meant Prime Day kick-started the holiday shopping season, causing many of the retailer's rivals to launch their sales even earlier than usual in an effort to win back consumer spending from Amazon.
Despite some concerns around stock and shipping during the pandemic, the event surpassed the previous year's, selling an extra $3.24bn-worth of products. Much of this increase is likely due to how close Prime Day was to the holiday season, but the pandemic also changed shopping behaviour, with more people shopping online in 2020 than ever before.
According to Amazon - and our data mirrors the findings - the best-selling products globally were Amazon’s own devices: the Alexa-enabled Echo Dot and Fire Stick 4K. Other top sellers included the iRobot Roomba Robot Vacuum, LifeStraw Personal Water Filter, LEGO Star Wars Stormtrooper Helmet, Bose QuietComfort 35 II wireless headphones and Fitbit Versa 2 smartwatch. Robot vacuums, in particular, were hot products on our pages.
