Prepping for Amazon Prime Day: Everything You Need to Know

Back for its fourth year, Amazon Prime Day is bigger and better this year, lasting for 36 hours for the first time and offering more 1 million deals worldwide. That’s a lot of shopping, people. But with all these discounts coming at us on the day of, it can be overwhelming to navigate what really is a smokin’ deal…and what’s just, ya know, standard. Here’s how we can all get prepared for 3 p.m. ET on July 16!

First Things First

Not a Prime member? Never was there a better time to become one! Sign up for Amazon’s 30-day free trial here. With it you get free two-day shipping on millions of items, free music streaming and access to Prime movies and TV shows on-demand. (Mozart in the Jungle! The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel! The Man in the High Castle! Sneaky Pete! You need Prime!)

What’s Happening Now

The biggest and best deal Amazon is offering currently – figurative bait to get us excited for the big kahuna on Monday – is $100 of its device Echo Show. We’ve talked about the Show before, it’s Amazon’s most visual voice-activated device and in my humble opinion, it’s a must-have for your kitchen counter. Can you say: “Alexa, how many more hours til Prime Day?”  

If you’re a Whole Foods shopper, listen up: The brand just announced that in honor of its first Prime Day, it’s offering a deal to Prime members – spend $10 at Whole Foods Market between July 11 and 17 and receive a $10 Amazon account credit to use on Prime Day, by scanning the Prime Code in their Whole Foods Market or Amazon app when they check out. 

When Amazon first debuted, did we ever think it would be managing everything from our pantries to our movie collection? Nope. Nevertheless, the media giant’s reach is all-encompassing … and making our lives easier every day. To celebrate Prime Day, discounts are now being offered on the following services:

Amazon Music Unlimited—Want access to tens of millions of songs? Prime members can sign up for four-months for just $0.99.

Kindle Unlimited—Similar to music but proffering up books instead, Kindle Unlimited is a no-brainer for the books worms out there, and it’s available to Prime member for $0.99 for the first three months.

On Prime Day, your best bet is to either refresh your browser every few minutes for the latest deals, or to shop via the Amazon app. (From now until Monday at 3 p.m. ET, click on the Prime Day banner in the app to get a sneak peak of products with early deals (more on that below!).

In the market for an Amazon device? Unless it’s an Echo Show, wait to purchase one on Monday, as the brand is teasing major price slashes on everything from Alexa-enabled products to Fire tablets and home security gadgets. You can also expect major deals on TVs, laptops, headphones, smart home gadgets and outdoors equipment like paddle boards, kayaks and more.

Amazon has rolled out a few products today with teaser discounts, here’s what’s worth grabbing right now.