Amazon Prime Day 2020 Dates, Best Deals and Everything Else You Need to Know

Mid-October is usually the calm before the Black Friday storm. It’s when the very first ad scans are released and the season starts to take shape. In 2020, however, Amazon is starting the season off with a bang, dropping Prime Day right in the middle of October.

Prime Day details

Prime Day will run from Oct. 13 at 12 a.m. PDT to 11:59 p.m. PDT on Oct. 14. That makes it 48 hours long, just like last year. This is the first time in several years that Amazon hasn’t taken the opportunity to lengthen Prime Day by 12 hours.

You must be a Prime member to shop Prime Day deals. You can sign up here. You can shop online, via Amazon’s app or even via Alexa. In fact, new Prime members with an Alexa-enabled device can say, “Alexa, sign me up for Prime” and get a $5 Amazon credit.

Best Prime Day deals

Amazon will continue to announce its Prime Day deals up until the very end of Prime Day. Here are all the deals we know about so far. We’ll be keeping this list updated.

Early Prime Day deals

Ready to shop? Amazon has sent several deals live early. Many of these early deals spotlight Amazon’s brands, which specialize in everyday and at-home essentials. Top deals that are LIVE NOW include:

• 40% off the entire Wag brand of pet supplies  Sept. 27 to Oct. 14.
• 20% off groceries, snacks, coffee, vitamins, supplements and beauty products from Amazon’s in-house brands Sept. 27 to Oct. 14.
•  20% off Mama Bear-brand diapers Sept. 27 to Oct. 14.
• Two Echo Dots (previous third-generation version) for $39.98 (full price is $49.99 each).
• $100 off the Fire TV Recast and up to $100 off select Fire TV smart TVs.
• Various early clothing deals. Savings include up to 40% off select Amazon in-house clothing brands, and various discounts on Vineyard Vines, Calvin Klein and more. See all the early fashion deals here.

Cash-back promos

Amazon is known for encouraging shoppers to make purchases before Prime Day by giving them shopping credits to use on Prime Day. This year’s promos include:

• Small business promo (NEW for 2020): Shop at a small domestic business featured on this page between Sept. 28 and Oct. 12, spend $10, and get $10 to spend during Prime Day. You must be a Prime member before you make the initial purchase.
• Whole Foods promo: Amazon owns Whole Foods and, as such, is giving shoppers this bonus: Spend $10 at Whole Foods by Oct. 12, and get $10 off on Prime Day. We also saw this promo last year.

Amazon Fresh deals

• Amazon Fresh delivers your groceries the same day. Curious to try it out? First-time Fresh users will get $15 off grocery orders over $50 during Prime Day.

Amazon music and entertainment deals

One of the biggest benefits of Prime is access to entertainment. This year, Prime members can get the following deals:

• Amazon Music Unlimited for 99 cents per month for four months. This service (which gives access to 60 million songs ad free), usually costs $7.99 for Prime members and $9.99 for non Prime members.
  
•  Kindle Unlimited subscribers can get 50% off a six-month membership.

Prime Day vs. Black Friday

Prime members may wonder if it’s more strategic to shop on Prime Day or wait for Black Friday deals. If you’re looking for Amazon devices (Kindles, Ring products or Echo devices), Prime Day is the best bet. Amazon is known for dramatic discounts on these items during Prime Day. Prime Day is also a good time to shop for small electronics, small kitchen appliances and clothing.

If you’re in the market for TVs, laptops or gaming consoles, however, these big-ticket items are better left to Black Friday, when Walmart, Target, Best Buy and other giants will offer a lot more variety at various price points.

However, 2020 is a strange year in the retail world. It’s entirely likely that retailers will offer deals to compete with Amazon Prime Day during Prime Day. Amazon will also have Black Friday deals of its own. And, if past years are any indication, it will offer similar pricing as it did on Prime Day. 

So, what’s more likely is that consumers will need to be on their toes, watching for deals all season, the moment Prime Day kicks off.