Amazon Prime Day 2023 starts July 11 — here's what to expect

The wait is over: Amazon Prime Day is just a week away. The Prime member-exclusive sale is happening from July 11 to 12, and it's historically one of the biggest saving events of the year.

SKIP AHEAD When is Prime Day? | What is Prime Day? | How much is Amazon Prime in 2023? | What other retailers have Prime Day sales? | How many times a year does Amazon host Prime Day? | Prime Day 2022 bestsellers

Since Prime Day is coming up, it's time to start making your wish list and preparing for two days of deal hunting. To help you get ready, we gathered all the information we know so far, including how to shop early deals, what to buy and what other retailers are hosting mega-sales around the same time.

Prime Day 2023 will take place on July 11 and July 12. But you don’t have to wait until then to start browsing discounts — Amazon is already rolling out early Prime Day deals. To stay up-to-date about the most recent sales, we recommend downloading the Amazon app and enabling notifications.

Prime Day is a 48-hour sale hosted by Amazon during which the retailer offers deals exclusively available to Prime members. Shoppers can find discounts on tech, kitchen gadgets, pet supplies, travel accessories, beauty and skincare, home basics like laundry detergent and dish soap and more.

The benefits of Prime Day extend beyond discounted products — in fact, Amazon often offers a variety of promotions and incentives leading up to and during the event. For example, Amazon is currently offering a $200 gift card to those approved for a Prime Visa credit card.

An Amazon Prime membership costs $15 a month, or you can pay $139 annually. The retailer also offers a Prime Student membership for $69 a year, and a discounted Prime membership that’s about half the price of a standard membership for those who qualify for certain types of government assistance programs, like EBT and Medicaid. The discounted option is $7 a month and you have to verify your qualification every 12 months.

Prime Day is exclusive to Prime members, so if you’re considering signing up, now is a great time. In fact, when you sign up for a Prime membership, you get 30 days free and Amazon is offering a $10 credit to select shoppers who sign up for a Prime membership before Prime Day.

Since we know the dates of Prime Day 2023, other retailers are likely to follow suit and release information about their own Prime Day-adjacent sales. Walmart, for example, is hosting Walmart Plus Week from July 10 to July 13 — only Walmart Plus members will have access to the sale on July 10, and then it will open to all customers on July 11. Target Circle Week is also happening from July 9 to July 15, and it's only open to Target Circle members. Shoppers can also expect to see sitewide discounts at retailers like Overstock, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Best Buy and Kohl’s around the time of Prime Day.

Amazon Prime Day occurs once a year. But in October 2022, Amazon hosted its first-ever Prime Early Access Sale, a Prime Day-level event that gave Prime members another chance to shop deep discounts. Amazon has yet to announce whether it’s having another Prime Early Access Sale in 2023, so as of now, July’s Prime Day is the only opportunity for members to score deals of that caliber.

Amazon has numerous smaller sales throughout the year, however. In May, it hosted Amazon Pet Day and a few weeks later, Gaming Week offered savings on gaming consoles, headsets, monitors and more. These smaller sales are usually category-specific, which is why Prime Day is so unique — products across all categories are discounted, so you can save money on almost any item you have your eye on.

Every year, Amazon announces bestselling Prime Day products worldwide as well as in select countries. Popular product categories in the U.S. during the July 2022 event included consumer electronics, household essentials and home products, according to Amazon.

To give you an idea of what types of items are highly sought after during Prime Day, we listed products from a few brands that were among the U.S. bestsellers during July 2022, according to Amazon’s data. In 2022, we also compiled Select reader-favorite Prime Day items, as well as staff favorites.

Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen)

Amazon devices like this Echo Dot speaker are some of the most deeply discounted products on Prime Day every year. The Echo Dot is equipped with Alexa, so you can use voice commands to play music, check the weather, set alarms or timers and more. The device is also compatible with other smart home devices like lights, locks and thermostats, allowing you to control them with voice commands, too.

Crest 3D Teeth Whitestrips

In addition to being a Prime Day bestseller across the U.S., Crest’s teeth whitening strips were popular among Select readers last year. You get 22 sets of strips in a box, and they’re formulated with hydrogen peroxide, an ingredient that’s commonly used in whitening treatments to penetrate tooth enamel and break down discoloration, according to the American Dental Association.

Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask

Another Select reader favorite, this lip mask is made with coconut oil, shea butter and murumuru seed butter to moisturize lips, as well as antioxidants like vitamin C and a berry fruit complex to nourish and condition lips, according to the brand. Each container is packaged with a tiny applicator and you can purchase the lip sleeping mask in flavors like berry, gummy bear and vanilla.

Shark Navigator NV360 Lift-Away Deluxe Upright Vacuum

Shark makes some of our favorite vacuums, and if you’re in the market for a new one, you’re likely to find many of the brand’s models on sale during Prime Day. The Shark Navigator is a corded vacuum that’s built with a HEPA-filter to trap, dust, dirt, pet dander and other debris around your home. The vacuum comes with a detachable, portable canister, and you can detach its nozzle to reach narrow or high spaces. It also includes an upholstery tool to clean furniture and a crevice tool to get those hard-to-reach areas.

Beats Fit Pro

Beats by Dre headphones and earbuds were on many shoppers' Prime Day wish lists last summer. Select reporter Harry Rabinowitz calls the Beats Fit Pro his go-to workout earbuds and has used them for years. You can choose from three listening modes — active noise canceling, transparency mode and adaptive EQ — and customize the earbuds’ fit with ear tips that come in three sizes. The headphones are also designed with small, built-in wing-tips that create a secure fit, according to the brand. The Beats Fit Pro earbuds come with a charging case and they’re sweat- and water-resistant.

Zoe Malin is an associate updates editor at Select who has reported about Amazon since 2020. She wrote Select's history of Amazon Prime Day, as well as a variety of Amazon Prime Day sales articles. For this piece, Malin researched Amazon Prime Day and referenced Select's other Amazon coverage.

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