The 5 Questions To Ask Before Buying Any Amazon Prime Day Deal
- Prime Day begins next week, offering low prices for all Prime members
- Consumer Expert Tom Church shares his tips for getting the most out of the event
- Tricks include enabling deal notifications and cross-referencing pricing
Prime Day is nearly upon us, with the event taking place on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 July. It’s a great time to browse for items you’ve had your eye on for a while, but perhaps didn’t want to splash out on.
Tom Church, Co-Founder of money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk, said: ‘Navigating any sales event can be tough if you’re distracted by a deal, only to discover it wasn’t that great of a discount after all. To reduce the impact of consumers buying items they regret, I’m sharing the 5 questions I ask myself before buying any Prime Day deal.’
1) Have I Enabled Early Access Deal Notifications?
Some of the best deals to be found during events like Prime Day are in the electronics and technology sector. Bargain Hunter Shaun Fielding said: ‘It’s usually Amazon products that have the biggest cut, so depends if you’re looking for an upgrade or a Kindle for your holidays.’ Tom added: ‘You can find the best tech deals during Prime Day by making use of the Early Access filter. Navigate to the Today’s Deals section, then click on the Computers & Software, TVs, Movies & Home Cinema and Mobile Phones & Accessories sections in turn. When you’re on each of these sections, go to the left menu, click on Upcoming, then tick the box for Prime Early Access deals. Press CTRL + F if you have a specific item you’re looking for, and quickly find products that appeal. Click on Watch This Deal, and you’ll get a push notification on your phone when the deal arrives. There will be a limited time to grab it - and this way, you’ll be the first to know.
‘Another way to unlock notifications for the best pricing deals on Amazon is to use CamelCamelCamel. This free Amazon price tracker keeps an eye on millions of products and will notify you when prices have dropped. You will get email alerts when good deals are available, so you don’t have to keep manually checking back for a new price. The Camelizer is the browser extension, and it’s very useful when you’re shopping online. Speaking of extensions, if you also add Honey you will be able to pick up any discount codes which are available, helping you to save even more.’
2) Have I Cross-Referenced Pricing To Ensure The Deal Is Genuine?
Bargain Hunter Emily Short advises: Look at items you're interested in and check the old prices. Some may have steadily increased in price so the "saving" may not be realistic - don't be afraid to shop around for some items. Bargain Hunter Michelle Bentley adds: “I have a list of what I want to buy. I check the price one week before the sale and again 2 days before the sale so I know if I'm getting a good deal or not. I do only look for what I need; nothing else.”
Tom added: ‘There are a number of tools available to check if the price of a product is at its lowest during Prime Day, and once you’re in the habit of using them it will only take a few minutes to do your research. Then you’ll never be at risk of wasting money without realising it. I use PriceSpy to search for the best price for a product I’m searching for - and when I’ve clicked on a deal, I scroll down to see the price history graph, which is the best feature of the site in my opinion. A similar tool is the Discount Finder Tool which helps you to find the biggest discount on the products you want to buy. I’ve found more than 80% off before! Just choose the department your product is in, pick a discount percentage and the price you’d prefer to pay, then let the tool do the rest of the work for you.
3) Have I Checked For Vouchers?
Tom said: 'Did you know Amazon has a section dedicated to voucher deals? These are constantly in rotation and they help you to make additional savings. A trick I like to use is sorting the results by discount percentage. I always find good deals here - for example, I just did it and I can save 80% on a necklace, so I’m paying just £6.60 instead of £32.99. That’s a saving of over £25! I also added a sweater that had a 75% off voucher applied. The original pricing would have been £62.98, but I saved £48.88 and paid just £14.10!
'Just be sure to thoroughly read the delivery details on the checkout page. I thought a digital thermometer voucher was a good deal, as it was reduced to just 40p - however, it wasn’t eligible for Prime, which meant I would have had to pay £6.99 for delivery.
‘If you also add specific section filters, such as looking through technology only, you can make some epic savings. When I browsed tech vouchers, I found that many products were 50% off. These deals aren’t obvious - you have to be browsing deals to find them.’
4) Am I Using All Of My Prime Benefits?
Tom said: ‘Prime Day isn’t just about browsing through deals until you find items you like. If you click on the Prime Day banner on your Amazon homepage, you’ll be able to click through to your personalised promo codes ahead of the big day. You may not have known that some of these offers were available - for example, when you create a Baby Wishlist, you can claim a free welcome gift, and Prime members can try Audible free for 3 months. The official Audible site only gives newcomers a 30 day trial, so you’re getting triple the amount with this deal! Plus, now is a great time to sign up for Amazon Music, as instead of one month free, you’ll get four months free. That’s a third of a year!’
5) Have I Checked The Amazon Warehouse And Outlet?
Tom said: ‘It’s all well and good to check the main website for deals, but did you know there’s also Amazon Warehouse and Amazon Outlet? The Warehouse was designed for those who are happy to pay less for products that have previously been returned as they were unwanted purchases, the customer changed their mind or so on. The product will be in full working order after tests are carried out and even though it may have been used and the box could be damaged, you will benefit from an essentially new product at a fraction of the price.
‘Similarly, the Amazon Outlet is the home for overstock which will be sold at lower prices in a bid to get rid of it. People don’t always know about this section, as it’s hidden within the site, but once you’re in the habit of regularly checking it you’ll wonder why you ever paid full price for anything!’
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