Bargain hunters know Amazon Prime Day, when online shopping behemoth Amazon.com rolls out a bevy of deals on all manner of merchandise, is typically in July, but there was nothing typical about 2020. And to that point, Amazon Prime Day was not in July last year. It was in October. So when is Amazon Prime Day in 2021?
Amazon.com isn’t saying yet, but multiple, unnamed sources — suppliers and the like — told Vox’s recode Amazon is circling mid-June for Amazon Prime Day 2021. Third-party suppliers are often told well in advance when Amazon will launch Prime Day so they can have orders ready.
If that’s true, it will be the first time Amazon has launched two days of Amazon Prime Day in June, just as summer is heating up. When it first launched Amazon Prime Day in 2015, it was a hot summer day in July, a bargain-hunting extravaganza designed to boost sales in summer, traditionally a slow time for online retail.
Last year was the first time Amazon strayed Amazon Prime Day beyond July. That move ignited record Prime Day sales for Amazon and kicked off the holiday shopping season a month early.
What to Expect on Amazon Prime Day 2021
Expect the Prime Day event this year to sing with better deals than ever as Amazon responds to stepped-up competition from Walmart, Target, and even in some cases Costco all now offering free shipping and same-day in-store pickup to siphon off Prime customers and compete with Amazon Prime Day. Other online retailers, answering the demands of customers increasingly shopping online during the lockdown, have also stepped-up free (or close to it) shipping.
In past years, Prime Day has offered huge deals on Amazon’s proprietary gadgets — including Echo personal assistance devices (“Alexa…”), Fire TV sticks, Kindles and their ilk — plus a flea-market array of baubles, gewgaws and bric-a-brac from other vendors large and small, as well as items from Amazon’s Whole Foods supermarket chain. Naysayers note Prime Day has been Amazon’s version of a garage sale, unloading a lot of silly and unsold inventory along with only the occasional true treasure.
If past is prologue, many Prime Day deals will be posted on Amazon.com weeks in advance of Prime Day, and some can be preordered by Prime members. Nonmembers can sign up for a free 30-day trial to tap the sales on Amazon Prime Day 2021. Not satisfied? Cancel the membership before you have to start paying for it.
Source: kiplinger.com