It's Amazon Prime Day - here's how to get the best deals

Since 2015, each year on a Tuesday in July, Amazon has offered its Prime subscribers a day of heavy discounts and deals.

Obviously that didn't happen this year, with the retail giant putting plans for its annual mega sale on hold in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic.

The sale is taking place this year though - albeit slightly later than usual - and it's actually running right now (13 October)!

Here's everything you need to know about Amazon Prime Day 2020.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Amazon’s Prime Day is an exclusive online shopping event for Prime members.

This year, the 'day' will run to 48 hours and members will be able to access big discounts on a range of products.

Over 100 million items can be sold during such sales, with worldwide best-selling products usually coming from the tech world - Amazon's own Fire TV Stick and Echo Dot are regular top sellers.

When is Amazon Prime Day 2020?

Amazon Prime Day will again run for 48 hours, kicking off at midnight on Tuesday 13 October and running until 11:59pm on Wednesday 14 October.

Expect to see thousands of deals, with extra large discounts on Amazon Alexa-enabled devices.

There will also be Lightning Deals, where you can bag a bargain on certain products for a limited time only.

Lightning Deals are a big feature of Amazon's sales. While most deals stick around all day, some products are only discounted for a limited amount of time.

These can be huge savings on in demand products, with limited stock available (hence the name, 'Lightning' Deals).

How to get the best deals on Amazon Prime Day 2020

To make the most of Amazon Prime Day 2020, you'll need to be an Amazon Prime member.

Don't worry if you're not already - Amazon offers the premium service with a free 30 day trial period.

You'll need to submit your card details to sign up for the trial, but so long as you remember to cancel your subscription before the date of your first billing, you will still be able to take advantage of Prime Day's deals.

Go in to Prime Day with at least a vague idea of what you want to buy, and be prepared for a day of snooping out bargains.

It's tempting to just sit back and let the deals come to you, but the variety on offer will be nothing short of overwhelming - you'll either end up spending nothing at all, or spending much more than you planned.

Making sure you have the Amazon app downloaded to your smartphone is also a top tip.

The app allows you to see upcoming deals before they go live, which you can then 'watch' to receive a notification when they become available. It also organises all the deals you're interested in and notifies you accordingly.

Why did Amazon not run the sale in July?

Last year, the event was so popular it crashed Amazon’s servers for a short period.

To run the sale again this July - when many areas of the world were at the peak of their coronavirus tackling efforts - would have meant putting already struggling postal services under more strain.

Estimated profits for the retailer were over $4 billion in 2018, so while it would have been tempting for the company to run its sale at the same time, it was deemed not a suitable exercise.

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