When Is Amazon Prime Day?

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By Bob Niedt

last updated 16 July 2024

Contributions from

Donna LeValley

in Features

Bargain hunters know the annual Amazon Prime Day retailpalooza as an opportunity to score a bevy of deals on all manner of merchandise. That's why they eagerly await the two-day event. Prime Day summer 2024 runs Tuesday, July 16 and Wednesday, July 17, the 10th Prime event to be held since its inception.

A number of Amazon Prime Day deals have already been announced. Not to be outdone, Walmart announced its own Walmart Deal Days, which kicked off last week. And if you're wondering who wins the battle of Amazon Prime Day vs Walmart Deal Days, well, the only winner is potentially the consumer, since both retailers have different standout options in different categories. Wondering if you should sign up for Amazon Prime ahead of Amazon Prime Day? Read our story to help you decide.

This year's Prime kick off includes an original song from Megan Thee Stallion, "It's Prime Day", and Prime members can shop Megan Thee Stallion’s Prime Day picks. The song streams exclusively on Amazon Music.

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Influencers including Jess Sims, Alyssa McKay, Monet McMichael, Jared McCain, Millie Bobby Brown, Meredith Duxbury, and Alix Earle have been introducing deals on their favorite products across top categories including beauty, sports, and home.

But if you miss out on this event, there's likely to be another opportunity for Prime members to save in November's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales events. Amazon Prime's fall sale, called Big Deal Days, ran last year from October 10-11 in countries around the world, including the United States and the U.K.

When did Amazon Prime Day start?

Amazon Prime Day dates back to 2015 when it debuted in July to push sales during retail’s usual summer doldrums. At that time it was a novelty (and also just a single day.) But even when Amazon Prime Day was moved to October in 2020 due to pandemic issues, Amazon posted record Prime Day sales and ended up kicking off the holiday shopping season — that used to start with November's Black Friday event — a month early.

Amazon Prime Day returned to its summer slot in 2021, but in June, not July. And it was another resounding success, culminating in sales exceeding $11 billion. In 2022, Prime Day recorded $12 billion in sales.

In 2023, the Amazon Prime Day event was another two-day extravaganza, taking place on July 11-12, a Tuesday and Wednesday. Prime Day 2023 was the biggest Prime Day event ever for independent sellers. Amazon's July 2023 Prime Day recorded just short of $13 billion in sales.

What to expect from Amazon Prime Day

In past years, Prime Day has offered its biggest discounts on Amazon’s proprietary gadgets — including Amazon 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 Grocery supermarket options.

That range has led naysayers to dub Prime Day as Amazon’s version of a garage sale: a lot of (sometimes silly) unsold inventory with an occasional true treasure mixed in.

Many Prime Day deals get posted well before the big event with some deals available to be preordered by Prime members. Non-members can sign up for a 30-day Amazon Prime free trial to tap the sales on Amazon Prime Day. Not satisfied with the Prime offering? Just cancel your Prime membership before you have to start paying for it.

Bob was Senior Editor at Kiplinger.com for seven years and is now a contributor to the website. He has more than 40 years of experience in online, print and visual journalism. Bob has worked as an award-winning writer and editor in the Washington, D.C., market as well as at news organizations in New York, Michigan and California. Bob joined Kiplinger in 2016, bringing a wealth of expertise covering retail, entertainment, and money-saving trends and topics. He was one of the first journalists at a daily news organization to aggressively cover retail as a specialty and has been lauded in the retail industry for his expertise. Bob has also been an adjunct and associate professor of print, online and visual journalism at Syracuse University and Ithaca College. He has a master’s degree from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a bachelor’s degree in communications and theater from Hope College.

With contributions from