Prime Day, Amazon’s annual blowout sale, was delayed this summer due to the coronavirus outbreak, but it’s finally coming in mid-October — less than two months ahead of Black Friday. That gives shoppers two big retail events to enjoy before the Christmas sales arrive, but while Black Friday deals are available to all and sundry, Amazon’s official Prime Day sale is for Prime members only. If you’re not a Prime member, though, then don’t fret, because you can sign up for a 30-day Prime trial to shop this year’s Prime Day deals for free.
As Prime Day falls in October this year, it’s not a bad idea to start your free 30-day Amazon Prime trial on October 1 so you’ve got the whole of the month covered. This is the easiest and cheapest way (“cheap” here meaning “free”) to shop the 2020 Prime Day deals, but remember that your Prime membership gives you more than access to those exclusive discounts: You also get to enjoy Amazon’s impressive streaming library of music, shows, and movies, along with free two-day shipping, a ton of Kindle e-books, and more.
The main caveat with this approach is that each Amazon account can only sign up for that 30-day Prime trial once (Amazon sometimes offers customers another free trial, but it’s not something you can get yourself), meaning that if you’ve already taken advantage of this free trial period, you’re out of luck come Prime Day unless you grab a paid membership. However, you might be able to sign up for a week’s worth of Prime for just $2 — another promotion Amazon offers to many repeat customers — which is more than enough time to take advantage of Prime Day deals. Considering you can save hundreds, that’s not a bad option if you’ve already used up your free 30-day Prime trial.
If those options are still unavailable to you, that doesn’t mean you can’t shop around for Prime Day deals. Many third-party sellers on Amazon take advantage of the sale to offer their own discounts that are available to all, giving you another opportunity to find what you’re looking for. And, as Prime Day has become one of the most popular sales along with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, competing retailers such as Walmart often run their own concurrent promotions in an effort to take a slice out of Amazon’s pie. The online retail world is a huge place, so shop around and use whatever chance you can get to score deals wherever you happen to find them.
