How to Get the Best Deals During Amazon Prime Big Deal Days 2025

Amazon’s October sale is a great sneak peek for Black Friday. In years past, the sale prices during Prime Big Deal Days have been the same for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That means you can shop this sale without worrying too much about missing out on better savings later. There are certainly going to be some products available for less in late November, especially when it comes to TVs, and often other tech items as well. But most other discounts will remain the same or close to what you’ll see for Prime Big Deal Days.

With the sale just days away, now is the time to start thinking about what you might want or need. Read on to learn everything you need to know about the sale and how you can prepare to get the best deals and biggest savings.

For the most part, you have to be an Amazon Prime member to participate in this sales event. There are, however, some deals that will be available to everyone. The caveat is that you might not qualify for free two-day shipping, and you won’t be able to access the bulk of offers during Prime Big Deal Days unless you have Prime.

If you’re not already a Prime member, you can take advantage of Amazon’s free 30-day Prime trial offer. Once the sale is over, if you don’t want to keep your membership, just cancel before the trial period ends, and you won’t be charged. (The free trial is available only if you haven’t signed up within the past 12 months.)

During its major sales events, Amazon typically runs exclusive, limited-time sales as well. This includes Deals of the Day that are available for 24 hours, as well as Lightning Deals that tend to last for a shorter time frame. With Lightning Deals, there’s a limited inventory for the set price, so if it sells out before time runs out, the Lightning Deal ends. And you have to act fast if you see something you want. Once you add it to your cart, you have only 15 minutes to check out. Otherwise, it will automatically be removed from your cart so that someone else has a chance to buy it before the Lightning Deal is gone.

Here are a few ways to score a good Amazon deal during Prime Days.

Download Amazon’s smartphone app. It often lets members see Lightning Deals before they’re active (and early birds are allowed a sneak peek at forthcoming deals). You can use the app to add items directly to your cart and then select “Save for Later” to easily and quickly familiarize yourself with what things cost now and compare them with their sale prices once Prime Big Deal Days begins.

Click on the “Join Waitlist” button on the Amazon website or app for Lightning Deal items that have sold out. If a person hasn’t completed the purchase within 15 minutes, the item is deleted from their shopping cart, and you’ll get an alert if you’re next in line.

Bookmark CR’s shopping hub to see the best Amazon deals on CR’s top-tested products. CR’s product and shopping experts will be scouring the sale to help you find the best offers more easily. We evaluate the quality of the product as well as the Prime Big Deal Days price (compared with its typical sale price) to determine the overall value and make it easier for you to find the top discounts.

Use tools like Keepa and CamelCamelCamel that can show price histories of Amazon products. Keepa is available as a browser extension as well as a smartphone app. CamelCamelCamel can only be used as an extension or in your browser. But both allow you to look at the price history of almost any product for sale on Amazon. This gives you an idea of what things cost over time, so you can tell whether something is actually a better price than usual or the “sale” price is what it usually costs. Basically, they can help you avoid getting fooled into thinking something’s a bargain when it’s really not.

Compare prices. Even though not every retailer is holding a big sale at the same time as Prime Days, you’ll often see similar pricing across different stores. So you can shop wherever you prefer and still get great savings. You may even be able to save more at another retailer.

Other retailers, including Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, typically run sales as well. Walmart’s Walmart Deals sale will be this Oct. 7-12, while Target Circle Week kicks off this Sunday, Oct. 5, and runs through Oct. 11. Best Buy hasn’t announced a sale yet, but rumors are circulating that it will have something going on around the same time. And other retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Wayfair often have competitive pricing, even if they don’t have big-name events.

So whenever you add an Amazon deal to your cart, it may pay to check out some of these other retailers to see whether they have the product cheaper.