How to Get the Best Deals During Amazon Prime Day 2025

Amazon’s summer sale often features some of the best prices of the year, but we may see them again in November for Black Friday. If you’re ready to start your holiday shopping early, however, this is a great time to score big savings. And while Amazon traditionally offers the best deals on its own products, the sale extends well beyond that to include brands like Apple, Ninja, Samsung, and Shark.

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.

You have to be an Amazon Prime member to participate in this sales event. If you’re not, you can take advantage of Amazon’s free 30-day Prime trial offer to shop the sale. 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.)

The company runs several types of promotions for its major sales.

Today’s Big Deals are new this year, possibly replacing the 24-hour Deals of the Day we’ve seen in years past. New themed deal drops will launch every day of the sale at midnight Pacific time, featuring limited offers on name brands like Levi’s and Samsung. Amazon says they will have limited inventory, so once they run out, the offers will be gone. Similar offers will also pop up at select times throughout the event.

Lightning Deals are even more limited promotions on specific items. They usually last only a certain amount of time—often just a few hours—or until the item sells out. New ones can pop up as frequently as every 5 minutes.

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

Sign up for invite-only deals. If there’s an exclusive deal, you’ll see a button to request an invitation near the “Add to Cart” button on the product page. Click on it and you’ll be notified if you’re chosen to take advantage of the limited discount. Not everyone who signs up will be notified about every deal. But if you’re chosen, you’ll get an email with details on how to make the purchase if you choose.

Download Amazon’s smartphone app. The app lets members see Lightning Deals before they’re active (and early birds are allowed a sneak peek at coming deals). You can use the app to create a “Watch this deal” list so that you can get notifications when one is about to go live. Or simply add items directly to your cart and then select “Save for Later” to easily and quickly review the prices of products you want now and when the sale 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.

Compare prices. Even though not every retailer is holding a big sale at the same time as Prime Day, 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. Best Buy announced that its sale will be called Black Friday in July, while the others haven’t started promoting their plans just yet. Walmart and Target have almost always held sales at the same time since the inception of Prime Day, so expect those announcements to come soon.

So, what does all of this mean for you? 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. Just remember that if you’re buying a Lightning Deal, you have only 15 minutes to complete the Amazon purchase before the item is removed from your cart and freed up for other customers.