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Amazon's October Prime Day event is officially called Prime Big Deal Days, but the shopping extravaganza essentially functions as a second Amazon Prime Day event ahead of the holiday season. If you've never shopped during a Prime Day sale before, you might be wondering exactly what it entails, so here's a brief explainer. It's a two-day Amazon sale that will offer exclusive savings to Amazon Prime subscribers with limited-time offers, flash deals and rock-bottom prices. It's a rare chance to score Black Friday-level pricing outside of November, so it's usually well worth shopping. The Prime Big Deal Days event is taking place this year on Oct. 8 and 9.
Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days are Oct. 8 to Oct. 9 this year. Generally speaking, the deals will end at midnight on Oct. 9 this time around. Some deals may linger beyond the set times of the sale event.
As you can see from the history of Prime Day dates below, Amazon has held its Prime Day sales each July, with just a couple of deviations from that regular schedule. Notably, in 2020, Amazon pushed its Prime Day sale to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic, before returning the sale to the summer in 2021 in a slightly earlier June spot. Prime Day returned to its July slot for 2022, although Amazon did use October once again for an additional Prime Early Access Sale event that acted as a kickoff to the holiday shopping season. Last year, it was the same July-October pattern, but Amazon also added a new (not Prime-exclusive) sale for 2024 with the inaugural Amazon Big Spring Sale.
As a reference, here are the Prime Day dates from previous years and including this year's events:
Each Prime Day event brings with it other retailers announcing sales that directly compete with Amazon's event, and it's no different this October, either. We've seen other retailers announce these sales -- like Walmart's Holiday Deals event and Best Buy's anti-Prime sales -- providing plenty of options to choose from.
In short, yes. Thousands of items see price reductions during the event, with some of the deals returning to or reaching all-time low prices. Because there is no telling how much inventory is available or how long the price cuts will last, you'll want to act quickly under those circumstances.
Looking at past years, there has been a second Prime Day-style sale in October for the past two years now. It started in 2022 as the Prime Day Early Access sale. In 2023, the trend continued with the Prime Big Deal Days sale, and Amazon has once again utilized this spot on the calendar for a Prime Day sale on Oct. 8 and 9.
There are lots of similarities between the two sales. Many of the same deals return during the October sale, especially on Amazon's own devices, such as Blink and Ring home security devices, Fire TVs and tablets, Echo devices and more.
The main difference is related to the timing of the sale. Since July Prime Day is in the summer, there's more focus on back-to-school and outdoor deals. This includes school supplies, grills, lawnmowers and more. During October Prime Day, we see more deals geared toward the upcoming holiday season, such as kitchenware for a Thanksgiving meal or kids' toys and games for Christmas. It's a great time to grab Christmas gifts ahead of the holiday rush.
The idea behind the sale is pretty simple: Subscribers to Amazon's Prime service can get exclusive discounts on thousands of products and services across the site during a limited period. The products, while still available to non-Prime members, will have extra savings for members, with many prices dropping down to new all-time lows.
When you're logged in to your Prime account and looking at a product landing page, you'll see the discounted price if it's on sale. You don't need any special coupon codes, nor is there a need to use a specific payment method to get the discounts. If you spend your money wisely each year, you can easily make back your Prime membership cost in savings during the event.
Since Amazon sells pretty much everything, its Prime Big Deal Days bonanza features deals on pretty much everything too. Whether you're shopping for tech, kitchen gear, outdoor furniture or everyday essentials, October Prime Day will offer something in the way of savings for you.
In past sale events, some of the best savings have been on Amazon devices. This includes Kindle readers, Echo speakers, Fire TVs and more. It's not just Amazon's own brands that see steep discounts. You will be able to grab great deals across a variety of big-name brands, including significant savings on items like laptops, TVs and fitness gear, to name a few.
Unfortunately, yes. All the deals we listed here, and the rest of the deals on Amazon, are subject to change at any given time before, after and even during the sale event. Here at CNET, we're constantly going through our pages to make sure that they are updated with the latest prices. However, since prices can change at any time if you see something you like, we recommend buying it as soon as possible before the price changes, the deal expires or the item becomes unavailable.
Yes, Amazon's Prime Deal Days sale requires a Prime subscription if you want to nab any of the Prime-exclusive deals. You don't have to be a paying subscriber, as long as the event falls within your Prime trial period. That means you can start your monthlong trial just before the event and get in on the savings for free. For more info on that, check out our guide to getting Amazon Prime perks without paying for a subscription.
Some will, others won't. New deals get added regularly, and old ones sell out or get changed. Our CNET experts are monitoring the sale and will keep this page updated throughout the event as deals expire or any new finds crop up, so keep checking back.
The CNET Deals team covers all of the best price drops, discounts and deals daily from all the top retailers. Whether it's a one-day promo at Woot, a weekend sale at Best Buy or a coupon code for a product at Amazon, if it's a great deal, we'll be covering it.
Best October Prime Day deals by category
Best October Prime Day deals by price
Best anti-Prime Day deals from other retailers this week
Be sure to check out all of the great deals each day at CNET.com/deals and sign up for our CNET Cheapskate newsletter for a daily digest of deals delivered to your inbox. You can also sign up for CNET Deals text alerts for curated deals during the event, and install our CNET Shopping browser extension to help ensure that purchases you make all year round will be at the lowest price available.
Source: cnet.com