Amazon Prime Day 2020 will start on October 13 and run through October 14, the retailer has confirmed, making now the perfect time to start familiarizing yourself with Prime Day as a whole. Here, we’ll walk you through what Prime Day is, the reason why Amazon delayed Prime Day 2020, whether you need to be a Prime member to shop the discounts, and all the early Prime Day deals happening now.

Today’s best early Prime Day deals

• Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition (3rd Gen) — $35, was $70
• Razer Kraken Gaming Headset for PC, PlayStation & Xbox — $60, was $80
• Instant Pot Duo (6 Quart) — $79, was $100
• Apple Watch Series 3 (38mm, GPS) — $169, was $200
• Apple AirPods Pro with Wireless Charging Case — $219, was $250
• Ninja Foodi 9-in-1 Multi Cooker (8-Quart) — $220, was $270
• 50-inch Insignia Fire Edition 4K TV — $250, was $350
• Acer CB282 Desktop Monitor (4K Ultra HD)— $300, was $350
• Apple iPad Mini (64GB, Wi-Fi, Latest Model) — $350, was $400

Amazon has kicked off a host of ‘early Prime Day deals’ ahead of Prime Day 2020. As if that wasn’t enough, there are plenty of non-Prime iPad deals, MacBook deals, iPhone deals available right now too. Additional products like AirPods, cheap laptops, Fire TV Sticks, Keurigs, Kindles, and 4K TVs are also at a discount on Amazon. We’ve cataloged all of the best Amazon deals happening today below.

When is Amazon Prime Day 2020?

Prime Day 2020 will kick off at 12 AM PT on Tuesday, October 13 and will run through 11:59 PM PT on Wednesday, October 14 — a little more than month before the Black Friday 2020 and Cyber Monday 2020. Keep in mind, though: Most people leave their holiday shopping until November, so Prime Day is the time to buy if you want to avoid stock and distribution delays, and total disappointment.

What is Amazon Prime Day?

Prime Day is Amazon’s answer to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, exclusively for subscribers to its Amazon Prime membership. The event, which typically lasts 48 hours, brings discounts on everything from household essentials like coffee beans and diapers to must-have tech like iPads and 4K TVs. Deals are released hourly, in limited quantities. In other words: This is a first come, first served affair.

Why did Amazon delay Prime Day 2020?

Amazon was overrun with orders when COVID-19 broke out in the U.S. in April. So much so that it had to deprioritize shipments of non-essential items. Fast forward to July when Prime Day 2020 was supposed to happen and the situation had worsened. People had lost their jobs, the infection rate was still rising, and the retailer was still unable to keep up with demand, despite hiring 175,000 people.

While the infection rate is still high, people are learning to live with the virus and adapt to a new normal. Those fortunate enough to still be employed are working from home, it’s impossible to leave the house without seeing someone wearing a face mask (some friendly advice: you should be wearing one too), and people are seemingly now ready to spend again with the holidays right around the corner.

Spending habits have changed, though, and bargain-hunting has fast become the new way of life for the masses — and that’s why Prime Day 2020 will still go ahead. People need a place to purchase must-have items on the cheap. If everyone waits until Black Friday and Cyber Monday when this usually happens, distribution networks will be stretched thin and the items won’t arrive in time.

Is Prime Day only for Prime subscribers?

The short answer is yes, Prime Day is a shopping event exclusively for Amazon Prime subscribers. It’s totally possible for new members to snap up a bargain on Prime Day 2020 without handing over a dime for a Prime Day subscription: Simply sign up for a one-month free trial the month Amazon Prime is set to take place and you’ll be able to participate for the low, low price of absolutely nothing.

Do other retailers participate in Prime Day?

While Amazon will be at the heart of Prime Day 2020, other retailers will also be throwing their hats into the ring. This means we can expect to see Best Buy and Walmart slashing prices of big-ticket items like Apple iPads and 4K TVs to compete with Amazon. Just don’t expect them to be wrapped up as Prime Day deals — that branding is exclusively for Amazon.

You can bet your bottom dollar they find some inventive way to profit off the Prime Day name, though. Maybe we’ll see Best Buy Day or Walmart Day. Some other options are Best Buy’s You-Know-What Day Sale and Walmart’s Blue Arrow Sale. The fact of the matter is, no matter how they wrap it up, these will be Prime Day sales — and we as shoppers should welcome them.

What Prime Day deals can we expect in 2020?

Nothing is off the cards when it comes to Amazon Prime Day deals, with everything from Fire TV Sticks and Keurigs to MacBooks and even 8K TVs on sale for a fraction of their usual cost at earlier installments of the digital shopping bonanza. In short: If you have your eye on something and you can buy it online, chances are it will be cheaper on Prime Day 2020.

Of course, some hardware is treated to larger reductions than others. Amazon’s own products, for example, are often some of the most discounted — with the Fire TV Stick often going for half-off. Other must-have products like the Amazon Echo and Amazon Kindle also receive a huge blow with the price-cutting sword, as are digital subscriptions like Twitch Prime.

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Still, other manufacturers rush to get in on the price-slashing action, offering comparable discounts. Last year’s Prime Day deals saw Apple hardware — from iPads to MacBooks — on sale for up to 50% off. Elsewhere, the Ring Video Doorbell 2 had been reduced by 40%. Instant Pots were another massively-discounted item, with Walmart offering as much as 60% off.

With so many retailers now participating in Prime Day, it’s tough to predict exactly what will be on offer. Although, if the Prime Day deals of yesteryear are anything to go by, it’s fair to say if you’re on the hunt for something with a screen, it will be discounted on Prime Day 2020 (if Amazon doesn’t stock it, you should be able to find it on sale at a different merchant, like Target).

Are cheap Prime Day deals too good to be true?

For every good deal out there on Prime Day, there are a dozen bad. That’s why it’s important to not only consult an impartial source of buying advice to find out whether the offer you’re looking at is really worth your hard-earned cash, but also to have an understanding of the tricks retailers use to dupe customers into thinking they’re looking at the deal of the decade.

Most merchants treat Prime Day as a chance to offload stagnant stock, so most of the discounts you’ll find will be on aging models that people aren’t interested in anymore — and they use some immoral methods to flog them. For instance, you may find an HDTV reduced to a rock-bottom price, yet nowhere on the top half of the page does it state that it’s only 720p HD.

So, what’s the issue? Well, the retailers aren’t technically at fault here. They disclose all the information they’re required to. But they bury it to fool bargain-hunting customers into taking advantage of an offer without doing their homework. Our point? If a deal is too good to be true, it probably is — even on Prime Day. There’s no harm in doing a little bit of research.

Even if you just take to Google to make sure it has the one feature you have your heart set on, you will at least avoid some disappointment when it arrives. We have some better advice, though: Search for the best Prime Day deals right here at Digital Trends, where our experts separate the wheat from the chaff, then detail everything you need to know about each product.

Should you shop on Prime Day or Black Friday?

With Prime Day taking place to close to Black Friday (and by extension, Cyber Monday), there’s a lot of confusion surrounding when the best time to buy is. Do you pull the trigger on Prime Day and run the risk of the item being cheaper the following month, or do you hold out for Black Friday and run the risk of the product being out of stock? The answer is quite simple.

The fact of the matter is more people are ordering online than ever before. Retailers don’t want to be turning down orders. They’re in the business of making money, not turning people away at the (virtual) door. That’s why it’s safe to say that whatever items are discounted on Prime Day won’t be a whole lot cheaper on Black Friday or Cyber Monday — the margins just aren’t there.

Amazon has reassured Digital Trends that items discounted on Prime Day will not be cheaper on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Prime Day will see products the cheapest they will be all year — and it won’t be just high-end electronics. The retailer has also revealed that the shopping bonzana will see everything from coffee and diapers to festive decorations and skincare essentials discounted.

Products like laptops and televisions have been flying off the shelves all year. It’s these that we recommend buying on Prime Day, as well as any gifts or other items that could see a surge in demand, like Instant Pots. Decide to wait until Black Friday and the chance of it arriving before Christmas goes out the window as both retailers and manufacturers struggle to fulfill the sheer volume of orders.

As for Apple products, you can take a look at our iPad price predictions and Apple Watch price predictions for 2020.

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