One of the biggest online shopping days of the year is fast approaching. No, it’s not Black Friday — it’s Amazon Prime Day 2019. The annual event for Amazon Prime subscribers allows them to save lots of money on tons of products, particularly on Amazon hardware items.

If you are unfamiliar with Amazon Prime Day, here’s a quick look at what it is all about, when it will launch, and what kinds of deals we can expect to see from this huge shopping event.

Amazon Prime Day 2019: What is it, exactly?

Amazon Prime Day first launched in 2015. Basically, it’s a huge annual event for members of Amazon Prime, the subscription service that Amazon first launched in 2005. Amazon Prime Day offers lots of discounts on items in Amazon’s catalog during the time period. This will be the fifth anniversary of the shopping event.

The 2018 edition of Amazon Prime Day resulted in over 100 million products bought by Amazon Prime members, and the best selling items were Amazon’s own Fire TV Stick and Echo Dot smart speaker. Revenues from the event exceeded $1 billion in 2018, and that will likely be the case for this year’s event.

Amazon Prime Day 2019 dates

Amazon has confirmed that Prime Day 2019 will actually be held on two full days this year. It will start at midnight Pacific time (3 a.m. Eastern time) on July 15 and will run for a full 48 hours. That means it will end at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on July 16 (2:59 a.m. Eastern time on July 17).

Where are the deals available?

The list of countries that will be a part of Amazon Prime Day 2019 includes:

Do I really need to sign up for Amazon Prime to get Prime Day deals?

In a word, “Yes.” Amazon Prime Day is a way for the retailer to get more people interested in signing up for an Amazon Prime membership. If you already are a Prime subscriber, you are all set to get the big discounts and special offers that will be a part of Amazon Prime Day 2019.

If you have never signed up for Amazon Prime, or if you have signed up in the past but have not been a member in the last 12 months, the good news is that you can get a 30-day free trial to Amazon Prime. That means you can participate in Amazon Prime Day, buy your discounted items, and then cancel your subscription before the trial period ends if you want, and not pay a single Prime fee. 

If you enjoyed Amazon Prime Day, and also like the ongoing features that Prime members enjoy beyond the special shopping day, you can continue your subscription at a rate of either $12.99 a month or $119 for an annual membership. If you are a qualified college student, you can sign up for Amazon Student Prime, which has a six-month free trial, followed by either a monthly rate of $6.99 or an annual rate of $60 a year. It’s possible that the heavy discounts during Prime Day could more than pay for a monthly or annual Amazon Prime subscription, depending on which products you get, and how much their price is cut.

Amazon Prime Day 2019: Early discounts already available

Amazon Prime is quickly approaching. With only a little over two weeks to go, what if you don’t want to wait? While the best deals won’t happen until the big day (well, days), Amazon is currently offering a few early discounts to impatient shoppers.

Here are the products currently on sale that you might be interested in:

• Amazon Fire TV Recast — Normally $230, on sale for $130, or 43 percent off
• Amazon Echo Dot — Normally $50, on sale for $25, or 50 percent off
• Amazon Echo — Normally $100, on sale for $70, or 30 percent off
• Amazon Echo Input — Normally $35, on sale for $15, or 57 percent off

In addition to hardware, Amazon is also discounting some of its services related to ebooks and music. Here are the best ones we could find:

• Audible — Get three months of Audible for $5 per month, a savings of 66 percent. Service is $15 per month after the three-month introductory period ends, unless you cancel.
• Audible — Save $30 on an annual subscription to Audible and get an Amazon Echo Dot for just $1 more. An annual subscription costs $120 (usually $150).
• Amazon Music Unlimited — Get four months of Amazon Music Unlimited for a total of $1. The service will cost $8 per month after the four-month introductory period ends, unless you cancel.

There are also some new discounts on school supplies, which is perfect for parents looking to get a head start on getting their kids ready for heading back to class in a few months.

The last deal is a bundle that combines the myQ Garage Door Opener and the Amazon Cloud Cam. 

Amazon is selling the myQ Smart Garage Door Opener combined with the Amazon Cloud Cam. The bundle deal, along with the Key Smart Garage Kit, will allow Amazon delivery workers to securely open your garage door so they can place packages inside, and then close the door remotely again. The bundle normally sells for $189.40, but Amazon is selling it right now for just $99.98.

Look for big discounts from other retailers, too

Because Amazon is so huge in the online shopping industry, it’s likely that other retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and others will try to offer deep discounts on various items on their online sites around the same time period as Amazon Prime Day. They not only want to compete with price cuts, but will also emphasize that customers will not have to sign up for any special membership subscription to take advantage of their offers.

Stay tuned for more info

We plan to update this post with more information on Amazon Prime Day 2019 as it gets nearer. We will pick our own favorite sale items from Prime Day 2019 when it finally begins. In the meantime, check out our related Amazon coverage below:

• Google Home vs Amazon Echo vs Apple HomePod: Features comparison
• Amazon Kindle (2019) review: The best Kindle for most people
• Google Home Hub vs Amazon Echo Show 2: Battle of the smart displays
• The best Amazon Echo and Echo Dot accessories
• Amazon Alexa: The definitive guide