10 Amazon Prime Day Hacks, Because You Are Not Messing Around

If you’re not a Prime member yet, I applaud your patience (but keep in mind this is coming from the person who starts peering out the window like a creep mere hours after placing an online order). For the uninitiated, Prime is a service offered through Amazon which gives members special perks including two-day delivery and access to video and music streaming. The subscription is offered at either $12.99 a month or $119 a year (the better deal). There are also discounted Prime subscriptions for students and Medicare or EBT card holders.

To take advantage of Prime Day if you’re not a member, consider trying the 30-day free trial. If you’ve already done the trial (busted) or have cancelled a Prime membership in the last year, you won’t be eligible for the trial, but you can opt for a one-month membership which makes sense if you remember to cancel it after Prime Day.

Before July 15, download the Amazon app. I can’t stress this enough; just go do it now so I can relax knowing you’re in good hands. Within the app, go to Settings, and turn on your Notifications. From there, you can select “Watch this deal” under your Watched and Waitlisted deals to get an alert when an item you're watching goes on sale on the big day.

If you don’t want to download the app, install Amazon Assistant on your browser. The Assistant will notify you when the deals you’re watching are about to go live and will show you daily deals.

Within the app, search the words “sneak peek” to see a list of things that will be going on sale at some point during Prime Day(s). The most clever among us will add the items we want to our cart before they go on sale so they’re waiting as soon as the price drops. There are some things (all Amazon products including the Kindle Fire or The Echo, for example) that you can be almost certain will go on sale, so add away.

It wasn’t long ago that my fiancé and I realized we both had Amazon Prime accounts which seemed ridiculous, so we compromised: I got rid of mine and now his subscription pays for both of us, which is great, except my recommendations now include far more outdoor gear and windshield wiper fluid than I’m comfortable with. I digress.

Amazon now gives the option to create an “Amazon Household” where two adults and up to four children can all use the same account for no additional charge. You can monitor your kids' shopping activity and approve them before their purchases go through. Come Prime Day, get the whole family to shop simultaneously.

Unsurprisingly, Prime Day is a huge shopping day, and other companies want to take advantage of all the people online with their credit cards ready to flex. If something sells out on Amazon, or just to compare pricing, make sure you have tabs for Target, Walmart, Best Buy, and any other competitive store open. You just might find a better deal somewhere else.

Lightning Deals strike suddenly and sell out quickly (sometimes within just a few minutes.) If you miss a sale, you can click “Join Waitlist” which means you’ll be given access to the sale price if someone removes the item from their cart.

Alexa may know something you don’t (terrifying, sorry) but she’s not just going to give away her secrets. As relayed recently by Hello Giggles, Alexa may answer in poems or riddles when asked about Prime Day Deals and CNet is speculating that some of the deals Alexa is privy to may only be available for voice purchase.

As if you needed an incentive to shop on Prime Day, Amazon is rolling out bonus deals. You’ll get $10 in Amazon credit for using the app or Assistant for the first time, and you’ll also get a $10 credit when reloading $100 or more to your Amazon gift card for the first time. Also, if you spend $10 at Whole Foods either in-store or on Prime Now between July 3 and 16, you’ll get $10 to spend on Prime Day.

Guys, it’s free money. Kind of.

Do not wake up on July 15 without a plan and expect things to go smoothly. Make a list of things you want to get before you start shopping. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and make impulse buys, but with some sort of strategy, you hopefully won't find yourself regretting 90 percent of the purchases you made. No matter how streamlined a retailer's return procedure is, returning anything anywhere is annoying.

2... 7... 3... You do not want to waste time inputting your credit card information, shipping address, and billing address multiple times over the 48 hours of the sale — yes, you will likely make multiple visits to amazon.com while the sale is live. Make sure it's all there, ready to go so you can be in and out as quickly as possible.

Godspeed.