Best Prime Day deals: When is Prime Day and who can access it?

Best Prime Day deals: Amazon will hold its exclusive sales event on July 11-12th 2023 (Image: AMAZON • GETTY • EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS) Prime Day is back! Yes, the feverishly-anticipated sales event starts at 12.01am on July 11th and runs until 11.59pm on July 12th. In previous years, Prime Day has seen the lowest  ever prices on some of the most popular products from each department, including Amazon Echo and Fire TV devices, iPhone, Samsung Galaxy and other best-selling smartphones, the latest fragrance and fashion, kitchenware, air fryers, spirits, and coffee machines… to name just a few. So, what’s the catch? Unlike Black Friday and January sales, the best Prime Day deals are  not available to all Amazon shoppers. Yes, as the name suggests, you’ll need to be an Amazon Prime member to be able to access the sale. If you don’t hold a valid Prime membership, products will only be available to buy at the usual cost. Check whether your Amazon account is already signed-up with Prime membership  here If not, there  is  a way to unlock access to thousands of exclusive discounts and deals  for free . That’s because Amazon offers a 30-day free trial to its Prime membership that grants access to all Prime Day deals (as well as other perks). Cancel anytime during the trial and you’ll pay nothing …but you’ll get your pick of the best Amazon Prime Day sale. Even if you’ve taken out an Amazon Prime trial in the past, it’s well worth checking your eligibility again. Amazon typically allows accounts to test its Prime membership for free once each year, so it’s  very likely that you’ll be able to take out another tester. Outside of the free trial, Amazon Prime costs £8.99 per month or £95 for the year. Although Prime Day doesn’t start until July 11, Amazon has launched some early deals for those who already have a Prime membership. Below, we’ve rounded up the best Prime Day deals available ahead of the sale. In this guide, we’ve also answered some of the most commonly-asked questions about the Prime Day sale, including the exact date and time of Prime Day 2023, the full list of benefits when you sign-up for Amazon Prime, what to expect during the sale, and more. Scroll down for our complete guide to Amazon Prime Day 2023, or click the links above to jump to the relevant section. Amazon discounts thousands of best-selling items from a wide range of departments on Prime Day (Image: AMAZON) Amazon Prime Day runs between July 11-12, 2023. The blockbuster sales event starts at 12.01am on July 11 and finishes at 11.59pm on July 12. Amazon launched a handful of deals  before the start of the sale for those who couldn’t wait to start loading their (virtual) shopping basket with bargains. Based on previous Prime Day sales, we’d expect to see the discounts reversed immediately as soon as the two-day event ends. That means you’ll need to act fast to secure the best deals. Prime members get next-day delivery (and even same-day delivery in some parts of the UK) on thousands of items sold and dispatched via Amazon, so you can expect to get your hands on your discounted items  very soon. Amazon offers free returns on its sale items, so you can send them back in you’re unhappy. Confusingly, Amazon Prime  Day actually lasts 48-hours. Yes, the Prime Day sales won’t end until 11.59pm on July 12, 2023. It’s worth noting that not all Prime Day deals will be available throughout the two days. Over the course of the 48-hours, Amazon will roll out fresh deals on its website. Lightning Deals are only available for a limited amount of time, with the discount coming to an end after a set amount of time or after a certain amount of stock has been sold. Amazon also offers Deals Of The Day which will be available on either July 11 or July 12, but not both. Of course, some discounts will run for the entirety of the Prime Day sale. We’ll flag these in our coverage so you’ll know whether you have some time to weigh up the pros and cons before adding to your basket. Unlike Black Friday on Amazon, not everyone is able to take part in the Prime Day sales. As the name suggests, the two-day blockbuster sales event is  only available to those with an Amazon Prime membership. If you want to take part, you’ll need to sign-up to Amazon Prime. It usually costs £8.99 per month or £95 for an annual plan . This includes exclusive access to Prime Day sales, early access to certain deals and discounts, next-day delivery on thousands of items, unlimited photo backup via Amazon Photos, ad-free podcasts, millions of songs and playlists to stream with Amazon Music, and exclusive boxsets like  The Rings Of Power, The Boys, and Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video. There is  an Amazon Prime free trial  that grants access to all Prime membership perks for 30 days. Cancel anytime during this period and you’ll pay nothing …but you’ll get your pick of the best Amazon Prime Day sale. Amazon typically allows shoppers to trial Prime membership once each year, so it’s  very  likely that you’ll be able to take out another tester – even if you’ve taken out  Prime free trials  in previous years to shop the sales! Amazon Prime Day has happened once a year most years, however Prime members were treated to two Prime Days last year. The first Prime Day sale was held in July, while the second took place in October. When it comes to announcing Prime Days in advance, Amazon usually keep their cards close to their chest, especially with the exact dates. The upcoming sale was announced with three weeks notice, although it does usually fall within the first few weeks of July. This year also saw the Amazon Spring sale, which took place in March and ran for slightly longer than 48 hours. The seasonal sale was different to Prime Day, as it was open to everyone and didn’t require a Prime membership, however members would have still benefitted from free next day delivery during the event. What happens on Prime Day? Thousands of deals will be slashed in price, but only Amazon Prime members are able to access the deals. Those who already have a subscription will need to be logged into their account in order to view and purchase the deals. This time around, Amazon have launched a shiny new invite-only page, on which top deals are being listed early, and shoppers will be able to see what the deal price is going to be before they go live on Prime Day. As long as you’re a Prime member, once you’ve seen a deal you like, you can select ‘request invite’ on the product page, and if successful, Amazon will notify you by email with a unique link. The link can then be used to shop the product during the sale, and will guarantee that the price and product are yours, while avoiding having to frantically search for the product on the day. The deals with the biggest discounts will be marked as top deals, and these selected products will have at least 15 percent off and be equal or lower to the lowest price so far this year, plus they’ll be available for the whole sale period. Some deals will be short-lived, with lightning deals set to last for a limited time or with a limited quantity, which will be displayed on the deal – but they are are worth looking out for as they often feature some of the greatest discounts. It costs £8.99 a month, and members can benefit from free delivery and next or same-day delivery on thousands of items, plus Prime video, Prime reading for kindle and more. If you’re not already a member, you can opt for a 30-day free trial, which gives you all of the benefits of the membership at no cost, as long as you cancel within the 30 days. It’s also ideal for anyone wanting to take advantage of the Prime Day sales and to test out whether it’s worth the commitment long term. How to get Amazon Prime for free Based on last year, it’s a possibility this may not be the only Prime Day in 2023. Last year’s multiple Prime events were the first of their kind, with October’s Prime Day 2 providing unprecedented access to thousands of deals across the site. Many used the second opportunity to shop for savings on early Christmas shopping, but it also saw prices drop on appliances, Amazon devices and much more. It’s unclear whether two annual Prime Days will become a pattern as so far it’s only happened once in the eight years since Amazon started the member-only sale event. Prime Day 2 did prove just as popular as the July date last year, however, so there is a chance that it could be adopted as a yearly fixture, but it’s unlikely that the same deals will be included as in July.