Prime Day 2022: What we know about Amazon’s sale

Prime Day is basically Amazon's version of Black Friday.

ZDNet has detailed Amazon's every move for years, including its incredible growth and negative impact on retail as a whole. Doom and gloom aside, one of the more fun aspects of the company is its annual fire-sale event. Pitched as Amazon's “holiday of savings,” it gives Black Friday a run for its money — while also likely making Walmart and other rivals wince with jealousy. 

Also: How access to deals for free, even if you're not a Prime member

Here's everything we know about Prime Day 2022.

Anyone can start a free 30-day Prime trial.

How to find the best deals on Prime Day 2022

Here are our tips on how to take full advantage of Amazon's sales event.

Prime Day 2022 hub

If you want to one-stop shop with all the best deals, visit the company's Prime Day hub. It'll have the lowest prices and sales across a range of categories. In past years, a new deal was posted every five minutes over Prime Day.

Voice-shop with Amazon Alexa

Amazon tends to give people a head start on deals if they voice-shop with Alexa. It did the same thing with Black Friday in the past — giving voice shoppers up to a seven-hour lead. To order something by voice, just say to your Alexa device, “Alexa, what are your deals” followed by “Alexa, add [the item] to my cart.” Alexa will confirm your order, but if you prefer, you can set up a four-digit pin within the Alexa app to prevent unintended purchases.

Amazon Assistant

Amazon Assistant is a free browser plugin (for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Microsoft Edge) that lets you watch for product comparisons. It provides shortcuts to popular Amazon hubs and issues desktop notifications when deals that you're watching go live.

Deals of the day, Lighting deals, and Prime Early Access deals

Amazon also has its regular “Gold Box Deals of the Day.” However, since it is Prime Day, these sales should be extra noteworthy. 

And finally, there's Prime Early Access deals, a type of Lightning Deal for Prime members. Amazon typically gives Prime members 30-minute early access to certain deals, though all deals are only available while supplies last. To stay on top of these different deals, use Amazon's app, where you can view most deals 24 hours in advance and sign up for alerts.

You can also go here to see deals you're watching, and you can get the deals delivered to you via Amazon's daily deals email.

Amazon Coupons

Did you know Amazon.com serves up coupons? There's actually an entire hub on Amazon where you can find coupons for electronics, pet supplies, toys, and other items. Just go to Amazon.com, then click on the link at the top for “Today's Deals,” and in the menu of categories at the top, click on “Coupons” (or use this link).

When you find an item you want to buy, click on the “Clip this coupon” button near the price to clip the coupon. When you're done shopping, go to your cart and check out. In the cart details, you will see the coupon amount deducted from your total.

Price tracker and comparison tools

If you want to check a deal's price against what Amazon has charged in the past, try CamelCamelCamel. It's a free Amazon price tracker that monitors millions of products and serves up their price history.

One available extension is Honey, which instantly informs you if any third-party sellers have the same product for a lower price. Also, check out the site PriceGrabber or the extension PriceBlink, both of which let you see if an item is cheaper elsewhere.

Check competitor sites

Finally, be sure to check other shopping sites. Walmart, Best Buy, and other retailers have been known to roll out their own sales on Prime Day in an attempt to lure in shoppers.