Amazon deals – how to get the best saving on everything from tested appliances to trending decor

For the breadth of products and the depth of discounts, Amazon is one of the best places to buy − well, just about anything. Time and again, our shopping writers turn to Amazon to get the lowest prices on tried-and-tested appliances or trending furniture and decor.

Our eCommerce Editors spend hours every day shopping the sales on Amazon. Between us, we've got a decade's worth of experience hunting for deals. We're here to help you spot the difference between a good deal and a low price on a poor product so that you can get the best Amazon deals.

First, I'll drop some quick links so that you can shop the Amazon sales by department. You'll find everything from the best air fryers to the best coffee makers. Then, I'll tell you more about what makes a 'good' deal on Amazon and answer all your FAQ's about the best time to buy.

Where to find the best Amazon deals

• Amazon Home sale: browse everything on sale
• Amazon Kitchen & Dining sale: save on Ninja, KitchenAid, and Keurig
• Amazon Home Improvement sale: Google Nest, Ring doorbells, BLACK+DECKER listed for less
• Amazon Bedding sale: save on Nectar, Cozy Earth, and Vera Wang
• Amazon Garden & Outdoor sale: discounted Ninja, Traeger, and Weber
• Amazon Furniture sale: $100s off mattresses, sofas, and desks

When is the best time to get an Amazon deal?

Amazon Prime Day deals

You see the greatest breadth and depth of Amazon deals on Amazon Prime Day. Remember, there are two Prime Days each year – one in July, one in October – and each event lasts for 48 hours.

In my experience as a sales hunter, the deepest Amazon Prime Day deals are on Amazon hardware, such as Kindles, Fire Tablets, and Echo devices. If you're shopping specifically for home goods, you're just as likely to find a deep discount on Black Friday.

Where Amazon Black Friday deals are open to everyone, you can only make the most of Amazon Prime Day deals if you're a Prime member. Not to worry: other major retailers, including Walmart and Best Buy, tend to run their own counter-sales around Amazon Prime Day, and you don't have to be a member to shop at those.

Black Friday deals

Amazon Black Friday deals start dropping around a week in advance of the big day. If you want to beat the crowds and bag a bargain on a trending appliance, I suggest you shop early.

In my experience, Black Friday is the best time to shop for homeware. It's when all the major home retailers compete to offer the lowest prices. I've seen sheet sets on sale for less than half price, hundreds of dollars off mattresses and sofas, and deep discounts on small and large appliances.

Lightning deals

Lightning Deals are flash sales that pop up around major sales periods. You're less likely to find small or large appliances in the Lightning Deals section – think more along the lines of skincare, make-up, and other impulse buys.

You can make Lightning Deals work for you by stocking up on a few inexpensive items to get you over the threshold for free delivery. So, if I were buying a $35 sheet set, but I needed to spend $40 to qualify for free delivery, I could shop the Lightning Deals section to pick up a few cheap favors.

How can you tell if you've found a good Amazon deal?

Download a price tracking tool

Shop like an eCommerce Editor and use a price tracking tool, which gives you access to the price history of a particular product. That way, you can work out from context whether you're actually getting a good deal, or if you'd be better off waiting for prices to fall further in the next holiday sales.

For Amazon, I recommend CamelCamelCamel. Here's how it works: paste the Amazon link or ASIN into CamelCamelCamel's search bar, and you'll see the product's lowest recorded price, as well as its average price, and when that prices tends to fluctuate. These figures form 'humps' on a line graph, like the back of a camel.

Use comparison sites

This could be as easy as clicking the Google 'Shopping' tab at the top of your search engine results page. You might find that the best deal isn't on Amazon at all, but Target or Wayfair or somewhere else entirely.

Only buy the items you actually need

Throughout the year, I keep a wish list of the items and appliances I want to buy. Sometimes, I add the item to my cart before the sale begins, so that I can buy it right away when the deal drops.

When the sales start, I'm strict with myself − I only let myself shop from my wish list. That way, I get the dopamine hit from bargain-hunting, but I don't fall victim to overspending.

FAQs

Do you have to be a Prime member to access Amazon deals?

Technically, no. Every day, Amazon drops hundreds of deals, many of which are open to the public. With that said, if you want to access the deepest discounts and the widest range of deals, you should sign up for Amazon Prime.

Here's a workaround if you want access to deals over a holiday weekend, but you don't want to pay for Prime all year: sign up for the one-month free trial right before you want to shop. For that month, you'll get free one-day delivery, plus access to Amazon's Prime Video streaming service. As long as you cancel before the 30-day cut-off, you won't be charged. If you forget to cancel your payment, you'll be charged $14.99 a month.

Can I get alerts for Amazon deals?

Yes. Download the Amazon shopping app and subscribe to deal notifications on items on your wish list.

Amazon is an enormous website, with hundreds of product launches and new deals every day. To save you from feeling overwhelmed, we wrote a guide that teaches you how to shop Amazon like a style editor. That way, you can save time and money and sort through to find the good stuff.