Amazon Prime Day officially delayed - no kidding, it would have been last week
Coronavirus continues to disrupt the retailer's plans with Amazon Prime Day being pushed back
As we enter the final third of July, Amazon has officially confirmed Amazon Prime Day 2020 will be delayed this year as told to us by an Amazon spokesperson in a new statement:
"Over the last five years, Prime Day has become a special celebration and time for Prime members to shop incredible deals for themselves and for friends and family – and it’s something we look forward to every year. This year we’ll be holding Prime Day later than usual, while ensuring the safety of our employees and supporting our customers and selling partners"
While nice to finally get this confirmation it's not exactly a surprise given Prime Day usually takes place during the first week or two of July and the Coronavirus pandemic is far from over, making it difficult to plan any sort of large scale event. You have to wonder why Amazon even bothered to mention the delay at all though given it still hasn't provided a rough window of when we can expect to see those Amazon Prime Day deals roll in. Until then, we're keeping an eye on the latest Amazon sale highlights.
India's Prime Day did get a confirmed date though for August 6-7, marking the first time Amazon has given a different country a separate date for Prime Day.
When is Prime Day happening elsewhere?
We wouldn't expect a UK/US date to be close by though as earlier rumors initially suggested that September was a likely slot. That was until the latest leaks seem to suggest the first week of October instead, with many third-party merchants apparently being told to pencil in October 5 as a placeholder date in order to give them plenty of time to get stock shipped over to fulfillment centers.
Could an October Prime Day even work though given how close it is to Black Friday? Most shoppers know the Black Friday season has some of the cheapest prices on high-end items like TVs, smartphones, consoles, smartwatches, and audio equipment. So asking them to spend big in early October is putting anyone wanting to avoid buyer's remorse in a tough position with even better prices potentially only being a few weeks away.
That distance from Black Friday was what made a summer Prime Day such a good thing. Sure that TV might be $50 less in November, but then you wouldn't get to watch that TV for another four months. Prime Day can guarantee one thing though, and that's the best prices of the year on loads of Amazon's own devices like the Echo Dot, Fire TV Sticks, Kindles and a range of other items the company has nailed Alexa into.
Whenever Amazon Prime Day is though, you'll need to be a Prime member to take advantage of the exclusive deals. Membership also gets you access to the Prime Video streaming service and super fast delivery, so it's a popular pick throughout the year. If you fancy checking it out, there's a free trial available at Amazon.
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Brendan is GamesRadar's former Managing Editor of the Hardware & eCommerce team. He also spent time as the Deals Editor at our sister site, TechRadar. He's obsessed with finding the best tech, games, gadgets, and hardware at the lowest price. He also spends way too much of his free time trying to decide what new things to watch on Netflix, then just rewatches It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia instead. Nowadays you'll find him as the eCommerce Content Director for Future's mobile tech sites, Android Central, iMore, and Windows Central.