What started as an apparent publicity stunt for Amazon’s loyalty program has become an unmatched retail phenomenon. Black Friday might still be considered the king of deal days by many, but when you look at the numbers, Prime Day might be the best time to buy.
A four-year price comparison of Prime Day vs. Black Friday by BestBlackFriday.com and Offers.com shows that prices during Amazon’s summer sale regularly best the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season. And this year could have even more deals than last.
Prime Day 2019 is predicted to have prices that will be better than Black Friday 2018 on at least 70% of the featured items, say the sites. If that proves accurate, it will top last year, when 67% of Prime Day prices were better than the previous year. (In 2018, another 15% of the items tied their Black Friday pricing.)
For comparison’s sake, in 2017 76% of the deals on Prime Day were better than Black Friday. That number hit 77% of the deals in 2016 and 64% in 2015.
This year’s Prime Day is a two-day event, meaning more items will be discounted and the deals will be spread over Amazon’s subsidiaries, including Whole Foods and Twitch.
The good news is: You won’t have to stay up late obsessively bargain hunting. The best deals on Prime Day historically have happened during daylight hours, not late at night. Some of the best deals don’t go live until the final hours. (TVs, for instance, saw deep discounts at the end of Prime Day in 2017.)
Related reading on Amazon Prime Day 2019:
—8 ways to track the best Amazon Prime Day deals
—eBay is crashing Amazon Prime Day (and so is Target)
—Prime Day 2019: By the numbers