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It’s that time of year when one retail event seems to follow another, all vying to get your attention — and your money — in the run-up to the holiday season. Amazon’s Prime Day event comes in two parts, first in the summer during mid-July and a second in October every year with both events now lasting for 48 hours. Black Friday is always the Friday after Thanksgiving — so this year’s event falls on Friday November 29, 2024.
What is the difference between Prime Day and Black Friday?
The major difference between the two retail sales events is that Prime Day is Amazon’s own sale, specifically for its Prime subscribers, and is held only on Amazon itself. Black Friday, on the other hand, is an event for everyone, and almost all the large retailers take part in it.
Of course, some brands and retailers also jump on the Prime Day train and launch their own competing discounts on the days of the Prime sale in order to try and catch some extra customers who don’t find what they need on Amazon. Some of those deals even out-compete Amazon Prime Day deals themselves, which we saw again in October 2024. However, the vast majority will wait until the Black Friday period to launch their sales.
Does Amazon do Prime Day and Black Friday sales?
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It certainly does. For a start, Prime Day sales are for Prime customers, whereas on Black Friday Amazon itself includes a vast array of deals available for everyone, whether or not they subscribe.
It’s impossible to predict in advance whether the discounts on Amazon itself will be the same on both days, but generally, both October’s Prime Day and November’s Black Friday involve some big discounts on much-wanted items like cameras, fitness trackers, telescopes and even Apple products like Apple Watches and iPads.
The main advantage of waiting until Black Friday is that because so many retailers are participating, the competition between them to get your dollars means they will often try to outdo each other — or at least match each other’s prices. So you can end up with a greater choice of retailers and potentially some even better deals.
When should I wait for Prime Day or Black Friday?
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One factor you might want to consider is the wider calendar that product releases tend to conform to. Apple, for instance, tends to release its new iPhone models in the fall, which means previous versions get a price drop in time for both Prime Day and Black Friday.
By contrast, if you are looking to buy other new science technology, then you should bear in mind that many new models tend to be released or announced in January alongside big trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). This in turn means that,