• Amazon has announced the dates for its annual Prime Day event, happening this year on 11th and 12th July.
• The two-day long online sales event is specifically aimed at Prime members to take advantage of massive discounts across a number of items on the site.
• The dates have shifted in recent years as a result of the pandemic, but this latest announcement sees it return to July in back-to-back years.

While Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two discounted retail events that most people across the world like to earmark for their pre-festive season spending, in parts of the Global West, Prime Day holds an equally important place.

This as Amazon can get particularly aggressive in terms of the discounts it offers.

For 2023, Prime Day is happening once again, with Amazon officially announcing the dates for this year’s two-day-long shopping event earlier this week. To that end, Prime Day is set for 11th and 12th July.

As Engadget points out, as a result of the pandemic, the dates for the event have shifted around quite a bit, but this week’s announcements sees it return to July in back-to-back years.

As for this year’s event, Amazon explains that some new elements have been added to the format. Prime members are now set to receive invite-only offers, along with being able to request access to exclusive deals for Prime Day.

“Prime members can save big on popular brands like Lancôme, Kérastase, Peloton, Victoria’s Secret, YETI, The Drop, and Sony, and save on new Amazon-exclusive deals from D’Amelio Footwear, OPI, and Alo Yoga. Plus, members will get exclusive access to Amazon’s lowest prices so far this year on select products from a variety of brands like Bose, Hey Dude, and Theragun. This Prime Day, members in the U.S. can also shop more deals on small business products than ever before,” Amazon explained in a blog post.

“New deals will drop every 30 minutes during select periods throughout the event, with deep discounts on products from the hottest brands,” it added.

As in past years, this event appears heavily focused on Amazon customers in the US, but with the company looking to expand its presence in South Africa and the rest of the continent, perhaps Prime Day will soon be a thing locally too.

That said, given the global economic downturn, it will be interesting to see whether people are indeed willing to spend a lot of money over the two days in July.