Summary List Placement

Every day, Amazon hosts a variety of deals under the “Today’s Deals” tab on its site, including the following:

With the exception of Prime Early Access Deals, all these deals can usually be accessed by the public. During Amazon’s annual sales event, Amazon Prime Day, however, Lightning Deals can only be accessed by Prime members.

What is a Lightning Deal?

Lightning Deals are limited-time offers on anything from tech accessories to shoes that are only live for a few hours instead of the whole day. Not only does the deal last for a limited amount of time (a live countdown timer shows how much time you have left) but there’s also limited stock of the item at the deal price.

You can check the progress of how many have been claimed on both the Lightning Deals homepage and the individual product detail page.

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Foto: Each Lightning Deal's product page will tell you how many of the discounted products have been claimed and how much time you have to claim the deal. Source: Amazon

How to 'watch' a Lightning Deal

To stay on top of deal availability, you can visit the Upcoming Deals section on your desktop or in the free Amazon app (iOS, Android) to view all deals 24 hours before they go live.

Click "Watch this Deal" and you'll receive push notifications on your phone when a deal is starting. This will be the best way to ensure you successfully grab a deal during the frenzy that is Amazon Prime Day.

prime day lightning deal

Foto: What it looks like to watch a Lightning Deal on the Amazon app. There's a separate "Watching" section that organizes all the deals you've chosen to keep an eye on. Source: Amazon

What happens if the deal I want is 100% claimed?

The deals can get snatched up pretty quickly, but there's still hope even if a Lightning Deal has been 100% claimed.

You can click "Join the Waitlist" in order to potentially get the deal anyway. Lightning Deal purchases must be made within 15 minutes of adding an item to your cart. If the purchase isn't completed within that time frame, then the deal will be made available to the next customer on the wait list. Joining the wait list won't guarantee you'll be able to purchase the deal, but it's certainly worth a shot.

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Foto: You still have a chance to get a 100% Claimed Deal if you join the wait list. Source: Amazon

If you want to shop Amazon Prime Day Lightning Deals, the rest of Amazon Prime Day, and Early Access Deals, remember that you have to be an Amazon Prime member first. You can sign up for a free 30-day trial of Prime here.

Shop all of today's Lightning Deals on Amazon

Prime Day FAQs:

Foto: Source: Alyssa Powell/Business Insider

What is Amazon Prime Day?

It's one of Amazon's biggest shopping days for good reason - Prime Day 2020 will feature more than 1 million deals across tech, home, kitchen, style, beauty, and more.

When is Prime Day 2020?

The dates have not yet been announced, but some reports say Amazon is planning for sometime in October. It usually happens in mid-July and could last more than 48 hours this year.

Is Prime Day open to everyone?

Only Amazon Prime members (get a 30-day free trial here) can access this huge sale. While we don't know yet when Prime Day will happen this year, we're pretty sure it'll be in mid-July, so just make sure you're a Prime member or you've started your 30-day trial by then.

Where can you find the best Prime Day 2020 deals?

You'll be able to browse featured deals on this Amazon page on Prime Day, but the real page you'll want to bookmark and check back on throughout the event is this article. We'll be sifting through all the deals and showing you only the best ones so you can save time and get on with your day.

Below is a sampling of the kinds of deals you can expect from Prime Day 2020. Brands often discount the same products, and most Amazon devices will be on sale, so keep these deals in mind as Prime Day approaches.

The best deals from last year's Prime Day: