Going back to school means having to purchase new clothes, dorm and apartment essentials, upgraded electronics and more. This is often a stressful time for many students and parents because they have so much to do in such a short amount of time. Dealing with expenses as college students can be especially grueling, as we are always looking to save. Trying to figure out what you actually need, while making lists that you might constantly add to, can be time consuming so it is very important to start the process early! Amazon recently announced that Prime Day will take place on Monday, July 15 and Tuesday, July 16 this year (double the sale!). They also announced an Amazon off-to-college shop which is a one-stop shop for all of your college essential needs.
For those of you who don’t know, Amazon Prime Day is the annual shopping holiday that’s exclusive to Prime subscribers. It is basically a Black Friday sale in July as many other retailers are having big discounts and sales during the same time. Some of the deals and offers you may come across include popular Amazon products like the Echo, Alexa, Kindle and Fire Tablet. Alexa can even be a great apartment or dorm toy to answer your homework questions and play music to entertain!
Prime Day will be especially helpful to get ahead with your back-to-school shopping experience. RetailMeNot predicts that over 250 retailers will participate in Prime Day, resulting in a 30% growth. Additionally, 84% of retailers say that the week of Prime Day is the most important time for sales during back-to-school season shopping as parents plan to shop at an average of 11 retailers during Prime Day sales. We got the chance to receive Prime Day retailer insights and consumer behavior predictions from RetailMeNot’s resident shopping and trends expert, Sara Skirboll. Sara has more than a decade of experience working within retail, fashion and beauty and she frequently speaks to trends and statistics within those areas. Sara stated, “Just because it’s Prime Day and Amazon has something on sale, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the best deal out there. Do your due diligence and price compare. Especially now that other retailers are jumping on board and offering promotions during Prime Day, you might find the item you want at a lower price elsewhere.” She adds that something to watch out for in this realm is consumer electronics because, “Some of the biggest deals of the year from the retail industry on things like consumer electronics are still concentrated on Black Friday. Hold out until November for items like TV’s, laptops, cameras and Apple products if you don’t need them immediately.”
So maybe stock up on those Amazon electronic essentials and prime deals in their off-to-college section, but hold out a little longer for TV’s for your apartment or a new Apple laptop for school.
Make sure to scout the best deals and take advantage of great discounts, but also do your research to make sure better deals won’t come out on holidays like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The deals and essentials you find will save you tons of money on back-to-school shopping and have you prepared ahead off time to take off some stress.