Amazon reveals when Prime Day 2021 will happen

Prime Day is Amazon’s annual savings extravaganza, but it’s not always held the same day or even month. That makes it hard to predict when Prime Day will happen from year to year, and 2021 is no exception. However, Amazon has just given us a major clue.

The company announced during its first-quarter earnings conference call that it is moving Prime Day 2021 to the second quarter. More specifically, Amazon executives said Prime Day will land in June. It also said this year’s sale will be a two-day event: “We are excited to announce that we will hold the two-day savings event during the second quarter,” said Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky on the call.

Unfortunately, Olsavsky still wouldn’t provide an exact date for June. He did, however, explain why Amazon held Prime Day in October last year, rather than July, which is more typical. He also explained why the company is ruling out July this year, saying it will likely be a big vacation month for consumers:

“On the timing, last year, we had intended to hold Prime Day earlier. We — there are a number of factors, the Olympics, which are still out there this year. In fact, in some – many areas, July is a big vacation month. So, it might be better to have – for customers, sellers and vendors to experiment with a different time period. We experimented the other way, obviously, in 2020 by moving it into October, but we believe that it might be a better timing later in Q2. So that’s what we’re testing this year.”

For reference, in past years, Amazon held Prime Day on the following dates:

Wednesday 15 July 2015: Lasted 24 hours
Tuesday 12 July 2016: Lasted 24 hours
Tuesday 11 July to 12 July 2017: Lasted 30 hours
Monday 16 July to 17 July 2018: Lasted 36 hours
Monday 15 July to 16 July 2019: Lasted 48 hours
Tuesday 13 October to 14 October 2020: Lasted 48 hours

So, based on those previous dates, if we had to guess, Prime Day 2021 might be held on Monday 14 June or Tuesday 15 June. We’ll let you know as soon as Amazon announces the actual date. In the meantime, stay tuned to our Prime Day hub for all the latest details.