Prime Day and Fourth of July sales excel in different categories: Prime Day is typically the best time to buy tech, electronics, beauty products, and back-to-school essentials, while Fourth of July sales shine for appliances, mattresses, patio furniture, and home improvement items.
Timing your purchases can lead to bigger savings: Shoppers can save more by splitting their shopping lists between the two events instead of buying everything during one sale.
Don’t rely on sale tags alone: Checking price history, comparing retailers, and stacking promo codes, cash back offers, and rewards can help ensure you’re getting a genuine deal.
Summer shoppers are getting an unusually early start on deal season this year, with Amazon Prime Day arriving before the Fourth of July sales rush.
While both events promise big savings, they aren’t necessarily interchangeable.
ConsumerAffairs spoke with RetailMeNot Retail Insights Expert Stephanie Carls, who explained knowing which products are typically discounted during each sale can help consumers avoid overspending and score the best prices. From laptops and beauty products to appliances and patio furniture, timing your purchases strategically could make a noticeable difference in how much you save.
What is Prime Day best for?
Carls broke down what categories consumers should focus on during Prime Day:
Tech and electronics: Amazon historically offers some of its steepest discounts on its own devices, including Echo speakers, Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets, and Ring security products. Competing retailers also roll out aggressive promotions on headphones, laptops, and smart home gadgets to capture Prime Day shoppers.
Back-to-school essentials: Prime Day's late-June timing aligns with the start of back-to-school shopping season, making it an ideal time to buy laptops, tablets, backpacks, dorm essentials, and school supplies before demand – and prices – pick up later in the summer.
Beauty and personal care: Expect strong discounts on everyday essentials like skincare devices, hair tools and beauty products.
Streaming devices and TVs: Major brands often release midyear TV promotions during Prime Day as they make room for incoming fall inventory. Streaming devices, soundbars and home entertainment accessories also see significant markdowns.
Best Fourth of July deals
On the other hand, Fourth of July has its own specialties, including:
Appliances: Fourth of July sales are one of the biggest appliance shopping events of the year, with retailers offering deep discounts on washers, dryers, refrigerators, and kitchen packages as they clear inventory ahead of Labor Day promotions and new model releases.
Mattresses and bedding: Mattress brands consistently use holiday weekends to run some of their strongest promotions, including bundle deals, free accessories, and extended financing offers.
Outdoor gear and patio furniture: Retailers begin clearing seasonal inventory after the peak spring shopping season, creating opportunities to save on grills, outdoor decor, patio sets, and lawn equipment – while there's still plenty of summer left to enjoy them.
Tools and home improvement: Home improvement retailers often align Fourth of July promotions with peak DIY season, offering discounts on power tools, paint, hardware, and landscaping equipment as homeowners tackle summer projects.
“Prime Day and the Fourth of July are built for different carts,” Carls said. “Prime Day is a tech event. The best drops are on electronics, Amazon’s own devices, laptops, and small kitchen appliances, and a lot of those hit their lowest prices of the year this week.
“Fourth of July is a home and outdoor event, where the deals move to the big stuff you want to see before you buy: mattresses, furniture, large appliances, patio, and grills. If your list has both split it across the two events. You’ll do better than trying to cram everything into June.”
A true discount vs. inflated prices
One of the best things shoppers can do for both of these sales is take a little extra time and do your homework. You want to be sure that the sale price you see is actually a true discount and not just a markdown from an inflated price.
“Know what the item cost last week,” Carls said. “That’s the whole trick. A crossed-out price and a ‘lowest of the year’ badge are easy to print and they don’t always mean much.
“The fastest way to check is the price history. Amazon’s own shopping assistant will now pull up to a year of pricing on most products, and there are free browser tools that do the same. If the Prime Day price matches what it’s been all spring, the badge is doing the work, not the discount. Retailers are counting on you not remembering. A ten-second check fixes that.”
Stack your savings
Whether you’re shopping Prime Day, Fourth of July, or both, you’ll want to stack your savings to make the most of the sales.
Here’s Carls’ best advice:
Start with the sale price, then stack on top of it. The biggest savings almost always come from stacking, not from a single promotion. A sale price plus a promo code plus cash back plus card rewards beats any one of those alone.
Use cash back you’re already eligible for. Many shoppers leave it on the table. Prime members and cardholders often have cash back or rewards that apply right on top of Prime Day pricing, so the sticker price isn’t actually the lowest price you can get. Savings and cash back sites like RetailMeNot will do all this stacking for you.
Compare across retailers before you commit. The same item can run lower at Walmart, Target, or Best Buy during the same week, and stacking a competitor’s promo with cash back can beat the Amazon price outright. The week belongs to whoever has the best final number, not the biggest banner.
“The smartest move right now takes about thirty seconds,” Carls said. “Get clear on what you actually want, then set a price alert on it. Amazon’s Alexa will build you a deal guide and ping you when your items hit the number you wanted, so you stop refreshing and start letting the right deal come to you.”