7 Amazon Canada Hacks That Will Help You Score The Biggest Savings On Prime Day This Week

Get an account

To access the best deals on Prime Day, you'll need to sign up for an Amazon Prime membership.

Having a membership has loads of benefits, which includes free shipping on thousands of items, access to music, eBooks, TV shows and movies, and recurring deliveries for household items.

Most notably though, members can get exclusive deals and discounts on Prime Day.

In Canada, it costs $9.99 per month (plus any applicable taxes) and you can cancel at any time.

Pay less for Prime

If you want to shop Prime Day sales but don't want to fork out for a membership, you can start a one-month free trial and cancel before you pay for your first official month.

If this is your intention, remember to set a reminder to cancel so you're not automatically charged for the first month of your membership.

If you're totally committed to a deal, you can sign up for a 12-month Prime plan for $99 for the whole year. This works out at $8.25 per month, so is cheaper than a monthly membership if you're planning to stick around long-term.

Canadian students can also save some money when it comes to membership fees, as people who are studying can get six months of Prime totally free. After that, it costs just $4.99 per month for the same services.

Browse in advance

To ensure you don't get carried away and spend all of your hard-earned money on Prime Day, one of the best things you can do is to prepare a "must-have" list in advance.

You can add items to your Amazon basket (without checking out) ahead of Prime Day, and check back on the sale dates to see if your saved products have been discounted.

If they haven't, you can use similar search terms to see if any other styles or brands have been reduced instead.

It's a good idea to do all of your research, browsing and list-making ahead of Prime Day if you have specific things you want to buy, to avoid getting side-tracked by deals on things you don't actually want or need.

Preview the discounts

If you want to get ahead of the masses, why not preview the best Prime Day deals before the big day(s)?

Amazon Canada has already shared a sneak peek into the types of products and brands that will be discounted as of Wednesday, so you can have a browse before you buy.

If you're looking for something in particular, or are hoping to compare offers from different retailers, it's a great opportunity to take a look at what's going to get cheaper so you know where to check when the prices drop.

Get free shipping

While a Prime membership will get you free next-day shipping on thousands of items from a wide variety of sellers, it doesn't guarantee free shipping on everything and anything.

However, if you're a new customer and you place a qualifying order over $35, your shipping will be free.

This is worth keeping in mind if you have something in your basket that's close to that amount and the shipping costs are pretty pricey, as it could actually cost you less to buy another product!

Collect credits

Ahead of Prime Day, members can access credits that can be used to purchase goodies when the big sale comes around.

For example, the Amazon Stampcard is offering $10 in credit to customers who get "stamps" on their digital card. All you have to do is make a purchase, stream a movie, listen to a song, and borrow an eBook all through Prime — then you qualify for the voucher.

Use Amazon coupons

Even the most savvy shoppers don't realize you can actually use Amazon coupons to get discounts online.

Amazon Canada has its own page dedicated to coupons that can be used to reduce the cost of your online orders — although you must be a Prime member to access some of them.

There are vouchers for discounts on personal care items, toys, pet products, electronics, beauty products, video games and so much more.

And, many of these can be used in conjunction with Prime Day sales. Perfect!