It’s that time of the year when Amazon celebrates its birthday with massive sales, and this year they are touted to be bigger than Black Friday.

While places like America and the UK are celebrating with all hands on deck, thankfully this year you don’t have to feel left out.

You see, Amazon’s delivery service doesn’t offer South Africa as a destination, so we tend to be left out of such celebrations.

But don’t worry about such trivial things – we have all the tips and tricks for you, a South African, to also take advantage of the sales.

Ready?

The 30-hour sale will take place between July 10 and July 11 (starting at 7PM our time on Monday), and to prepare for the day this is what you need to do:

First, you need an Amazon Prime account

Although this costs R100 per month, your first month is free, so sign up for the trial and you’re good to go.

Second, know what you’re doing

Not only will there be deals that run for the whole of Prime Day, but there are also flash Lightning Deals that will pop up more than usual throughout the 30-hour period. They last around 10 minutes each, or until the product has run out.

The deals are sorted into categories, and this year the Amazon app will allow you to watch a product and send you a notification when a deal begins.

Find a website that tracks the best deals

Last year, The Wire Cutter‘s staff scanned nearly 8 000 deals and found only 64 worth posting about. But they kept their readers up to date with each and every find, and they’re not the only ones to do so. Locate your favourite now, whether it’s a Twitter stream or trusted website.

CamelCamelCamel

No, that’s not a typo, but rather the name of a website that tracks prices on Amazon, just in case you want to check if that deal you’re getting is in fact as big as they say it is.

Get an overseas delivery address

The main reason South Africans aren’t able to indulge in such sales is because of our address: Amazon doesn’t deliver here.

But that’s why we have Postbox Courier.

You can order anything, from anywhere in the world, without the hassle of stressing about whether or not they ship to our neck of the woods – including Amazon.

But how? Check it:

Sign Up
Register free of charge with Postbox Courier via their website. They will assign you with a Personal Postbox at each of our worldwide depots. Look out for the confirmation email which provides a link to activate your account.

Sign In
Once you have activated your account, you will be able to login to view your unique Postbox addresses, by clicking the “View your Personal Postbox addresses” banner. Your addresses are permanent, so you can save them and start sending items to your Postbox.

Notify them of incoming items
Each time you send something to Postbox Courier, please notify them via the Parcel Pre-Alert (in your Parcel Manager).

Manage your orders
You can ship single items or multiple pieces combined into a single shipment. If you do wish to consolidate orders from different suppliers (in the same origin country), you will be able to do so in your Parcel Manager. Just notify them of each shipment that is en-route to your Postbox, and then use the ‘Group’ button to let them know which items you wish to combine

Pay for shipping
Once they receive the items that correspond with your booking they’ll let you know via email and invite you to login to your Parcel Manager and make payment, upon which they will courier your items to your door within South Africa immediately.

If we come across any more information we will be sure to let you know, we’re always happy to help.

But in the meantime, with over 100 000 items slashed in price, there’s no reason for you not to take advantage so start prepping for the big day now.

Sign up, sign in and be at the ready to score big on whatever you happen to need want.

[source:thesun&thetelegraph&arstechnica]