Amazon Prime Day returns on July 12 Oh boy bet you’re excited

Amazon’s Prime Day aka national internet junk yard sale day is making a return on July 12, despite overwhelming disappointment from its inaugural year.

Most of the criticisms from last year stem from the extreme hype and marketing around Prime Day. Users were expecting massive savings on big ticket items, only to find sales on basic household products like socks, plastic cups, and phone cases. Many users also complained that items in their wish lists were only discounted by a $1 or less.

Users in massive need of lube, however, got a deal of a lifetime.

But perhaps it will get better this year. Subreddit r/Primedaydeals is a good place to keep your eyes on when July 12 comes around as the site gets updated with new deals constantly. Remember: many of the items will be Prime-exclusive, so you will need a membership to take part in the savings.

And if you’re not Amazon, other retailers also saw a spike in sales on Prime Day last year so prepare your inventories.

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Amazon Prime Day sucks. Here’s how it could do better

Amazon Prime Day, the new made-up holiday by the marketplace giant that promised great deals for their Amazon Prime subscribers, sucks. I mean, it really sucks. The trumpeted, high-profile deals on Amazon products like the Amazon Echo went blazingly fast, leaving the rest of the slow plebes or late-comers tobasically junk.

I believe Amazon can do better, and I want to believe that Amazon wants to do better. Here are some super simple ways to make Prime Day 2016 better. If there is a Prime Day 2016.

Employ the Wish List & Order History

Amazon users who are also Prime subscribers clearly see value in paying $99 annually to take advantage of two-day shipping — it’s likely that they also keep track of what they want and what they’ve bought from Amazon, too.

I’m a Prime subscriber, and although I go on and order spontaneously, I keep a running Wish List of things I’d like to purchase on the site. These items are often “nice-to-have” and are worth buying only as presents to myself on special occasions, or to hint to loved ones during holidays.

What if, say, 24 hours before sale, you could get a special note that one of your Wish List items was about to get a deep discount? Or if the Wish List also included a little icon next to products already announced for Prime Day? Amazon should at least let its Prime subscribers know that something they’ve been watching for a long time is about to be available for a good price.

Ditto for your Order History. I make some regular purchases on Amazon, and would be thrilled to know I could stock up on Prime Day — even if it was for something silly like discounted electric toothbrush replacement heads.

Do day-of alerts

This is another no-brainer. Even if Amazon is hesitant to play its hand too early and wants to keep the items involved on Prime Day a mystery, you should at least have the option to flag a particular product and get an alert when it goes on sale during Prime Day.

This technique has really been perfected during game platform Steam’s semi-annual sales: If you see a game you like that’s already discounted but you suspect it could be found at a deeper discount later, you can just add it to your current wishlist andSteam will notify you if it goes on as Daily Deal, Midweek Madness or Weekend Deal.

This would be especially useful as new flash deals get unveiled throughout the day, and no one wants to spend their time refreshing the homepage to see if anything looks good.

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