The first Prime Day was 10 years ago today on July 15, 2015. Amazon started it for Prime customers to mark the company’s 20th anniversary. It’s gotten bigger and longer since then.

“Usually it’s like one or two days. They’ve expanded it to four days,” Erie News Now's coupon general, April Blum, said. “That was a great time for people to stock up on all kinds of stuff.”

Many people took advantage of the deals. Amazon said this year's Prime Day was their biggest ever.

They said customers saved billions of dollars. Competitors like Target and Walmart also had deals.

“Amazon has been so successful in this process that you have other companies [joining] in because they see that the people are willing to purchase during the summertime to get those big sales,” she said. 

The sales came days before President Trump threatened new tariffs on the European Union, Mexico, and other countries.

Blum doesn’t think new tariffs will affect prices on the big-ticket items this holiday season.

“A lot of the products that they’re marketing at Christmas, a lot of them are already here because they want to make sure, first of all, that they have the quantities available,” she said. 

She said many stores probably know what will be on sale.

“I guarantee you that marketing companies have already planned on what the deals are going to be six months in advance,” she said. 

That means people don’t have to start their Christmas shopping now to avoid tariffs.

But if they do, Blum said to start by setting a budget.

“If you’re concerned about cost, then consider purchasing [over] a longer drawn-out time,” she said.  

She said the next big sales on gifts probably won’t be until Black Friday. Until then, shoppers can look for deals on apps like Honey and Rakuten.