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Amazon Paywall? Prime members to get early access to Lightning Deals

By on October 13, 2014

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Announced earlier today, Amazon will be giving Prime subscribers a 30-minute head start on selected Lightning Deals this year during the holiday shopping season. Also enabled on Amazon-owned fashion site MyHabit, Amazon users will be able to locate these deals with a “Prime Early Access Deal” notation. Of course, an Amazon Prime membership will cost consumers a $99 fee. Prime comes with a variety of perks that include free two-day shipping and access to Amazon Instant Video content.

If you are unfamiliar with how Lightning Deals work, these are hand-picked items limited to a specific quantity. The price on these items is usually dropped by 25% to 80% until the entire allotment is sold. Hypothetically, the 30-minute window should provide a substantial edge to Prime members as many of the best Lightning Deals can sell out in just a few minutes.

However, it’s unclear on how many of the deals will be marked for early access, both in the Lightning Deals section and MyHabit. Most of these promotions are expected to go live at 9 a.m. PT for regular Amazon users and at 8:30 a.m. PT for Amazon Prime users. You can expect to see the first batch of these access restricted deals to roll out in the coming weeks.

Be sure to check our Amazon Deal feed for our picks of the best Lightning Deals this year.

About Mike Flacy

Editor-in-Chief for The CheckOut. During my free time, I love to write about pop culture, home theater, digital photography, social media, mobile technology and cool gadgets!

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