Amazon promises 100,000 exclusive deals to Prime members Credit: HalfPoint/Thinkstock You won’t necessarily be able to use Amazon Prime Day on July 12 as an excuse to avoid family, like some do with , but Amazon is promising that you’ll get to choose from 100,000 great online shopping deals. MORE: The second annual Amazon Prime Day is available only to those who have subscribed to Amazon Prime, which gets you free shipping, access to entertainment content and more for $99 a year (though you can also go the free trial route if you just want to dip in for Amazon Prime Day). Amazon says that new deals will pop up as frequently as every 5 minutes, and that last year’s Prime Day surpassed Black Friday 2014 for sales volume, with members ordering nearly 400 items per second. Spotlight deals will feature popular brands at deep discounts, and will last until supplies are depleted. Lightning deals will last for short periods, maybe a few hours. Other deals will last throughout the day. Headphones, diapers, video game consoles, wireless routers, mobile device cases and toys were among the items on sale last year during Amazon Prime Day. MORE: Prime Day will be available to shoppers in the United States as well as 9 other countries. Brexit be damned — even the U.K. gets to play, along with Spain, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Belgium and Austria. Amazon is encouraging members to sign up for its app to make parting with your money even easier. Like with Black Friday, Amazon Prime Day actually starts before the big day. Amazon will count down to July 12 starting on July 5, with exclusive deals for members. Among the deals revealed: a 32-inch TV bundle with a Fire TV Stick for $120. Prime Music Experiences will give customers a chance to win special trips and tickets to see performers such as Norah Jones and The Lumineers. There will also be a $5K photo sweepstakes. Last year, while Amazon did sell a boatload of stuff, some said the shopping event amounted to little more than a garage sale and they took to social media to give Amazon the business. Hashtags such as #PrimeDayFail took off, as people complained about many deals closing almost as soon as they opened. But you have to figure Amazon will have learned a few things from the first time around, so here’s hoping this event goes off smoothly. Related content news analysis iPhone 8 Rumor Rollup: Cranking up the processors; 3D cameras; $1K-plus price With iPhone 8 A11 processors reportedly in production, the next great Apple smartphone is starting to feel more real By Bob Brown May 14, 2017 3 mins Small and Medium Business Smartphones Apple news analysis SNL one step ahead of Amazon with Echo Silver In SNL spoof, Amazon and AARP team to address senior citizens' most pressing digital assistant needs By Bob Brown May 14, 2017 1 min Small and Medium Business Amazon.com Collaboration Software news analysis You really should know what the Andrew File System is "Model of storing data in cloud and delivering parts of it via on-demand caching at the edge is something everyone takes for granted today," one AFS creator says By Bob Brown May 10, 2017 7 mins IT Training Open Source Servers news analysis Getting a jump on private LTE networks Federated Wireless, Lemko join forces on CBRS wireless networks for private LTE By Bob Brown May 08, 2017 3 mins Small and Medium Business Internet of Things Mobile Podcasts Videos Resources Events NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe