Amazon has dubbed this its “bigger than ever, Prime Day (and a half)”, with the promotional event extending from 30 hours to 36 hours this year and featuring more than one million deals globally, with 40% more ‘Spotlight’ deals in the UK than in 2017.

Amazon’s annual shopping event, Prime Day, will start at midday on July 16 and will run until midnight on July 17, with more than one million deals available exclusively for Prime members around the world.

E-commerce expert Parcel Hero believes this year’s Prime Day – which was moved back a week to avoid a World Cup clash - will be a $1.6billion loss-leader for Amazon, creating millions more Prime members and with sales expected to be up 60% on 2017’s record revenues.

Members in the UK, US, Spain, Mexico, Japan, India, Italy, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium, Austria and, new this year, Australia, Singapore, Netherlands and Luxembourg, will be able to shop deals across electricals, smart home, kitchenware, furniture, appliances, grocery, toys, fashion, and more.

Amazon CEO for Worldwide Consumer, Jeff Wilke said: “Prime members will enjoy a day and a half of epic deals, with 36 hours to shop more than one million deals across the globe.”

Also new for this year,  well-known and emerging brands will launch exclusive new items and offers for a  limited time on Amazon.co.uk in the lead up to and during Prime Day, before  they launch anywhere else in the UK.

The shopping event includes ‘Lightning Deals’, which are are watchable 24 hours ahead of the official Prime shopping day, but only run for a limited time with limited quantities. New Lightning Deals will launch online as often as every five minutes. Shoppers will see a timer on each deal, as well as a status bar showing availability until the deal is claimed. Shoppers need to add the product to their cart and checkout within 15 minutes to ensure they snag the deal.

A selection of the deals available today include:

• Russell Hobbs Powersteam Ultra 3100 iron for £24.99, down from £59.99
• A five-pack of Bosch T118A T-Shank jigsaw blades for steel for £6.02 down from £9.20
• Bosch Rotak 40-17 Ergoflex electric rotary lawnmower reduced from £184.99 to £139.99
• Kärcher WV1 Plus window vacuum cleaner, 3.7 V for £34.99, down from £49.99
• Bosch 2607017319 Professional colour coded 32-piece screwdriver bit set for £11.99, down from £20.99
• 18-piece Makita D-47173 mixed drill set metal box for £13.25, down from £31.29
• WORX WG505E 3000W Trivac garden blower mulcher and vacuum for £62.99, down from £89.99

If shoppers miss a deal, they can join a waitlist to receive a notification if additional items become available.

Amazon also maintains that the shopping event benefit small and medium-sized businesses across the globe selling on Amazon Launchpad, Amazon Handmade, and Amazon Exclusives. On Prime Day in 2017, customers ordered more than 40 million items from small and medium-sized businesses worldwide.