Although Black Friday is still the best time to buy almost everything, many other seasonal sales events have become almost as big in recent years. With pretty much every retailer planning some sort of way to attract customers throughout 2026, even right now is an excellent time to find deals on tech, video games, and just about everything else.
If you're hoping to save some money at any point this year, there are a few different sale dates worth marking on your calendar. We've gathered some of the biggest upcoming sales events we know about to help you plan out your online (or in-store) shopping in 2026 and beyond.
Upcoming Sales Events
1. Valentine's Day Sales (Now–February 14)
Although Valentine's Day isn't a traditional shopping holiday, it is a time of year where everyone is more likely to buy gifts for their loved ones. Because of this, we always start to see discounts in early February all the way up to the day itself on just about anything that could be a gift. Some of the most common deals are on smart watches, jewelry, LEGO flower sets, video games, Pokemon plushies, book sets, and jigsaw puzzles. Since this is the first real sales event of 2025, Valentine's Day sales usually have the lowest prices of the year so far.
2. Presidents' Day Sales (February 12–16)
Following Valentine's Day is Presidents' Day, the first federal holiday where we start to see specific sales sprouting up. Presidents' Day lands on a Monday, but you will start seeing sales the week before. The most common discounts you'll find during this time are on mattresses, clothing, laptops, and PCs. However, you will also likely see sitewide sales from a variety of retailers, including Amazon sometimes.
3. Amazon Big Spring Sale (Last Weekend of March)
Last year Amazon decided to launch a new sale during the last weekend of March. Unlike exclusive sales events like Prime Day, the Big Spring sale was open to everyone and featured deals on a wide variety of products. Although it's not as big as some of the other sales events on this list, it's still a great time to find discounts. Last year we saw some great Amazon coupon deals on things like books, clothes, and sporting equipment.
Amazon has yet to announced dates for this sale and hasn't confirmed that it will be doing it again in 2026, but it seems likely that we'll see it again.
4. Independent Bookstore Day (April 25)
Independent Bookstore Day takes place on the last Saturday of April every year, which is almost always accompanied with some sort of sale. It's generally a great time to shop at your local book store as they may have cool events and exclusive books during that time. It's also when you can usually find some really good deals on books online as well. In 2025 it was around this time that Amazon launched its big spring book sale. This included deals on popular box sets as well as Kindle devices.
This is one of the best times of year to buy books at a discount, and you can likely expect Amazon to have another sale coinciding with the event again this year.
5. Star Wars Day Sales (May 4)
Although May the Fo(u)rth is more of a play-on-words holiday than an actual celebration, it's become a surprisingly good time to find deals on Star Wars merchandise, like LEGO Star Wars sets, movie collections, board games, and other collectibles. There is also usually some sort of discount on popular Star Wars games as well. If you're a fan of the franchise, it's worth doing some shopping on this day in particular.
6. Mother's Day Sales (May 8–11)
Similar to Valentine's Day, Mother's Day is a good time to find discounts on popular gift items. This will usually mean things like flowers, jewelry, watches, and chocolates, but sometimes you'll find discounts on other merchandise. It's another time of year when retailers know people are more likely to be buying gifts for mothers and you can expect prices to drop at least a little bit, even if not to Black Friday levels.
7. Memorial Day Sales (May 21–25)
The next big sale of 2026 is Memorial Day sales. Similar to Presidents' Day or Labor Day, the fact that a lot of people will have a three-day weekend during this holiday means retailers will be jumping at the chance to offer discounts. Some of the most popular discounts you'll find during this time are on things like mattresses, clothing, appliances, laptops, and furniture. That being said, big online retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy will all have a sales event around this time discounting much more than that. Memorial Day always falls on a Monday, but you can expect the Memorial Day sales to begin sometime the week before as consumers head into the weekend.
7. Dads and Grads Sales (June 1–21)
The beginning of June is a great time to find one of the biggest sales mashups of the year. Graduations usually take place sometime in the first two weeks of June and Father's Day lands closer to the end of the month this year. The result of this is retailers targeting both graduating students and dads with some sort of promotion. During this time you can usually find discounts on big-ticket items like TVs, laptops, PCs, furniture, and a variety of others things. It's a great time to find deals on electronics before the summer season kicks off and (the first) Amazon Prime Day rolls around later in July.
This is arguably the best time to buy a new laptop or a shop for a gaming PC if you're looking for the best possible discount.
8. 4th of July Sales (July 1–6)
Falling into the three-day weekend category of holiday sales, the 4th of July is a surprisingly great time to find discounts on a lot of things. Last year we saw price cuts on major electronics like TVs and gaming monitors that were just as good as Prime Day or Black Friday. All of the usual product categories that offer holiday discounts will also offer price cuts, so things like mattresses, major appliances, furniture, and clothing will all go on sale. Since it is also the first true official summer sale, you'll also usually find some good deals on things like sporting equipment and grills that you won't see again until Labor Day weekend.
9. Prime Day (Mid-July)
Amazon Prime Day is the first major sales event of the year and has grown to rival even Black Friday in terms of overall discounts. Although this event originally began as an Amazon-only sale, it has quickly grown into an event that practically every other retailer participates in. Last year we saw retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and even Kohl's offer some sort of counter sale to compete with Amazon. It's one of the only times of the year where it's a good time to look to buy just about anything you would need or want.
Although we don't know when Prime Day will be this year, we can take a guess based on previous years that it will take place sometime in the middle of July. Last year Amazon extended the sale into a four-day event, which we expect will happen again this year. This is a Prime-exclusive sale for Amazon, so you will need to be a Prime member to shop Amazon's deals.
10. Labor Day Sales (September 1–7)
Following Amazon's Prime Day sale, August will have a variety of back-to-school sales. However, the final version of this, and the overall best time to shop, is when retailers switch over to Labor Day sales marketing. Similar to Memorial Day, you can expect to find great discounts on things like mattresses, clothing, LEGO sets, laptops, PCs, Apple products, outdoor gear, and just about everything else you can think of. Not only is Labor Day weekend a holiday, it is also when most students are heading back to school. Because of this, it's one of the best times to shop before Black Friday comes around in November.
Although Labor Day always falls on Monday, the actual sales usually start the week before.
11. Prime Big Deal Days Sale(Mid-October)
Although it's a fairly new thing, Amazon has started offering a Prime Day-like sale in October ahead of Black Friday deals. The online retailer doesn't call it a Prime Day sale (this sale is "Prime Big Deal Days"), but that's essentially what it is. This first started in 2022 when Amazon announced a big fall sale to get ahead of the Black Friday shopping season and has since been adopted by other major retailers.
We don't yet have a date for the sale, it usually takes place during the second week of October and runs for a couple of days. You can check out our coverage of the event in 2025 for an idea of what to expect.
12. Black Friday Sales (October 31–November 28)
Black Friday is the best time to buy pretty much everything, regardless of the category or retailer. It's the single biggest shopping event and if there are discounts to be had, it's almost definitely going to be sometime during this sale. Although Black Friday 2026 itself lands on November 27, the actual sale has a much larger window than that.
You can expect the first Black Friday deals to start arriving shortly after October Prime Day sales are concluded (Best Buy started on Halloween last year), but the general rule of thumb is that all of November will have Black Friday pricing happening everywhere. Many of the best deals will still take place on Thanksgiving and the Friday afterwards.
In terms of when major retailers will start dropping their official Black Friday sales in 2026, we will have to wait for confirmation sometime in late October. But usually, you can expect those to begin right before the weekend before actual Black Friday – that would mean around November 20 this year.
13. Cyber Monday Sales (November 29–December 4)
Cyber Monday began back in 2005 as a way to offer shoppers online discounts after Thanksgiving weekend so they could avoid the in-store madness. With the majority of holiday sales moving to an online platform, it has since become just as big as Black Friday. Although there are sometimes differences between Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, they are generally the same thing. The only difference is when they actually happen.
You can expect Cyber Monday sales to kick off Sunday of Black Friday weekend, rather than actual Cyber Monday. And although the best deals will likely be on November 29 through November 30, many retailers extend their sale through the week by labeling the deals as part of Cyber Week.
14. Green Monday Sales (December 7–24)
Green Monday is actually a sales event created by eBay back in 2007. While it isn't nearly as big as Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it essentially represents the last stretch of sales before Christmas. The day itself was originally created as a way to promote the last day you could buy something online and get it shipped to you before the holidays, but thanks to faster shipping every year, that isn't necessarily as much of a problem for the bigger retailers.
In 2026, you can expect Green Monday sales to stretch pretty much right up until December 24 and maybe even through Christmas. Many retailers will label these as "last-minute" sales, but we've lumped them all into the same category.
15. New Year's Sales (December 26–January 1)
The final sales event of 2025 is centered around New Year's, but it usually starts just after Christmas. These discounts are a chance for retailers to take advantage of shoppers who are returning unwanted gifts and are now flush with extra cash. You can also expect some surprisingly good deals on older tech as these same retailers look to unload older models to make way for newer ones. Late December and early January are actually some of the best times to buy a TV or find a deal on a gaming monitor every year thanks to the proximity to CES, the annual Consumer Electronics Show.
Jacob has written for various different publications over his career covering commerce, tech, games, and entertainment. You can find the bulk of his previous work at Digital Trends and The Manual where he covered tech deals, Netflix, and food.
