8 shopping benefits that come with your Prime membership

Prime Day is one of the biggest sales events of the year, boasting millions of discounted items in categories across the entire site during the two-day event. Members can also save more during events like Prime Big Deal Days. To take advantage of the deals, you need to be a Prime member.

Every day, there are thousands of deals on an ever-rotating set of products at Amazon.com. Amazon is known for its fun Lightning deals, but it’s easy to miss out on these short-lived savings. Prime members, though, can get early access to Lightning deals 30 minutes before anyone else.

Prime members with a number of ongoing prescriptions might want to subscribe to RxPass. The Amazon Pharmacy program allows members to get all their eligible generic medications for one low price of $5 per month.

Amazon has several ways for Prime members to save money on medicine. For example, Prime members can routinely save up to 80% on prescriptions at about 60,000 pharmacies, including with Amazon Pharmacy, when paying without insurance.

Want to start building credit—or need to rebuild your credit? The Amazon Prime Secured Card has no annual fee and gives you 2% at Amazon, Amazon Fresh, and other Amazon businesses.

Want to buy clothes online but don’t like the hassle of returning products that don’t fit? Amazon Prime’s Try Before You Buy program lets you order clothes, shoes, jewelry and other accessories and then try them at home for free. You can easily send back anything you don’t want and you only pay for the items you keep.

As a Prime member, your benefits aren't limited just to Amazon.com. You also get exclusive discounts when shopping at Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, both online and in-store. Prime members who shop in-store at Amazon Fresh can score 10% off on hundreds of items across the aisles. At Whole Foods Market, Prime members receive deep discounts on a rotating selection and save an extra 10% off hundreds of sale items.

Finally, Prime helps you at many other retailers as well. If you make a purchase on a site that isn’t Amazon, you can look for Buy With Prime at checkout. If the site participates, you can get Prime benefits like fast, free shipping and easy return policies.