Amazon's invitation-only "Luxury Stores" will allow consumers to shop top brands as a "store within a store"
Amazon Prime Day has tons of sales. AFP / Sajjad HUSSAIN

Amazon (AMZN) is gearing up for Black Friday with a two-day Early Access Sale for Prime members.

The sales event will be held Oct. 11 to Oct. 12, starting at 12 a.m. PDT in the U.S., U.K., Austria, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey.

Amazon promises "hundreds of thousands of deals," which will kick off the holiday season for shoppers. New deals will be unveiled throughout the 48-hour sale, including products from its electronics, fashion, home, kitchen, pets, toys, and Amazon device categories.

The Prime Early Access Sale is open to Amazon Prime members with a membership that can be started with a 30-day free trial for $14.99 per month or $139 per year. Prime memberships also include free delivery on groceries, prescription medication discounts, unlimited streaming access, one-year free Grubhub membership, and more perks.

Jamil Ghani, vice president of Amazon Prime, said in a statement, "We are so excited to help Prime members kick off the holiday season with Amazon's new Prime Early Access Sale—an exclusive opportunity for members to get deep discounts on top brands we know they are looking for this time of year."

Amazon has made it easy to score the best deals during the sale by allowing Prime members to set up personalized deal notifications about their recent searches and viewed items. Members need to visit the Prime Early Access Sale page on the Amazon app to create sales alerts.

Deals can also be created through Alexa for items in members' Wish List, Cart, or Save for Later lists. Here, Prime members will be notified up to 24 hours in advance of these items going on sale and can even purchase them through Alexa when the deal goes live.

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This is the first time that Amazon has held a second Prime sale in on year. Its Prime Day sale is typically held in July.

Amazon isn't the only retailer that is holding an early sale as Black Friday looms. Target will hold its Deal Days sale from Oct. 6 and Oct. 8, and Walmart is rolling back prices in anticipation of the holidays on products such as toys, home goods, electronics, and beauty as shoppers battle inflation amid the upcoming holiday season.

As of Monday premarket hours, shares of Amazon were trading at $112.97, down 81 cents or 0.71%.