Amazon (AMZN) has declared July 11 to be Prime Day, but the savings will kick off even earlier.

Starting at 9 pm ET on July 10, the site will begin offering new deals as often as every five minutes, the company said. The sales event will continue for 30 hours and be offered to shoppers in 13 countries. Some promotions will begin as early as Thursday.

This is the third time Amazon will be hosting the self-created sales holiday. Last year, Prime Day sales rose more than 60 percent from the prior year. In the U.S., orders were up more than 50 percent.

The first Prime Day was held on July 15, 2015, as a way to mark the company's 20th anniversary, and it proved to be such a success boosting sales and bringing in new Prime members that the company did it all again on July 12, 2016.

Since then, Amazon's base of Prime members has only grown in size, which may make it a bit harder to find new shoppers to bring into the fold. But that isn't stopping Amazon from trying. Prime members tend to be several-times more valuable to the company than non-member shoppers, and make up a sizable portion of its e-commerce sales.

Last year, Amazon spread out its deals further into the day than it did in year one, including more than 800 limited-time "Lightning Deals" that it launched in the evening hours.

This year, the e-commerce giant is once again upping the ante, proclaiming that there will be "hundreds of thousands of deals" on July 11. About 40 percent of this year's "Lightning Deals" will come from small businesses and entrepreneurs, the company said.

As usual, Amazon sees the sales event as way to promote its other products and services. For example, to promote its Amazon Echo and other related voice-activated products, there will be Alexa-exclusive deals, and to promote its Amazon Fire TV, there will be numerous TV deals.

The promotions that start Thursday focus on Amazon's various entertainment services. They include:

• Prime members can sign up for Amazon Music Unlimited for four months for 99 cents.

• If you stream video on your TV for the first time, you can receive $10 to shop on Amazon.com on or before Prime Day.

• Kindle Unlimited memberships will be as much as 40 percent off.

• Audible memberships will be 40 percent off for six months, or $8.95 per month.

• Prime members can see a sneak peek of the second season of "The Grand Tour."

Also, as Amazon tries to push further into staple, grocery items — a move that will be bolstered by its acquisition of Whole Foods, announced earlier this month — the company plans to sell various food and household items for as much as 35 percent off with onsite coupons in Prime Pantry.