Amazon Prime Day is one of the biggest shopping events of the year outside of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and this year’s fall incarnation (once again known as Prime Big Deal Days) will take place on October 8-9. The two-day shopping event will likely give Prime members access to some of the best deals of the year on Amazon devices, as well as products from Sony, Sonos, Peloton, Withings and other well-known brands. This applies to a range of categories, including gaming peripherals, laptops, 4K TVs, mobile phones, computer accessories and more.
As always, you can trust us to post only the best deals during Prime Big Deal Days, as well as any great deals from Walmart, Best Buy, and other competitor retailers. That said, if you want to make sure you grab all the deals that matter most to you, or be the first to know about certain price drops, we’ve put together some helpful tools and advice.
Below, we’ve detailed some of the most important deal-finding tips, from how to use an automated price tracker to the different ways to set up your own personalized trade alerts. All of these methods and tools are free to use, and as long as you put in a little work, you can rest easy knowing that you don’t need to take much action before making a purchase.
Use a price tracking tool or trade aggregator
CamelCamelCamel tracks the price of every product sold on Amazon and sends you alerts when it hits a price that works for you. Once the product reaches the desired price you set or is lower, you will receive an email about the product. camel camel camel camel camel only However, it works for products on Amazon, so if you want to track price changes at Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and other retailers, you’ll need to use the other products below.
To track prices and get alerts via email, you need to create a free account. Additionally, we recommend installing the site’s browser extension, called The Camelizer, which lets you view pricing trends for individual products and allows you to set your desired price without leaving Amazon. It’s great and easy to use.
As soon as one of the products falls below the amount set in the price alert, you will receive an email immediately. If you already have a wish list saved on Amazon, you can import it to CamelCamelCamel.
Like CamelCamelCamel, the PayPal Honey browser extension can track prices on items you’re interested in and alert you via email when deals are found. However, unlike the price tracking sites above, Honey also scours every site you visit looking for promo codes that can be applied to your checkout total, saving you even more money.
Honey partners with Amazon and many other retailers, and you can add items to a “Droplist,” which is basically just a wish list. In most cases, the option to add an item to your list will pop up on the right, and you can select the price watch duration and the percentage discount you’re looking for. As an added convenience, Honey also automatically adds items you view frequently to your Droplist, thanks to its so-called “Smart Droplist” feature, which can be turned on and off at your discretion.
smooth deal Bringing together some of the best deals on the internet discovered by its team and user community. This is a great place to find curated deals that may interest you. More than what they do on the above mentioned site.
You can enter a product name, such as “Sonos Era 100” or a retailer name, and once it’s added to your list, you’ll be notified of deal alerts if it matches your criteria. You can set it to alert you of any deals related to your keywords, or you can filter out deals so that you’re notified if, for example, the deal is popular enough to make it to the front page of Slickdeals or has a high of reviews come from community ratings. However, setting these keywords too broadly may result in frequent notification pings and emails, so you’ll need to err on the side of caution and find the right balance between how aggressively you want Slickdeals to notify you.
Keepa is another handy tool you can use to track and compare Amazon prices over time. Like CamelCamelCamel, Keepa provides charts that track price trends and alerts you when deals are found. You can also import any wish lists you’ve previously saved on Amazon.
However, unlike CamelCamelCamel, you don’t necessarily need to set up an account to track prices with Keepa. Just install the extension and Keepa will automatically add price history charts to the list of supported products. The embedded extension also has different tabs, one showing pricing history and another allowing you to specify various pricing details. After setting your desired price, you will receive price alerts via email, push notification, Telegram or RSS.
Set up transaction reminder notifications via Alexa or the Amazon app
If you’re a Prime member and have a fourth-generation Echo speaker or newer, you can also ask Amazon to send you 24-hour advance notifications of deals on products you’re interested in. And any products you mark as “Save for Later” will be reduced in price. To enable this feature, tap More > Settings > Notifications in the Alexa app, then tap Amazon Shopping. Then, scroll down to Shopping Recommendations and enable Deal Recommendations. Once completed, both your device and your Echo speaker (the latter in the form of a yellow ring) will receive a notification informing you of the transaction.
Alternatively, you can sign up to receive offer alerts on products you’ve recently viewed in the Amazon Shopping app and products related to your recent searches. If you’re a Prime member, you can create a reminder by simply navigating to the Prime Big Deal Days event page in the mobile app between now and October 8th. Once completed, you will receive push notifications for any offers you subscribe to when the event starts on October 8th. You can also open the Amazon Shopping app and tap Settings > Notifications > Deals & Recommendations, then toggle “Savings” and/or “Recommendations.”
Find deals outside of Amazon
Prime Day and Prime Big Deal Days are events that showcase Amazon’s massive retail presence, so other retail chains naturally take notice. So sometimes you can find better deals at retailers like Target, Walmart, and Best Buy. At least, they’ll probably be able to match Amazon’s pricing if you ask.
If Amazon’s upcoming sale doesn’t offer everything you’re looking for, or you just want to make sure you’re getting the best deal, shop around. For example, Walmart will hold its own sale starting on October 8, and Target plans to hold a “Circle Week” sale starting on October 6 for members of its free Target Circle program. Once again, you’ll be able to find all of our deal coverage on and off Amazon here.
Trust the experts
We’re a discerning bunch here at The Verge, so don’t worry if you’re jumping into this without any preparation. We’ll round up the best tech deals and update our coverage in the lead-up to the main event. So mark your calendars for October 8th and 9th, sign up for Amazon Prime and our new and improved Verge Deals newsletter, and maybe start saving a little cash.
