Prime Day starts tonight! And if you’re hoping to grab some of the hottest deals, vigilance is critical. The problem: You’ve got a life to lead —and constantly refreshing the Amazon homepage at your desk isn’t a good way to impress your boss.
Fortunately, there are a number of ways to track the onslaught of bargains. Just remember that if you see one that intrigues you, you may need to act fast.
The app – Amazon’s Shopping App (available for Android and iOS) is the most direct way to keep an eye out for discounts on items on your wishlist. Go to the app’s settings menu, click notifications and toggle alerts on for “Your Watched and Waitlisted Deals.” From there, go to the main dashboard and select “Today’s Deals” (it’s a long list). See something you want? Select the “Watch this deal” button below it.
Alexa – Amazon’s Echo devices are getting first crack at a number of exclusive deals. If you’ve got one in proximity, ask, “Alexa, what are your deals?” And she’ll read out bargains to you regularly. (Just be sure you’ve enabled voice purchasing beforehand.)
Amazon Assistant – If you can’t keep the Amazon homepage open throughout the day, you can enable it to push alerts to you. Amazon Assistant is a browser add-on that provides instant deal notifications (as well as order updates, etc.).
CamelCamelCamel.com – Not all Prime Day deals are actually deals. CamelCamelCamel doesn’t track Prime Day sales, per se, but it does follow the price history of all products on Amazon. You can set it to send an alert when the price drops to a certain point. That way, you’re not only among the first to know when the deal hits, but you won’t fall for “special prices” that aren’t all that special.
SlickDeals – There are a number of deal hunting Websites online, but few are as voracious as SlickDeals.net. The site has a Web-based price tracker that can alert you to deals not only on Amazon, but on other sites.
Facebook – Odds are you’re going to be checking in on Facebook Monday evening and sporadically throughout Tuesday anyway, so make it work for you. Head over to Amazon’s page on the social network and follow it. Last year, the company sent out extra deal notifications via Facebook and while it hasn’t made any announcements about doing so again this year, it can’t hurt.