Amazon Prime Day is just around the corner — here's how to find the best deals

Amazon Prime Day 2024 is just around the corner. The big event is on July 16 and 17 this year, and there are plenty of early deals and invite-only deals to shop already. But the best is yet to come.

Prime members can expect some steep markdowns sitewide during Prime Day, from TVs and Apple products to Kindles and robot vacuums. It's an exciting time for savvy shoppers, but it can also be overwhelming to research the best deals and make sure you're getting the best bang for your buck.

Let us make it easier on you with our guide to what to buy and what not to buy on Prime Day. And here are some more tools and tricks to guide you on your Prime Day journey.

Take advantage of price-tracking tools

Check out dedicated sites and browser extensions that do the work of tracking prices for you.

• Camelcamelcamel is a website that gives you price history charts on Amazon products and even sends you alerts when a price has dropped. To up your price-monitoring game, you can install its browser extension called "The Camelizer," which gives you instant access to price history while you're shopping.

• Keepa is a price monitoring site and browser extension that is dedicated to Amazon products. You can also use it to compare prices on other retailer sites like eBay.

• Other tools that can crawl the web for good deals and notify you about price drops are Honey and Slickdeals. These sites are particularly useful because "the Prime Day effect" usually causes other retailers to host competing sales.

Ask Alexa for help

If you have a newer Echo device, you can enable Alexa's advanced deal alerts feature to find and keep track of deals on products you want. The smart assistant will notify you up to 24 hours in advance of a deal you've added to your shopping cart, saved for later, or added to your Wish List. To turn on this setting, go to the Alexa app and open Notifications under Settings. From here, tap Amazon Shopping and scroll down to toggle Deal Recommendations. Your Echo device will flash a yellow ring to indicate this setting is live.

Check curated lists

Finding the best Prime Day price is one thing, but how do you even know what deals are being offered elsewhere? It's safe to assume that most products on Amazon have some kind of discount, but some deals are better than others, meaning it's important to know what to buy and what not to buy on Prime Day.

Mashable's shopping team is already doing the legwork of scouring Amazon's vast inventory to highlight the best deals out there, and we'll be on it through the sale. We're expecting Prime Day to be a good time to pick up tech like Apple devices, tablets, and headphones and speakers.

Don't forget about other retailers

During October's Prime Big Deal Days event, we saw other retailers capitalize on the fervor by hosting their own sales. This year, Target announced its Circle Week sale will run July 7-13. Walmart+ Week already went down in June, but it was an overall disappointment, so we're hoping for better deals from Walmart's recently announced Walmart Deals, running July 8-11. Best Buy just had a 4th of July sale, but they will likely announce another competing sale aligned with Prime Week as well.

Competition can be a great way to drive prices down, but certain retailers have specialties with these sales. Best Buy is usually good for big ticket tech like high-end TVs or laptops as well as gaming deals, Walmart is ideal for more budget-friendly TVs and home tech, and Target is best for everyday essentials.

Shop invite-only deals to avoid the chaos

This year, Amazon is once again hosting invite-only deals that give big discounts on in-demand items. Deals you can request now include headphones, a SodaStream bundle, and a watch, but more deals are likely to be announced. Last year, a 50-inch Amazon Fire TV Omni Series TV and a Blink Outdoor security camera system were available for 60% off. Lucky shoppers who are chosen for access to these deals will receive an email with a unique link to buy them at some point when the sale is live.