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

UPDATE: Sep. 30, 2023, 3:00 a.m. EDT This story has been updated with the latest info on how to find the best Prime Day deals during Amazon's Prime Big Deal Days sale in October.

Don't be alarmed, but it's nearly October, and in less than two weeks, Amazon's second Prime Day sale will be here.

We know — July (and the first Prime Day of the year) feels like it was yesterday, but we have reached a point where the phrase "early holiday shopping" isn't totally unwarranted. Amazon, in the same form as last year, is ringing in the season with its Prime Big Deal Days sales event from Tuesday, Oct. 10 to Wednesday, Oct. 11.

As the name would suggest, you can expect to see basically everything under the sun get a markdown, from TVs and electronics, to pet supplies and home goods. 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. Here are some 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 crawl the web for the best deals and notify you about price drops are Honey and Slickdeals. These sites are particularly useful, because "the Prime Day effect" often causes other retailer sites like Target and Walmart to offer competing deals during their own early holiday sales.

Ask Alexa for help

If you have an Echo device with Alexa, you can enlist the voice assistant to keep track of deals for you. By enabling this setting, Alexa 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 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 2 price is one thing, but how do you even know what deals are being offered? 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 and the rest of the holiday season.

We're expecting Big Deal Days to be a good time to pick up Apple devices, headphones, robot vacuums, and kitchen gadgets. We recommend holding off on gaming consoles until Black Friday when the best deals usually crop up. And a good general rule of thumb is that if anything looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Don't forget about other retailers

As we mentioned above other retailers are capitalizing on the Prime Day fervor by offering their own early Black Friday deals. Best Buy, Walmart, and Target have all officially announced their own version of a fall Prime Day sale that'll run at —or around — the same time as Amazon's.

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 and anyone who is a Target Circle member (which is free to sign up for).

Shop invite-only deals to avoid the chaos

Amazon has brought invite-only deals back after their introduction this past July. Already, you can request an invite for some huge markdowns, like this Sony soundbar that's half off or this Blink security system that's a whopping 60% off. You may not get access to these deals guaranteed, but if you do, you'll definitely be getting these products at their lowest price possible during the October Prime Day sale.