Amazon Alexa can tell you about Prime Day deals before they go live
Hunting down the best sales on Prime Day is quite literally a full-time job — just ask any of us on the Mashable shopping team. When we're not camping out on Amazon's event page in hopes of catching limited-availability Lightning Deals, which often sell out in minutes, we'll be spending July 11 and 12 sifting through hundreds of thousands of discounts across the site to figure out what's actually worth buying. (It's a glamorous lifestyle.)
If you don't feel like joining us in staring at a screen for 48 hours straight, there's an easier way to find Prime Day deals on the stuff you really want: enable Alexa's advanced deal alerts.
Available for U.S.-based Prime members on newer Echo smart speakers, this feature will tell you about upcoming deals on eligible products on your Wish List, in your shopping cart, or in your Saved for Later queue up to 24 hours before they're available. If you want, you can also have Alexa purchase an item for you as soon as its discount goes live.
Walmart, Target, and Best Buy can hold competing sales all they want, but until they also offer a proprietary voice assistant slash personal Prime Day shopper helping shoppers sort through the madness, Amazon has an edge. Here's how Alexa's advanced deal alerts work:
Turn on the advanced deal alerts feature using the Alexa mobile app. You'll find it under More > Settings > Notifications > Amazon Shopping; from there, hit Shopping Recommendations and then Deal Recommendations.
Add any products you're interested in to your Wish List, Shopping Cart, or Saved for Later queue on the Amazon app or website.
You'll see a pop-up alert or a yellow ring light on your Echo device as soon as Alexa catches word of an upcoming deal on one of those products. Ask, "Alexa, what are my notifications?" to learn more.
At this point, you can either have Alexa remind you about the deal or tell her to order it when it goes live. ("Alexa, buy it for me.") That purchase will be made using the default payment and delivery address in your Amazon account, so make sure that information is updated and correct beforehand.
That's all there really is to it. You'll only be charged if your order goes through when the deal is available. If a product sells out before Alexa gets to it, she'll break the news in an email and a push notification. (Change your mind about something? Amazon will send you a post-purchase confirmation email that contains a "Cancel order request" link just in case.)
The advanced deal alerts feature is available year-round, but it'll be especially valuable during massive savings events like Prime Day and Black Friday when discount FOMO is very real. To that end, it's probably going to be one of the most surefire ways of locking in surprise Lightning Deals on popular products.
Less dead people-mimicking technology and more of these helpful shopping features, please, Overlord Bezos.