What the Tech: Tips on shopping Amazon Prime Day

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Amazon Prime Day is one of the busiest online shopping days of the year.

Multiple retailers take advantage of the attention to Amazon’s summer holiday sales event and Amazon gets plenty of free publicity.

Did you ever wonder about the difference between Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday? Which of the holidays actually offer the best prices?

Amazon Prime Day has historically been the best time to purchase electronics and tech gadgets. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are typically better for buying toys, household goods, and clothes.

Some of those lightning deals on electronics are easy to miss unless you plan ahead. They last an hour or until the item is sold out.

Here are a few ways to improve your chances of getting the best deal on items you want.

Plan ahead and search for items you’re looking for and put them in your Amazon cart or on a Wishlist. If they go on sale in a lightning deal, the Amazon app will notify you either through a text, or an Echo device.

To do this, go to settings within the Amazon app. Tap on “notifications” and turn on push alerts for special savings on items in your cart or on a wish list.

If you’re shopping on a computer, check prices using the website www.camelcamelcamel.com. This site is good at showing the price history of items and whether the Prime Day price is the lowest price offered by Amazon.

Find the item on Amazon, then copy and paste the address into the CamelCamelCamel search bar. When we searched for a JBL Bluetooth speaker, we found it is $150 on Prime Day.

By checking CamelCamelCamel, we see the same speaker was just $120 around last Black Friday. So, the price may drop again later this year.

CamelCamelCamel has a Chrome extension too, but you’ll need to sign up for an that gives the website access to your Wishlist through your Amazon . The extension sits just right of the URL search bar in Google Chrome. When you see something you want to check out on Amazon, just click on the extension tab to see a price history.

On a smartphone, the app Keepa shows a lot of information on Amazon products and prices, including a price history. The Kindle Paperwhite bundle is on sale for $162 on Prime Day but last Cyber Monday, it was $155.

Prime Day isn’t always the best time of year to buy certain items, and if you’re shopping for Christmas, there isn’t a reason to purchase in July.

If you plan ahead, you may save more money by looking at what items sell for on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

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