How to shop like a pro during Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday

Although Amazon and other retailers fill the summer and fall months with more sales than ever before, Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday remain the biggest shopping days of the year. Fortunately, as in previous years, we’ll be highlighting the best prices on phones, TVs, noise-cancelling headphones, gaming gear, and other tech throughout the deal-packed week, whether you plan to shop in person or online.

You can always count on us to post The best offers you need to knowregardless of the season. However, if you want to be among the first people to discover price drops on the products you’re interested in, you’ll need to start with your Black Friday game plan. Your checklist should include scouting out early sales at your favorite retailers, setting up the right price tracker, and configuring your alerts to ensure you don’t miss out on rare discounts at Amazon and elsewhere. Lucky for you, we’ve compiled several tips and tricks below to help you get started.

Take advantage of a price tracker or deal aggregator

The most effective way to find a really great deal is to set up a price tracking tool. We’ve included some of our favorite examples below, many of which we use daily here at Edge. Each can help you track deals at different retailers — including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and Target — but each does it differently and comes with its own set of advantages/disadvantages.

They’re all free to use, and once you’ve added the products you’d like to monitor, you can rest assured that you don’t need to take any action until it’s time to make a purchase. Just be sure to keep your email notifications turned on so you can see alerts as soon as they arrive.

CamelCamelCamel tracks the price of every product sold on Amazon and can send you alerts when an item reaches a customizable threshold. Once the product reaches or below your desired price, you will receive an email about it. You can use the extension price chart to determine what price is likely to occur, but it is always a shot in the dark. The tracker also only works with products listed on Amazon, so you’ll need to use one of the alternative trackers below if you want to track price fluctuations at Walmart, Best Buy, and other retail sites.

To track prices and get email alerts, you’ll need to create a free CamelCamelCamel account. In addition, we suggest installing Website browser extensionCamelizer, which works with Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Microsoft Edge. The handy tool lets you view pricing trends on a product-by-product basis and allows you to set your desired price without having to look far from Amazon. It’s great, easy to use, and works in many countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, and Australia.

As soon as a product falls below the amount specified in your price alert, you will receive an email immediately. And if you already have a wishlist saved on Amazon, You can import it easily To CamelCamelCamel.

Like CamelCamelCamel, Keepa is another useful tool for tracking product prices on Amazon. Keepa has charts that track pricing trends and can alert you when it finds a deal. You can also import any of your Amazon wish lists.

Unlike CamelCamelCamel, you don’t necessarily need to create an account to track prices with Keepa; only Install the appropriate browser extensionKeepa will automatically add a price history graph to your sponsored product listings. The embedded graph displays pricing history and allows you to specify various pricing details. If you set your desired price, Keepa will send you a price alert via email, push notifications, Telegram or RSS.

Great deals It brings together some of the best deals online, as discovered by its team and user community. Its site also lets you browse coupons and create alerts for deals based on specific keywords, although the latter works a little differently on Great deals Which is the case with the sites mentioned above.

You can type in a product name, like “Nintendo Switch 2,” “OLED TVs,” or the name of a retailer, and once it’s added to your list, you’ll be notified with a deal alert if it meets your criteria. You can set it to alert you to virtually any deal related to your keyword, or you can filter deals so that, for example, you’ll be notified if a deal is popular enough to get access to Great dealsFirst page or if you get a high rating from the community. If you like browsing for deals, it’s generally a good idea to visit Great deals Frequently, especially since it usually has a Black Friday component that allows you to browse Best Buy, Target, and other retailers’ circulars in advance.

For a hands-off approach to knowing if you’re getting a good deal, try using your browser. For a few years nowMicrosoft Edge can tell you when you’re looking for the best price on a particular product from a range of retailers, and Google Chrome can Track price fluctuations and be notified When a particular product goes on sale. Edge and Chrome are available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, as well as Android and iOS.

Set up deal alerts for Alexa or the Amazon app

If you have an Alexa-compatible smart device, such as a new one Echo Dot Max or Echo studioYou can ask your virtual assistant to alert you when certain products go on sale. You can receive alerts up to 24 hours before a planned price drop on eligible products, or as soon as you notice a discount on anything saved to your cart or wish list. If you say, “Alexa, buy it for me,” after you’re notified of the deal, the Assistant will buy the item for you as soon as the discount is available.

To enable these features, open the Alexa app on your smartphone and go to More > Settings > Notifications > Amazon Shopping. Then toggle the slider next to Deal Recommendations under the Shopping Recommendations section. Alexa will loudly notify you of deals going forward, but if you miss a deal, you can check the notification on your phone or see if you have any new notifications on your Echo device by checking the yellow light. If it’s on, just say, “Alexa, turn on notifications.”

You can receive similar notifications on your smartphone from the Amazon Shopping app as well. Simply open the app and go to Settings > Notifications > Deals & Recommendations, and toggle the slider next to the Savings option.

Check retailer schedules and plan early shopping events

Monitor your favorite retailers before Black Friday will help you save time (and money). Many major retailers have already detailed their plans in the run-up to the holidays, and many will be offering early opportunities to save. For example:

You can expect more from major retailers, including… amazon, Their Black Friday plans will be detailed soon, so keep an eye on their websites and start filling your calendar accordingly.

Watch out for sneak deals and door raiders

Doorbusters, flash deals, and other limited discount opportunities are a tried-and-true hallmark of any Black Friday sale. They’ll usually be the most interesting deals you’ll see all year, with really low prices to encourage impulsive spending. While you’re scanning ads, make a special note of these deals and read all the fine print surrounding their availability. Some may require you to register in advance or get in line early (ahem, Amazon), and others may be so rare that you won’t have the entire weekend — or even an hour — to claim them.

Have a price-matched backup plan

Although many stores will automatically match their competitors’ prices, sometimes, you may need to twist their arm. It’s helpful to know each retailer’s different price matching policies in case your favorite store is out of stock on certain items. You can get up to speed with our Price matching guidewhich details the lengths each retailer will or won’t go to win your dollar. Unfortunately, some retailers have temporarily suspended their usual policies during special shopping events like Black Friday, but it never hurts to ask.

We are a special group here at EdgeSo don’t worry if you are going to participate in Black Friday/Cyber ​​Monday without any prior preparations. We’ll round up the best tech-related offers and keep our coverage updated with new sale items while weeding out old ones to avoid any disappointment. While we typically suggest paying attention to deals starting the day after Thanksgiving — or November 28, in this case — the reality is that many retailers usually jump in and start offering some great deals in the lead-up to the shopping holiday.

To seize every opportunity to save, be sure to Bookmark our coverageFollow us BlueskySubscribe to Our tri-weekly Verge Deals newsletter, And start putting a little spending money aside for Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday.