In the cult-classic film Back to the Future Part II, Marty McFly travels from 2015 to 1985 to find his archnemesis has stolen an almanac from the future and made a fortune by betting on sporting events.
In the real world of 2022, Amazon’s Alexa might be your time-jumping sports almanac. The digital assistant can now notify you when your favorite items are going on sale 24 hours in advance—no DeLorean required. This new feature won’t turn you into a millionaire, but it can provide perfectly timed deals to save you cash on things you were probably planning to buy anyway.
How to set up deal recommendations on the Alexa app
At least for now, this feature is only available to Prime members living in the US. If that’s you, get started by opening the Alexa app. Tap More in the bottom right corner of your screen, go to Settings, and then Notifications. Scroll down, tap Amazon Shopping, and toggle the switch next to Deal Recommendations.
[Related: Why you should be using Alexa on your smartphone]
If you own an Echo device, its light ring will turn yellow and it will let you know when a product you’re interested in is about to go on sale. You’ll also get a notification on your phone, even if you don’t have an Echo device.
Fine-tune your recommendations
Of course, to get the most out of this feature, you’ll need to tell Amazon what items you’re interested in—it can only alert you about items on your wish list or those you’ve saved for later.
To start, open any product page on the web, and on the right sidebar, click the dropdown menu that says Add to list. There, you can choose your wish list (every user gets one by default) or another list you’ve created for yourself. If you want to create a list for a specific item and others similar to it, click Create a list, name it, and finish by hitting Create list. You’ll see the option to manage the list by clicking on View list on the next menu. You can also access these options at any time by clicking on Accounts & lists to the right of the search field on the main Amazon navigation bar.
If you have items in your cart that you’re not ready to buy yet, you can save them for later. To do so, open your cart—it’s the shopping cart button in the top right corner of your screen—and you’ll see the Save for later option at the bottom of every item on the list. Don’t look for an actual button—it’s a small link and it’s easy to miss, probably because Amazon would rather you buy the item quickly before you have second thoughts. Scroll down on your cart page, and under Your items, you’ll see every product you’ve saved to buy another time. From there, you can manage the list by adding the items to another list or deleting them entirely if you’ve definitely decided they’re not for you.
You’ll find the same options on the Amazon app, but their location is a little different. Your cart is on the bottom navigation bar, and the Add to list button is right below Add to cart when you open a product page.
[Related: Twenty more smart commands to use with your Amazon Echo]
Once Amazon knows what you’re interested in, you’ll start getting notifications whenever deals are coming your way. When you get one, you’ll be able to ask Alexa to remind you of the deal when it goes live or you can ask it to buy the product for you (just say “Alexa, buy it for me”). When you utter that command, the digital assistant will wait until the deal is live and, using the default payment method and delivery address in your account, snag it for you.
