(Image credit: Future/Amanda Caswell)

Prime Day is here, and if you're anything like me, you've probably spent previous sales frantically refreshing product pages, checking price trackers and wondering whether that "limited-time deal" is actually worth buying.This year, I'm letting Alexa+ do some of the work. As a mom of three, I'm using Prime Day to shop for deals and even find back-to-school items at lower prices. It's never too early to start shopping for the fall. And while most people may think of Alexa as just a smart speaker for assisting with your smart home, it has a surprisingly useful shopping feature that can alert you when products you're already interested in go on sale. If you're planning to shop Prime Day, setting it up now could help you catch discounts before they disappear.Here's how it worksOne of Alexa's most useful shopping features is the ability to monitor products you've viewed, saved to a wish list or added to your Amazon cart.When an item receives a price drop, becomes part of a Prime Day promotion or qualifies for a limited-time deal, Alexa can send a notification to compatible Echo devices and the Alexa app.Instead of manually checking prices throughout the day, you can let Amazon's assistant keep watch for you.Start by setting up Alexa deal alerts