Preview of the best deals ahead of Amazon Prime Day on July 11 and 12

PHILADELPHIA -- Major retailers are offering Christmas in July sales and one of the biggest shopping events is Amazon Prime Day, which is returning for a two-day savings extravaganza. But in order to get the best deals, you need to plan ahead.

"Prime Day 2023 is going to be on July 11 and 12," said Julie Ramhold of DealNews.com.

The deals are expected to go live at 3 a.m. and you will need to act fast.

"Lightning deals do tend to really dominate on Prime Day," said Ramhold.

To score those lightning deals, you have to do some prep work and add the items to your cart beforehand or set deal alerts for items that interest you.

"And then if it does go on sale for Prime Day, you should get a notification and be able to take advantage of that deal," said Ramhold.

You can also browse lightning deals ahead of time.

"And then mark those deals that you're interested in as 'Watching' and you'll receive a notification right before they go live," said Ramhold.

You can also always track prices using a browser extension like CamelCamelCamel or RetailMeNot's Deal Finder.

And this year Amazon is adding something new to Prime Day - an Invite-Only program where you can request an invitation for a special discount.

"If you're a Prime member, and there's something that you're interested in, you can already request those invitations. One of those is a Fire TV for $100, which is great. It's a 43-inch TV," said Ramhold.

If you're selected for access to the deal, you'll get a notification during Prime Day.

"You'll receive a unique link that you can use to then go and buy the TV at the deal price," said Ramhold.

Also expect home and garden deals, discounts on popular brands like Ruggable, Bose, Theragun, and YETI, plus a wide selection of back to school essentials.

And there will also be major savings on Amazon movies, streaming channels, and music.

If you have Alexa, you can ask the device to find and set deal notifications for you.

No Prime membership? No problem. You can shop the sale with a free 30-day trial membership.

Target, Best Buy, and Walmart are also offering big sales in July. Target Circle Week begins July 9. Best Buy's Black Friday in July will start a day later on July 10. That's also when Walmart Plus members can start accessing online-only sales, beginning at noon.