Shopping Tips: How to Find Good Sales on Black Friday

Shopping tips for Black Friday sales.

Black Friday, the Friday after Thanksgiving, is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. And an ideal time to get the best deals on items on your list. Whether you’re buying online or in stores.

This year, shoppers will face some difficulties related to product shortages and longer delivery times among higher demand products. That means you could have trouble getting all the items on your list, especially if you shop later. However, in shoppers’ favor, many retailers are launching their holiday deals earlier than Black Friday.

Whether you’re shopping for holiday gifts or you’re buying for yourself, getting the best Black Friday deals means starting early. Here are some tips to help you plan. To get the most out of the items you want with a lot of discounts.

Research the products you want before shopping

Do research on the item that you spotted and want to buy. Check out the reviews of different brands so you won’t be surprised by the quality. Find out this season’s hottest items so you’ll know which items will be harder to get. That way, you can prioritize them.

Knowing the original prices of products will help you identify. The significant markdowns versus a promotion for just a minor discount.

It’s no use buying a bargain if the product’s no good

Research the return and exchange policies for each retailer, you’re shopping with. Understand the types of products you can return. The time limit for returns (some retailers have extended return periods for the holidays), and whether you’ll need to provide a receipt. You’ll also want to know whether you can return the products for cash. Or whether you’ll have to get store credit or a gift card.

If you’re planning to shop online. Find out whether you can return the item to a physical store. Or if you’re required to return it by mail. You may want to avoid stores with strict return policies if you have any concerns about buying the product.

Look for Early-Bird Shopper Discounts

You don’t have to wait until Black Friday to take advantage of the flurry of discounts. Because many retailers offer early-bird discounts. You may even be able to get all your “Black Friday” shopping complete before Thanksgiving and avoid the crowds.

Starting early also gives you a better chance of getting your items on time. If the retailer runs out of stock due to recent issues with shortages or higher-than-expected demand.

Expect retailers to advertise different deals throughout November and December, so keep a close eye on the price trends for your top items. Deals may be limited to a specific day or time period.

Starting to shop early this year will be a good strategy, not only because deals are kicking off earlier, but also because hot products may sell out quickly, or fail to arrive at your doorstep on time.

Skip the in-store and shop online

While there will probably be a few more in-store promotions than there were last year, analysts expect a smaller number than in pre-pandemic days. But retailers will offer more of the same promotions online that they do in stores. And online shoppers may see more free delivery offers and ship-to-store programs with curbside pickup.

Over the past couple of years—even pre-pandemic—we saw promotional activity being extended across all retail channels. And this year we might actually see an uptick in online promotion right after Thanksgiving as retailers try to excite bored Black Friday consumers. I think the days of crazy in-store-only Black Friday morning promotions are likely at, or nearing, their end.

Use website and apps

To judge how good the deals really are in difficult times, you need to track prices leading up to Black Friday. And the good thing about using website and apps, is you don’t have to go retailer by retailer to compare prices. The Consumer Reports website lists the current prices at various outlets for the products and its ratings. You can also try Google Shopping, PriceGrabber, and Shopzilla. When you’re in a store, smartphone apps such as BuyVia, Shopkick, ShopSavvy, and Shopular let you scan bar codes or QR codes to compare prices, get discounts, and score coupons.

There are now dozens of websites that post leaked—and authorized—Black Friday ads. Which you can regularly check BestBlackFriday.com, DealNews, TheBlackFriday.com, Deals Plus/BlackFriday.fm, and GottaDeal. Sign up for deal alerts, which you can usually filter by product category.

Retailers such as Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart have their own shopping apps, as well. Amazon’s mobile app, for example, lets you use a smartphone camera to scan products and price-shop when you’re in a store. (When you’re done crossing everything off your holiday list, delete the apps you don’t use to protect your privacy and security.)

But direct comparison shopping can be really tough in the run-up to Black Friday. The best deals often feature models unavailable in other stores or nowhere to be found earlier in the year.

Here are two quick tips

• Browser extensions can help. These are small bits of software you can add to web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox to customize your browsing experience. For example, CamelCamelCamel and Honey are tools that will show you price histories and price alerts or coupons as you shop online.

• To be a web-savvy shopper, add items to your shopping cart if they have a price you like, so you can find them again quickly and be all set to order. Then go check the websites of other retailers to see whether the price is really special. Putting an item in your cart doesn’t reserve it, though—you need to place your order and get a confirmation that it has been received.

Get Social

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds of your favorite retailers are a great way to find out about exclusive deals and promotions. Retailers will often reward customers who like or follow them with special alerts to Black Friday discounts and incentives. And of course texts, tweets, and social media posts are an easy way to share Black Friday shopping Intel with your friends, too.

Create a budget and stick to it

Yes, this sounds simple, but very hard to do. Mostly because, Black Friday sales, especially the doorbuster specials available in limited quantities. And are designed in part to get you in a store or shopping online so that the retailer can sell you stuff you weren’t intending to buy. It’s really easy to get caught up in the excitement and overspend. Decide ahead of time how much you want to your Black Friday shopping spree to cost, and do your best to resist impulse buying, especially if you’re not sure how good a deal is.

With the shift to online buying, more of us will be using credit cards to pay for purchases. One benefit is that many cards will double the manufacturer’s warranty. But be wary of the interest-free promotions offered by store credit cards. They’re fine if you’re disciplined enough to pay off the balance before the promotional period ends, but if you don’t do that, you’ll get stuck paying interest on the full amount of the purchase, even if you’ve paid down a lot of the balance.

In conclusion, whatever you decided to do it is important that we know the main reason for buying or shopping. So that we won’t be caught up on overspending or buying what we don’t need.