Black Friday has been America’s favourite shopping date since it made its first appearance way back in 1932 and has since seen itself cemented into the diaries of shoppers around the world ever since. It is the Friday following Thanksgiving which traditionally triggers off Christmas shopping festivities. Although Black Friday is not officially recognised as a holiday in any country, a great many people across the globe take the day off work so that they can spend the entire day searching or the very best deals available.
While traditionally, most consumers had to leave the comfort and relative safety of their own home on Black Friday and trek out to the largest retail stores in search of a good bargain. There, they would have to manoeuvre past hordes of other like-minded shoppers, often physically battling for the products they wanted. Indeed, at times the news would depict scenes not totally unlike those seen in horror films as utter chaos broke out.
Nowadays, most people are a lot less likely to physically venture away from their computers or smartphones on Black Friday in order to avoid the aforementioned madness. With that in mind, the savvy modern day shopper is altogether more likely to do their Black Friday shopping online than be seen trekking out to traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ stores. For those of who do prefer to shop online, the following are some top tips on how to go about getting the best deals.
- Conduct your research on oproducts you are thinking about buying beforehand, so that you do not end up purchasing poor quality stuff in a hurry. Read through buying advice posted on several reliable sites so that you can ensure that you make the right choices.
- Compare product prices across numerous shopping portals and comparison websites and make sure that when you buy something, all the necessary add-ons come with it.
- Check back on your favourite websites throughout the day as many sites release new and improved offers as the day goes on, often saving some of the juiciest savings for the final hour.
- Be sure that you are well read up on and informed about store policies in relation to returns, just in case you end up wanting to send back something which you bought on the spur of the moment and didn’t really want to get.
- Remember to get a gift receipt when you are purchasing gift receipts for someone else. These special receipts contain a product description with no prices displayed and are a big help when gifts need to be returned or exchanged for some reason.
The modern day bargain hunter is often left confused and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of enticing deals that are advertised in the run up to Black Friday. Businesses lean on several sales methods that have come to be very precise and persuasive. Some reduce the prices on merely a handful of showy products, frequently even pushing them out the door at ridiculously low prices, in hopes that consumers will pick up a few regular priced impulse buys as well. This practice is often referred to as ‘loss leading’, meaning the retailer takes a loss on one product, in the hope of making their money back through additional sales of non-discounted products. Another popular tactic often deployed by retailers is to list everything as cheap as possible and achieve profitability through volume. In this scenario, the sheer number of sales ensures that a large aggregated profit is made, even though profit margins on individual products are actually quite low.
No matter what, customers can expect to find some good deals this holiday season as retailers try desperately to avoid the dreaded red ink.