How to Score the Best Black Friday Discounts: Tips and Tricks

As the world awaits this year’s black Friday, they are preparing for yet another event that would record high records in sales. Black Friday is a day when web and physical store consumers get to grab products at cut-throat prices ranging from home appliances to clothing, electronics, and accessories. But there are so many of them, and fierce competition among the shoppers – how can one be sure he is using the best coupons? Below is a checklist of what you need to know that will serve as your Black Friday how-to guide offering reliable strategies and recommendations on how to get the best deals.

 

 

Start Early with Research

If there is one thing to consider when scoring the best Black Friday discount it is preparation. Black Friday sale timelines are usually leaked by retailers, so go ahead and use this information. Some retail outlets produce what they refer to as ‘leaked’ or ‘preview’ advertisements a few weeks before Valentine’s Day. These previews are gathered by sites that include BestBlackFriday.com, as well as DealNews.com, which means you can already start preparing. The biggest advantage is that rather than buying things on Black Friday without learning about prices, features, or customer feedback, you already have a clear idea of what you want to purchase.

Pro Tip: Make a list of the items you are interested in and check their current prices. This will assist you when trying to discover genuine discounts, not fake ‘Black Friday’ deals.

 

 

Join the Mailing List of Retailers

Retailers know that customers who are on their email list are potential customers, and therefore, will often provide special discounts or offers for individuals on the list as well as notify the list when new items have arrived at the store. This way you may be notified of early access to the sale, the famous doorbuster offer, or any promotional code that may be out in the market but not in the public domain. Often brands will directly email you a code or a heads-up about exclusive Black Friday offers on items you would like. Registering now enables you to stand to benefit from alerts of sale offers before anyone else.

Pro Tip: Think about using a new email address solely for anything related to deals, to avoid your main email getting flooded with messages.

Sign up for Loyalty Programs and App downloads

Points cards and store mobile applications can have advantages – from early access to Black Friday’s deals to free shipping and additional points for purchases. Sometimes, retailers use the loyal app audience to promote app-only promos or to give early access to Black Friday deals. Big-name retail stores such as Target, Walmart, and Best Buy also offer their loyalty card members this kind of peeks and discounts. Some programs also let you build up points on Black Friday purchases and the points you gain can be used for a discount.

Pro Tip: Some retailers permit you to apply points on Black Friday, which means that you get a bonus for the price drop other than the Black Friday offline prices.

Plan Your Budget in Advance

To avoid being carried away by a black Friday frenzy, first of all, create a spending limit for yourself. Black Friday is all about shopping, and it can become dangerous for your wallets, so you need to learn when to stop. Choose your budget for certain categories such as electronics, clothing, or home appliances. This way, you’ll know what price you can’t go over to avoid making expensive impulse purchases while waiting for really good offers.

Pro Tip: Ensure you count your money when you are buying goods. There are some budgeting applications that enable you to define the precise items you need to track your expenses in real time.

Use Cash-Back Websites and Applications

Rakuten, Honey, and Swagbucks are a few examples that provide customers cash back if they buy through the links they provide. It only takes registering for the credit card, then, visiting the list of cash-back promotions by various stores you intend to patronize and ordering the needed product by following the link provided by the website or through the application. Furthermore, often credit cards offer cash back depending on the type of products people purchase, and some banks offer cash back depending on the company from where the goods are bought.

Pro Tip: Check whether it is possible to increase the amount of cashback obtained by using the cash-back reward along with the current credit card rewards.

 

 

Prices with Online Tools

The best way to make sure a customer is getting a good deal is to ensure that they are using price comparison. Some such browser add-ons are Honey, Price Grabber and Camel Tracker to effectively tell whether the particular product was made cheaper to look like it has been reduced in price. Honey and other browser extensions also look for a promo code that can be applied at the time of payment, to offer the cheapest price.

Pro Tip: If you’re on Amazon, here, CamelCamelCamel is extremely helpful with its built-in price drop alerts. That gives you an opportunity to check back on the price history of a particular product to determine if you are gaining a deal or not.

Start With High Ticket Items

Clothes commodities, fridges, ACs, washing machines, TVs, laptops, smartphones, gaming consoles and many more are seen to run out of stock. If you’re to make a shopping errand, do it with these goods to be bought first. About in-store shopping, be prompt to increase your odds of getting this shortage of products. Another fact about the retail promotions is that a number of the most effective promo offers are placed on door-buster products which are also usually scarce items and the first to get sold.

Pro Tip: If you are searching for a popular item, you can go to other less popular stores which could however be cheaper.

Use Store Pickup Options

Today, some retailers that participate in Black Friday deals offer one more option – store pickup. If you order your products on the internet, you can sometimes choose a ‘pick up in store’ option, which not only saves you the money spent on shipping but will also serve to get you the products within the shortest time possible. The former can also be very useful in helping you avoid huge crowds and lengthy queues in checkout aisles where you just have to pick up your item.

Pro Tip: There are some stores that are specially considered for Black Friday Store Pick up so this should be checked when going through the checkout.

Shop Early, and Don’t Forget About Cyber Monday

Black Friday deals are getting from their usual schedule every year this year even being as early as November. Some stores have even expanded their sales to last more than a few weeks, hence the nickname of “Black Friday Month”. Although there are good deals on almost everything during Black Friday, you might not get what you are looking for, wait until Cyber Monday for online deals. Tech products are also heavily discounted on Cyber Monday, so it’s advisable to keep an eye on both days.

Pro Tip: If you’d like to get some of your holiday shopping from local or independent stores, it could be best to wait until Small Business Saturday since they sometimes have holiday deals.

Stay Safe and Avoid Scams

When in search of the vouchers, be careful not to fall prey to fake offers. Fraudulent websites or fraudulent emails may occasionally deceive shoppers into providing their details or buying merchandise that won’t be delivered. Only register on reliable websites and ensure you use the security features such as the use of user name, password and token. Do not automatically buy from an unfamiliar retailer and make sure to check out comments on them. One should be skeptical of something that appears to be too good to be true; consequently, it is better to stick to products or services from licensed sources.

Pro Tip: When shopping online make sure the sites you use are secure and only log into your accounts or purchase items when using secure public Wi-Fi.

Be Strategic with In-Store Shopping

If you plan to do physical shopping, you need to have a good strategy concerning how to shop to ensure that it is smooth. Know what you want, try to learn the layout ahead of time, and then go after the things most important to you. Bear in mind that some stores open on the night of Thanksgiving. During store shopping, it is usually crowded, expects to spend quite some time in a queue and also does not be surprised if some of the products on offer are out-right sold within a few hours.

Pro Tip: Some stores provide their standard price matching assurance; hence, if a similar product can be bought cheaper on the same day in the stores of a competitor, the store may provide a price matching service when requested. 

Save Your Receipts and Study the Return Policy

Not all are sweet or perfect thus it’s crucial to be armed with the different return policies in every store. Some stores have reduced the period of return or restocking charges on the sales made during Black Friday. Thus, it’s more reasonable to remember receipts and return policies in advance so that you and your child won’t have to spend much time on this issue.

Pro Tip: With regard to the receipts, the writer should scan them and keep them in electronic form in case a return is to be made later. Most commonly there are various receipt scanning services where you are able to sort them according to stores and dates.

 

 

Conclusion

Shopping with the best Black Friday store deals does not have to be stressful. If you prepare you can successfully go through the sales, avoid the scams, and find amazing deals on everything that you want. Here’s how you can be prepared to take full advantage of Black Friday: Plan a budget, remain as organized as possible and be aware of where and when to shop for the best prices. These tips will be helpful whether you’re shopping online or going to actual stores for the said shopping event to allow you to get the best value for your money on your holiday items. Happy bargain hunting!

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