It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas. In fact, the holiday season seems to get longer and longer each year.
Believe it or not, there are steps that you can be taking today to ensure a successful Black Friday shopping experience. Things that you can do to seal up a phenomenal deal or two (or ten) for the world’s busiest shopping day of the year.
Whether you’re an online shopper, brick and mortar shopper, or both, there are tips you can use to help.
See below for how to find the best deals on Black Friday. Take all of these into consideration as you plan.
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Research Store Policies
Every shopper knows the pains of purchasing an item or receiving a gift that doesn’t work as planned.
Perhaps you purchased a shirt for someone that was a size too small. Maybe the electronic device that you purchased was broken upon arrival.
Whatever the case might be, you needed to return it in order to either get your money back or exchange it.
Now imagine the horror of going to return that item and the store not letting you do so because of a policy that you didn’t know about.
Should they have mentioned that before you purchased it? Probably. However, you could read up on their store policies online prior to shopping in order to save a future headache.
Reading the store policies will help you know which stores to shop at. Start by researching stores with the best return policies to familiarize yourself.
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Know Your Outlets
Okay, so little Jimmy tells you that he wants an iPhone X for Christmas. Fantastic. Did he also tell you where he wanted you to buy it from? No.
Why? Because he could care less where you end up purchasing it. He just wants the phone.
In fact, a black iPhone X purchased at a Best Buy looks no different than a black iPhone X that was purchased at an Apple Store.
Because of that, you have the freedom and flexibility to shop around for the best price points. Finding the best Black Friday sales means combing through several outlets.
While it might be exhaustive at first, the savings will pay off in a big way down the line.
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Don’t Just Do Online or In-Store Shopping
Committing to finding the best Black Friday sales means de-committing from only using one method of shopping.
That means that all you people who swear by shopping only through your Amazon Prime account will have to digress.
Don’t get it twisted. Amazon has some great deals. In fact, for some devices (especially their own), they’ll have the best bargain. But they won’t have the best bargain for everything on your list.
Sometimes the best deal on a specific item is through your locally-owned electronics store. Other times it’s through a store like Target, which can be online or in-store shopping.
With companies like Walmart and Target, some deals might only be redeemable in-store or online, so be sure to clarify that ahead of time.
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Pay Attention to Online Ads
As the digital age continues to rise, the marketing industry continues to lean more towards the online trend.
Because of that, you can expect to see more online ads for Black Friday than ever before. That means social media shoppable posts, social media ads, in-app advertisements, cookies, and much more.
Some of your favorite go-to companies are trying their best to literally shove their Black Friday deals in front of your face. All you need to do is pay attention.
One clever trick to keeping track of the best deals you see is to use the note app on your smartphone.
Open a separate note page entitled “Black Friday Deals” and list the product, the price you were quoted, the company that’s offering it, and any additional instructions they have pertaining to the receiving the deal.
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Don’t Ever Purchase Full Price
Simply put: all of the items on your list will be on sale at one point during the holiday season, sometimes more than once.
Those companies want your business, and they’ve already planned to discount their items at one point to witness an uptick in sales. However, they weren’t born yesterday.
If there’s an opportunity for them to sell that item to you at full price, then they’ll toy with it. Stand your ground!
There’s simply no need to purchase an item at its full price during the holidays. With so many different sales going on, there’s bound to be a discount if you’re willing to hold out for it.
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Consider the Duration of the Sale
No sale lasts forever. Every discount that you see will only last until 1) they’ve completely sold out of the limited item or 2) a date that they’ve vocalized ahead of time.
Because of that, you need to plan ahead for the date that all of your targeted sales are running until.
If you keep a separate calendar for when all your Black Friday deals end, then you can make sure to purchase all of them prior to the deal ending.
Find the Best Deals on Black Friday
Now that you’ve seen several techniques for how to find the best deals on Black Friday, be sure to use them wisely.
Remember, thanks to the world of online shopping; Black Friday is now more of a marathon than it is a sprint. Deals will last the entire holiday season, so be prepared to wait.
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