26 Nov Black Friday and Cyber Monday – how you can cleverly save money now

Starting from 27.11. it is again so far: with the Black Friday and Cyber Monday dealers start world-wide into the christmas season and afford themselves a downright discount battle. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, American retailers traditionally extend their opening hours and advertise with unique discounts. In addition, Cyber Monday was introduced the following Monday especially for e-commerce, where online stores specifically attract customers with discounts. The bargain days have long since arrived in Germany and in this country shoppers can really save money, especially in online retailing.

Therefore, in today’s blog post 9 tips on how to get the most out of Black Friday and Cyber Monday Sales and what you should pay special attention to in a bargain hunt without any nasty surprises.

Plan your virtual shopping trip

On Black Friday almost every online retailer lures with a variety of discounts and special offers. In order not to lose the overview in the jungle of offers, it makes sense to find out the most promising online sales in advance. On the website www.blackfridaysale.de, for example, online shoppers can already register on 22.11 and find out about and compare various discount offers. Even more information is offered by price comparison portals such as Idealo or MyDeals with continuous updates on prices and discounts. With such price alarm clocks, you will be permanently informed about the cheapest deals and never miss an offer. Sometimes online stores also announce special sales exclusively on their social media accounts. So it is worthwhile to follow your favorite brands on Facebook, Instagram and co. before 27.11.

Register in advance

If you have found stores with interesting offers, you should create a customer account there as well. Typing in your name, address, e-mail and preferred payment method will only be a time-consuming process later on. The saved registration effort can give you the exact time advantage you need to get a particularly popular deal. For all those who are looking for bargains during the Cyber Week, especially on Amazon, a Prime Membership makes sense. Prime customers benefit from exclusive discount offers and can access Black Friday offers 30 minutes earlier.

Create a list

The sheer volume of offers from Cyber Week Sales can quickly overwhelm and entice impulse purchases that are later regretted. If you want to store on Black Friday and Cyber Monday without regrets, you should limit your bargain hunt in advance. So think beforehand about which products you really need or have been wanting for a long time. The best way to do this is to make a list of your desired purchases. Often online stores themselves offer a kind of virtual wish list for logged-in customers. Of course you don’t have to stick to your list 100%, but it gives you a budget and serves as a small control aid. So you can search for what you really want and avoid impulse purchases.

Use the shopping cart

Even if the usual Black Friday hustle and bustle of miles of lines and crowds of people is spared on the Internet, the cyber shopping days are often more chaotic online than other days. Everybody wants to get the best deal and the biggest offers are sometimes sold out within minutes. Here it is important to be fast. The best way to buy some time is the online shopping cart. In most online stores, products are reserved here for 15-60 minutes. So put every offer that comes into question for you immediately into the shopping cart. This creates a buffer for you to reconsider or compare on other sites.

Remain skeptical

On Black Friday and Cyber Monday people like to advertise with discounts from 50% to 80%. Sounds too good to be true? It often is. The trick with such mega discounts is the manufacturers‘ recommended retail price (RRP). A discount based on the EIA is automatically much higher, because the manufacturer’s recommendations are almost always much higher than the actual sales price. The consumer center North-Rhine/Westphalia found out even that promised discounts of 50% lie in truth usually only around the 20%.[1] Further trick: in the weeks before Black Friday and Cyber Monday the prices are again strongly tightened. So it makes sense to keep an eye on the prices of the desired products for a longer period of time in order not to succumb to any „fake bargains“.

Compare prices

And even during the Black Fridays you should not stop comparing. Even if a merchant advertises his offer as unique, a quick search on Google and a price comparison site is always worthwhile. To be on the safe side here, you should use at least two price search engines. Sometimes return periods and shipping costs are also compared.

Please note return and delivery conditions

The variety of tempting offers makes mispurchases around Black Friday and Cyber Monday week even more likely. Check out the return conditions offered by the store before making a purchase. How easy is it to return the product? Who pays the costs? Especially those who use Black Friday to do Christmas shopping should pay attention to a return period beyond the usual 14 days. Please also pay attention to the location of the sender. International orders may be subject to customs duties, so you may have to pay extra for a supposed bargain.

Beware of fake stores

Black Friday is one of the most profitable days of the year for e-commerce. Unfortunately, fake stores also see it as an opportunity to earn fast money. If you have never heard of an online store or ordered from one before, you should first check its seriousness, especially around Black Friday. The first glance should go here to the terms and conditions and the imprint: is all data listed here complete and correct? If one of the subpages is missing completely, you should immediately leave the store alone. Skepticism is also advisable in case of limited payment options. Classic recognition feature for fake stores: Only prepayment or direct payment is offered. Another helpful means to judge the seriousness of an online store are reviews from other customers. Pay particular attention to whether the reviews were collected via external, objective providers, such as an online rating seal. This way you can be sure that the reviews have not been faked.

Do not let yourself be put under pressure

So that the enormous price reductions around Black Friday and Cyber Monday are also worthwhile themselves, it applies for on-line dealers on these days more than ever to convert as many sales as possible. Therefore particularly on the bargain days one reaches particularly deeply into the marketing trick box: blinking references to limited offer duration and numbers of items – best in the live countdown – are to set customers under pressure and induce them to the fast purchase. Don’t let this put you off and avoid spontaneous purchases that you may regret later. Due to the high level of competition, other retailers often offer the products at similarly low prices. And don’t forget: despite the hype around the shopping holidays, there are still numerous discount campaigns in the pre-Christmas period even after Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Conclusion

With the right preparation, a lot of money can be saved around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But even on the biggest shopping days of the year there are good and bad offers. In order to make real bargains, it is therefore worthwhile to gather information in advance, keep a cool head even during the shopping marathon and check every offer. That way you avoid price traps and really make the best deals.

We wish you a lot of fun!

[1] https://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/aktuelle-meldungen/digitale-welt/5-tipps-fuer-die-sichere-schnaeppchenjagd-an-black-friday-und-co-13224