Felix's tips for Black Friday shopping

Black Friday originated in the US, with the day following Thanksgiving signifying the start of the Christmas shopping season. Despite the fact that the UK does not celebrate Thanksgiving, the event has crept onto our shopping calendar, with American companies such as Amazon and Asda (then owned by Walmart) introducing the event in the early 2010s, and major British retailers following in 2014 for fear of missing out. Although many firms had misgivings - with John Lewis’ CEO calling Black Friday “bad for business” in 2015 - the event has clearly been a success for retailers. Shoppers in the UK spent an estimated £8.29 billion over the Black Friday weekend in 2018 – an average of £346 per person. This year’s Black Friday event will undoubtedly be different to what has come before; an economic downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the second lockdown and severe shortages of popular products such as games consoles and laptops threatening to dampen the retailer’s takings. With that in mind, it is more important than ever to make sure you get the best out of your spending.

Decide what you need beforehand

Scrolling through pages and pages of deals is a great way to make sure your wallet ends up lighter than you intended. The deals page on websites are the digital equivalent of window shopping, without the physical limitations the real-life version presents, making it easy for you to convince yourself you need something you do not. 

Before the deals start, make a list of things you actually want. It is best to not be too specific when doing this – while a TV is almost definitely going to be on sale, a specific model may not be, and limiting your choices to a single product might lead to disappointment.

Is it even a deal?

While we associate pressure selling with the dodgy man in the van on Rogue Traders, the subtle tricks digital retailers use are no less effective. A great example of this is Amazon’s “Lightning Deals”, with their countdown showing that the number of discounted items is limited, and the timer forcing you to hand over your money in the next 15 minutes or lose out on the deal altogether. What this means is that you often do not get the opportunity to compare prices across the market, or even against the retailer itself. It is important to not let yourself get caught by the tactics of the retailers – take your time researching the product and find out if it can be found cheaper elsewhere. The short-term deals offered are often not that impressive, which can be seen if you use a price tracker such as camelcamelcamel – sometimes a deal is only returning a product to its original price before it had been increased to make the deal look more impressive. 

Check what you buy

Retailers sometimes have manufacturers bid to build special products to fit in a price budget. These products are then given model numbers that are extremely similar to existing products. Not only does this make it more difficult to compare retailers, as they are technically selling different models, it makes it easy for you to inadvertently purchase an inferior product. While the products will still keep their headline features, smaller things – such as the number of HDMI ports on a TV – might have been cut in the process of making the product cheaper. 

Buy from a reputable retailer

The obvious rules apply here – if a price is too good to be true, it probably is. Companies that offer a price significantly cheaper than their competitors are often shipping from a warehouse outside the UK, marking your parcel as a “gift” and hoping it is not inspected during transit, thereby reducing costs by avoiding VAT. Even if it does get past customs, the items from these sellers are often not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, leaving you at the mercy of the seller. Another thing to remember is that extended warranties are only as good as the companies offering them – a 10 year warranty is no good if the company you buy from goes bankrupt in a month. 

Use a credit card

If you are making a purchase of over £100 (and below £30,000) you should also pay for a portion of it – however small – using a credit card. Thanks to a powerful piece of legislation known as Section 75, credit card companies are jointly liable for any purchases you make, even if you pay off the balance immediately. This means that if something goes wrong – for example, if something you ordered never arrives – the credit card company has to refund you if the retailer does not. It is important to note, however, that this protection does not apply if you pay for something via PayPal or other third party; wherever you can, pay directly.