Black Friday shopping season is the best time of year to find discounts on just about everything. Whether you’re looking for big-budget items like TVs or game consoles, or just want to pick up some smaller holiday gifts at lower prices, now is the time to make those purchases.
That being said, it can be a bit intimidating to make large purchases all at once. Shopping for Black Friday deals can be a lot of fun, but if you’re not careful, you could end up spending more than you want on things you probably don’t need. So if you’re looking for some general Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping tips, as well as a bonus tip for shopping online safely, don’t worry; we’ve got you covered right here.
1. Establish a spending budget
Whether you’re doing holiday shopping or just looking to buy a few items you’ve been needing, budgeting is perhaps the most important thing you can do. Online retailers like Amazon and Walmart set up their pages to ensure you spend as much money as possible, and if you’re not careful, your cart can quickly fill up much more than you originally planned. Deciding how much you can realistically spend on Black Friday is a great way to limit yourself.
professional advice: Use Google Sheets or Excel to set a budget and track your spending in real time. This way, you can enter all your purchases as you make them and know how much money you have left to spend.
2. Make a list of what you want to buy
One of the biggest dangers of buying deals is that the deals tend to be quite tempting. One second you’re looking for a new TV in Amazon’s Black Friday sales and the next second you’re shopping for a bunch of discount socks. This can get very expensive quickly if you’re not careful, so making a list of things you want to buy ahead of time is a great way to combat this.
3. Compare sales prices
One of the dangers of shopping for Black Friday deals is that not all deals are necessarily good. Just because something is on discount right now doesn’t mean it isn’t cheaper elsewhere or won’t drop in price later. You can usually compare the prices of products at various retailers with a simple Google search. Most major retailers will also match the price if you can find it cheaper elsewhere.
professional advice: If the sale is on Amazon, see camelcamelcamel.com. This site tracks Amazon prices and allows you to see how low the price has historically fallen.
4. Feel free to get a great deal
Black Friday can be quite a competitive time for consumers. Although there are some deals and sales that remain constant throughout the season from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, many of the biggest discounts can be taken advantage of quickly. If you see a really good deal on something, you should try to snatch it up before it’s gone. This is especially true for certain Black Friday video game deals that tend to be pretty quick.
5. Do your own research
If you have a general idea of what you want to buy on Black Friday but don’t know specifically which brand or product to buy, it’s very important that you take the time and do your own research. This can be done fairly with a few simple Google searches like “best gaming TV” or “best budget gaming laptop”. From there, you should be able to narrow down the makes and models that best suit your needs. You should apply this same thinking once you find a decent deal on a product by looking for professional reviews of those products. This will usually give you a better idea of what you’re buying rather than relying on Amazon reviews that are built into the shopping experience.
6. Follow a trusted source on social media
IGN Deals on Twitter
There are plenty of deals that come and go fairly regularly, and unless you plan to keep tabs on all the major retailers going on, you may end up missing out on some great discounts. It can be overwhelming to keep up, but one way around it is to follow a trusted source of deals on your social media platform of choice. This can help you stay up to date on the latest deals without having to constantly search for them.
professional advice: Follow IGN’s Deals on Twitter and IGN’s Facebook Deals for the latest updates on gaming and tech deals that happen daily. (You can also follow Wario64 on Twitter for video game deals only.)
7. Shop safely online
What exactly do we mean by “buy safely”? When you’re busy adding things to your wish lists and online carts for Black Friday and beyond, you may be eager to check out quickly and move on to the next thing. Before you shop online, here are some safety tips to keep in mind:
Make sure there is a secure connection in the URL field of your browser, especially if you have public and/or free Wi-Fi. (In Chrome, there is a lock icon, for example, to the left of the URL 🔒). As usual, beware of new phishing and spam emails arriving in your inbox. Do not trust any email that looks bad to you and avoid clicking on links in emails that look even slightly spam. It’s getting harder to tell what’s real from what’s a scam, so be careful, especially during popular sale seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Another tip when shopping online is make sure your autofill passwords and security settings are up to date in any browser you use. As a Google user, you can manage your passwords and strengthen your security at Passwords.Google.com, which we definitely recommend doing before you start shopping! You may also consider selecting “Sign in with Apple” or “Sign in with Google” when relevant to creating accounts so you don’t have to create another new login. Finally, there’s always 2-Step Verification, a proven way to protect your Google account when you sign in and keep the internet safer from cyberattacks in general. Another tip related to autocomplete is to try using the virtual card number (in Chrome), that allows you to use your autofill payment card information at checkout. Google will allow the option to generate the unique virtual card number that keeps your real payment card number hidden. This can be especially important when making a transaction on a new site that you have not visited before.
Want to start shopping for deals right now? Take a look at our Amazon Black Friday and Walmart Black Friday deals guides for today’s best deals.
Source: news.google.com