10 Tips For Shopping Online This Black Friday

Black Friday has become increasingly popular here in the UK over the last few years, and this year it looks set to be a bigger and better event than ever. But after hearing so many horror stories last year of people getting seriously injured whilst trying to score themselves a discount, I for one won’t be visiting my local shopping centre to see what’s on offer. Instead, I’ll be doing my Black Friday shopping from the comfort of my own home.

In fact, by doing it this way there will be a lot more retailers at my fingertips than I’ll find in my local town, and I’m less likely to make any of those silly impulse buys that I’ll regret once I get home. And that’s got to be a good thing, right? Today I’ve put together a list of tips to help you make the most of shopping online this Black Friday so you can shop like a pro and get the best products at the best prices during those 24 hours of deals!

01. MAKE A LIST

Make a list of any items you know you need and want, and complete it ahead of Black Friday. Having a list to hand will help you stay focused while you are shopping, and you’ll be much less likely to start browsing items that you didn’t really want in the first place, and making impulse purchases that you may later regret. It will also help to ensure you get everything you’d set out to find for friends and loved ones this year.

I never used to make a list when I was shopping for Christmas presents, and I would almost always come home laden with bags full of things for myself that I didn’t really need, and only one or two gifts that I could actually wrap up and give people for Christmas! I would end up full of regret a few days later when I had no money left but still needed to buy quite a few presents for people.

02. LEARN THE PRICES

If you know the normal prices of the items you need to buy, then you’ll be in a much better position to spot a good deal on Black Friday. When there’s so much Christmas shopping to do, the last thing you need is to discover that your ‘great deal’ was actually just a couple of quid knocked off the retail price because you didn’t do your homework.

A quick search on Google will only take up a few minutes of your time and you should be able to find an accurate RRP for all the items on your list.

03. SIGN UP FOR NEWSLETTERS FROM YOUR FAVOURITE MERCHANTS

Retailers often send coupons and sneak peeks in their newsletters a week or so ahead of Black Friday. I’ve already received quite a few this week from places such as Amazon, Models Own and Latest in Beauty, and I’m expecting to be inundated with them come this time tomorrow. If you’re signed up, not only can you snag discount codes for products or shipping, but you can also get a better idea of what each site has on sale.

This puts you ahead of the game come Black Friday morning as you know exactly where the best deals are, and where you can pick up multiple items together to simplify the whole process and save on shipping costs.

04. SEARCH THE WEB FOR DISCOUNT CODES

In addition to coupons in newsletters, you can often find some fantastic discount codes on a plethora of coupons sites around the world wide web. So why not do a google search for some of your favourite merchants and save any promo codes you come across to try out on Black Friday? Examples of what you could type into the Google search bar are …

New Look discount codes | Argos coupon codes | Feel Unique vouchers

I almost always do this when I’m ordering something online, and nine times out of ten I will find a coupon for free shipping at the very least. Whenever I do a search I find that there’s one site that pops up a lot, and this is Deals Daddy, who have over 100,000 offers and deals listed on there. They certainly make saving a little bit of money easy whenever I’m online shopping!

05. SET UP ACCOUNTS IN ADVANCE IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY

To be fair, you’re more than likely to have already signed up for accounts at your favourite retailers, but if not then now is the time to change that. Don’t wait until Black Friday morning when you’re wanting to purchase lots of things from all different retailers, as you’ll only end up annoyed at yourself for not doing it sooner and wasting valuable time while you fill in form after form after form!

Having an account set up and your login information saved and ready to go at the click of a button will make it so much easier when you’re trying to check out. And in the case of time-sensitive deals it could be the difference between snagging that great price and missing out!!

06. TIME MATTERS ON BLACK FRIDAY

You may not have to stand in queues for hours on end or contend with a stream of heavy traffic, but what time you visit a site on Black Friday still matters. Most retailers will have limited stock and limited time offers on the very best deals, so if you’re not one of the first to add it to your cart and check out, you’re more than likely to miss out. Many sites start their sales at midnight, and although you’re free to log on and start your shopping whenever you feel like it, I’d always recommend getting in there as quickly as possible. After all, the early bird catches the worm!

07. THINK ABOUT YOUR BUDGET

With all the talk of limited time deals and and one-time-only sales, it’s easy to get swept up in shopping mania! But, if like most Christmas shoppers, you have a strict budget that you need to stick to, then you really do need to take care with how much you’re spending.

I would suggest only buying the things you’ve written down on your list (see tip one) and spending no more money on each product than the specified recommended retail price (RRP – see tip two). This way you will know beforehand how much you’re likely to spend on Black Friday and if you manage to get some amazing deals then you’ll spend a lot less and be much happier about it. I realise that everyone loves a good deal, but you don’t want to make purchases that you’re going to regret later.

08. SHOP AT REPUTABLE STORES

Remember, if a deal sound too good to be true, then it probably is! Stick to sites you know and trust to reduce any risk of buying from somewhere unscrupulous. If you do find yourself at a store you’re not familiar with, do a quick internet search and make sure they have a recognizable web presence. And whatever site you’re on, the checkout page should be encrypted through a secure connection to ensure your credit and debit card details remain protected. You can check this by making sure the web address of the page starts with https (the ‘s’ is for secure) instead of just regular old http.

09. TAKE A BREAK IF IT’S GETTING TOO MUCH

If you find yourself wanting to make numerous purchases of things that you don’t really want or need then it’s most definitely time to step away from your computer/laptop/iPad etc and take a break! Every site you visit is designed to keep you shopping, so if you’re noticing a strong deviation from your original shopping list I would most definitely recommend making yourself a cup of tea and having a shopping break of at least 30 minutes before you log back on to finish your list.

10. KEEP COPIES OF ALL E-MAIL CONFIRMATIONS & RECEIPTS

After you’ve completed your purchase, it’s a good idea to take a screenshot of your order confirmation page and save it in addition to the email invoice you get from your retailer. With Black Friday being such a busy shopping day, sometimes retailer or shipping companies make mistakes. If that happens to your order, the more proof your have, the better armed you will be in getting it straightened out right away. And of course you can also return any of those pesky impulse buys that just weren’t worth it when they arrive. Phew!

And finally, in addition to this list, please remember that while Black Friday is a great time to take care of some of your Christmas shopping, it’s not the only time you have. There are still another 4 weeks to wrap up getting the rest of your gifts. These days you’ll find that most retailers promote deals all year round, so there’s a good chance that you’ll still be able to bag yourself a bargain. In fact, I picked up a Wii U console with 2 controllers and 4 games for just £152.99 just last week, and everywhere else I looked were selling them for £179.99 with just one controller and one game. Needless to say I was over the moon with that particular deal!

One of the sites I like to check regularly to see what’s on sale at my favourite stores is Every Day is Black Friday. They are an absolutely independent service and don’t have any affiliation with any of the retailers they feature, so you can be sure you’re just getting a great deal, nothing more to it.

I prefer Every Day is Black Friday over similar websites as they show a 30 day historic chart at the bottom of each discount so people can see for themselves whether each retailer has given a genuine discount or whether they’d been sneaky and inflated the price of an item for a few days beforehand so they could then drop the price dramatically and make it look like you were about to score yourself a massive deal. Nobody likes to be conned so I think this is a really useful feature, and I love the fact that there over 150 retailers on their database, including some of my personal favourites such as Topshop, John Lewis and Dorothy Perkins. Each discount on the site is shown for a maximum of 3 days, and the website updates every hour so you’ll always find a nice shiny new deal whenever you log on.

What do you guys think of Black Friday? Love it or hate it?
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