Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping season is the best time of the year to find discounts on just about everything. Whether you're looking for big-budget items like TVs or gaming consoles, or want to pick up holiday gifts at lower prices, now is the time to make those purchases.
That being said, it can be a bit intimidating to make big purchases all at once. Shopping Black Friday deals can be a great way to save money, but if you aren't careful you can easily spend more than you want on things you probably don't need. So if you're looking for some general tips for shopping the rest of Black Friday weekend and Cyber Monday, don't sweat it; we've got you covered right here.
1. Set a Spending Budget
If you're still shopping or planning to shop for holiday gifts 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 aren't careful, your cart can quickly become a lot fuller than you originally planned. Deciding how much you can realistically spend during Cyber Monday and beyond is a great way to limit yourself.
2. Make a List of What You Want to Buy
One of the biggest dangers of deals shopping is that the deals tend to be quite tantalizing. One second you're browsing the Amazon’s Black Friday 2024 sale for a new TV or headphones and the next second you're buying a whole pile of discounted socks. This can quickly become really expensive if you aren't careful, so making a list of things you want to buy ahead of time is a great way to combat this.
3. Keep Track of Sale Dates
The holiday sale events have started to get a bit out of control this year as many of the bigger retailers are splitting up their sales into different chunks. Most retailer sales including Best Buy's Black Friday sale kicked off about a week before Black Friday. Keeping track of when the upcoming sales are happening is a good way to ensure you don't miss them, especially when things start selling out quickly.
4. Compare Sale Prices
One of the dangers of shopping Cyber Monday (and Black Friday) sales is that not every deal is necessarily a good deal. Just because something is currently discounted doesn't mean it isn't cheaper somewhere else or won't drop in price later on. You can usually compare prices on products across various retailers with a simple Google search. Most of the major retailers also price match if you can find it cheaper somewhere else. We try to do this research for you in our roundups of best deals by category!
5. Don't Hesitate on a Great Deal
Black Friday can be a fairly competitive time for consumers, which is resulting in a ton of early sales this year. Although there are some deals and sales that stay consistent throughout Black Friday season all the way through Cyber Monday, many of the biggest discounts can be snatched up quickly. If you see a really good deal on something, you should try to snatch it up before it's gone, especially on games and consoles. This is especially true for certain Black Friday video game deals that tend to go pretty quick. Target has even gone so far as to offer a price match on things you buy now if they end up going on sale at the store later in the month, so there's no need to wait if you see something good.
6. Do Your Own Research
If you have a general idea of what you want to buy on Black Friday but don't know specifically what brand or product to get, it's very important to take the time and do your own research. This can be done fairly with a few simple Google searches such as "best TV for gaming" or "best budget gaming laptop". From there you should be able to narrow down the brands and models that fit your needs best. You should apply this same thinking once you find a decent deal on a product by looking up professional reviews of those products. This will usually give you a better idea of what you're buying versus relying on Amazon reviews that are built into the shopping experience.
7. Follow a Trusted Source on Social Media
There are many deals that come and go fairly regularly, and unless you plan on keeping tabs on all of the major retailers ongoing, you may end up missing out on some great discounts. It may be overwhelming to keep up, but one way to avoid this is to follow a trusted deals source on the social media platform of your choice. This can help you stay up to date on the latest deals without having to constantly dig for them yourself. We suggest following IGN's Black Friday coverage to stay on top of all of the video game and tech deals we find.
8. Shop Safely Online
What do we mean by "shop safely" exactly? When you're busy adding things to your wish lists and to your online carts for Black Friday and beyond, you may be eager to quickly check out and move onto the next thing. Before you make your online purchases, here are some safety tips to consider:
- Ensure there's a secure connection in your browser's URL field, especially if you're on public and/or free Wi-Fi. (In Chrome, there's a locked icon for example to the left of the URL ?).
- As always, be cautious of new phishing and spam emails landing in your inbox. Don't trust any email that looks off to you whatsoever, and avoid clicking any links in emails that appear even somewhat spammy. It's getting harder to recognize what's real from what's a scam, so be careful, especially during popular deals seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Another piece of advice when online shopping is to ensure your auto-populated passwords and your security settings are up-to-date in whatever browser you use. As a Google user, you can manage your passwords and strengthen your security at Passwords.Google.com, which we'd definitely recommend doing before you get to shopping! You can also consider selecting "Sign in with Apple" or "Sign in with Google" when relevant for creating accounts so you don’t have to create yet another new login. Lastly, there's always 2-Step Verification, a proven way to protect your Google account when logged in and keep the internet safer from cyberattacks in general.
- Another autofill-related tip is to try using virtual card number (in Chrome), which allows you to use your autofill payment card information when checking out. Google will allow the option to generate the unique virtual card number which keeps your actual payment card number hidden. This can be especially important when making a transaction on a new site you haven't visited prior.
