Are Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals Really the Best Deals?

Black Friday is one of the busiest times of the year for shopping, as well as being great business for retailers. In a competitive world, all major retailers compete for your business. In an effort to win the battle of Black Friday madness, many stores make significant sacrifices for you on their profit just to get you in the door. However, that typically is made up through add-on sales as well as through cross-merchandising some high profit items into the mix. Retailers know that clever merchandising can create impulse buying from consumers. Therefore, it’s always best to do some research on products you may be interested in before hitting the sales floors.

On another note, most Black Friday deals offer products of lower quality to get the competitive prices down. Sure, it may look like a high quality product on the outside, but contains cheap boards, loose mounting of components, thin wires, weak/wobbly buttons, breakable plastic, etc. Therefore, the buyer needs to be aware.

Many retailers issue flyers during the week of Black Friday, as well as television and radio spots promoting target specials coming up. In a competitive world, retailers can spend big money to push those deals out during the Christmas holiday deal shopping season. Aside from that, there are several websites providing information on Black Friday deals from various stores. Generally, you can shop by stores and/or create shopping lists or add to wish lists with Black Friday websites.

Black Friday websites generally provide product deals well in advance, but may not always be 100% accurate. However, most of the time, they contain most of the products that will be available for Christmas shopping on Black Friday. Once you find items you may be interested in, looking around online to compare pricing and/or to get a feel for the typical price range is certainly beneficial. Sometimes, potential gifts can look like a great deal when that may not neccesarily be the case. Therefore, Black Friday shopping may not be the best method. However, most products pushed on Black Friday, as well as the entire holiday deals season, are generally good deals.

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Cyber Monday, as you may know, is the holiday season’s Black Friday for e-commerce websites. Internet retailers have their own Black Friday deals, but use Cyber Monday once the hype of Black Friday has subsided. Thousands of internet stores provide great deals on products and gifts in order to compete with Black Friday retailers.

Once Black Friday hits it expiration, internet specials are brought out in full force on Cyber Monday. However, this creates a competition of its own. Do your research to find the best Cyber Monday deals.

Thousands of e-commerce websites spend a ton of dollars marketing their Cyber Monday specials in an effort to compete with thousands of other internet retail websites. This allows you the opportunity to shop smart and grab the best deals. According to internet RETAILER®, e-commerce sales rose in 2012 by 29.3% on Thanksgiving, as well as Black Friday, while store sales plummeted during those days. It seems to hold true every year. Black Friday sales may increase, but Cyber Monday sales most likely will as well.

Consumers are looking more closely at the money they spend for holiday gifts these days. In fact, many spenders will have money saved up to get ready for the next session of Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Aside from that, many obtain better deals online and don’t want to deal with the long lines, traffic, parking issues, and super early wake ups that Black Friday stores have to offer.

Cyber Monday deals are perhaps one of the best ways to shop for holiday gifts. You can certainly find some great deals during Black Friday in retailers, but e-commerce provides easy comparison shopping, the possibility of more selection, and ability to add to wish lists. However, the cons of internet shopping can include the possibility of paying shipping fees, the possibility of lost shipments, the possibility of not arriving on time, and also the possibility of being out of stock.

With the economy in today's world, inventory is extremely controlled. Cyber Monday and Black Friday events will still hold limited quantities with a first come, first served policy. However, when the holiday deals inventory vanishes, other products get promoted and/or marked down. Depending on the internet website, you may have to pay extra for faster shipping. Overall, the pros tend to outweigh the cons when it comes to Cyber Monday and even the holiday season in general. Just be sure the items are legit, genuine, and in stock before placing your order. Aside from that, be sure the item(s) will arrive in time for the holiday.

While Black Friday and Cyber Monday provide significant savings opportunities, that doesn’t mean that you can’t obtain holiday gift shopping deals during the rest of the Christmas season. First off, many retailers provide several Black Friday events, thus saving some of the super deals for another event. Therefore, you always get other opportunities to get great deals.

Secondly, tons of products remain on special with retailers as well as with internet stores in an effort to increases sales and move more products. Both types of retailers know that after a Black Friday/Cyber Monday event, they need to keep the consumer traffic flowing to their stores or websites, especially since there is always competition and the possibility of you choosing to go elsewhere. This means you have the opportunity aside from Black Friday and Cyber Monday to shop smartly and obtain significant savings for your holiday shopping. Sometimes, the late bird gets the worm, or at least a better worm.

Remember that retailers are always competing. Therefore, they will always provide holiday sales on various products to grab the customer from their competitors. It's a race and someone must win. With that in mind, you should begin shopping around early November to see what is out there. Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring in sales for retailers, but they also need to keep selling to stay in business. So they competitively offer sales and discounts during the holiday season in general. It may be $20 more, but it is also 10 times better in quality.

The answer, as mentioned before, is usually YES. One thing to remember about the madness of both sales events is that in order to provide such amazing deals, quality is often, but not always sacrificed. Therefore, some Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals may not necessarily be deals.

In a nutshell, you get what you pay for. In fact, many specials do not have as many features, options, or advantages. Take for instance the coffee pot. It may not have a timer or a digital display. The reservoir for water will leak in just a few months. But you saved 75%, right? Perhaps the coffee pot that wasn’t a Black Friday deal and is 40% off is perhaps the better choice. In summary, better holiday deals can often be available during the entire holiday season.

The biggest advantage of online shopping is the opportunity to compare pricing, features, and benefits. The internet commerce is just as competitive as in-store battles. Amazon.com for example, is one of the big holiday e-commerce websites. Not only does internet shopping provide great deals, but also provides a wider selection to choose from. Many consumers now shop online for their holiday deals and some mix the two. In closing, standing in long lines and dealing with traffic jams are not the easiest or perhaps the only way to obtain great holiday shopping deals. Internet stores provide convenience, instant inventory updates, and endless possibilities.

What are you looking to purchase on Black Friday or even Cyber Monday? Could it be an Apple watch or perhaps a new big screen? Give us a comment and let's see what may be the next "HOT" item or category.....or anything else you would like to comment on.

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