Black Friday and Cyber Monday may still be weeks away, but retail experts say now is the time to build a game plan for the big shopping days.
With many stores already heavily advertising which items will star in sales campaigns on or around Nov. 29, deal hunters and professors specializing in marketing say shoppers already have most of what they need to spot a true bargain.
“It’s definitely important for people to take a look at the products that they want and know the prices right now, so that way they’re not first seeing the prices on Black Friday,” said Diana Skakavac, the Toronto woman behind the Have Coupons Will Travel social media accounts.
She and others agree research is crucial to not being swept up by the wave of marketing efforts designed to squeeze as many sales from consumers as possible.
Canadians estimate they will spend $972 across the holiday season with 40 per cent planning to shop on Black Friday and 36 per cent during “Cyber Week,” a Retail Council of Canada and Leger survey of 2,510 consumers found. Those consumers reported they’d spend about 31 per cent of their holiday budget on Black Friday and 30 per cent on Cyber Monday.
Ahead of those days, Skakavac recommends Canadians think about what items they are looking to buy and consider what they are comfortable spending on them.
“I’m really tuning in with myself and saying, ‘OK, I want this but is now the right time for me to purchase this? Can I afford this and does this comfortably fit into my budget?'” she said.
Skakavac, for example, is on the lookout for a Dyson fan, which regularly retails for $550. She knows the brand does not typically offer big discounts but is keen not to drop more than $450 on the purchase.
Figuring out what price constitutes a good deal starts with her checking what the item usually sells for. This can easily be done by monitoring retailer’s websites, stores or even flyer apps like Flipp, but shoppers should look beyond a week or two to get a real sense of an item’s pricing history, Skakavac said.
To find such data, make use of free price history trackers, said Jenna Jacobson, who heads up the newly-formed Retail Leadership Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University.
These apps and services can generate months, if not years, of data, offering insights into corporate pricing strategies.
“You could have the same sale price as there was the week before Black Friday or perhaps the week after Black Friday and it’s still marketed as Black Friday,” Jacobson said.