Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping seasons of all, but although it is often the cheapest time of year to bag a bargain, a recent survey from YouGov shows that 33 percent of Scots never trust the deals they see on the day.
Every year during Black Friday there are both genuine and fake deals advertised as on sale, according to price comparison service PriceRunner who analyse thousands of sale prices every year. Last year they found that every fifth discount in their analysis was actually a fake deal.
A fake deal is when retailers subtly increase the price of a product ahead of a sales season to then lower them in time for the sale, creating a fake or inflated impression of a sale.
Christine Gouldthorp, Consumer Expert at PriceRunner, said: “This incredible sneaky sales tactic is not illegal but highly inappropriate, tricking consumers into thinking they are getting a much better deal than they actually are.
“I urge consumers to be mindful during Black Friday and always compare prices before they buy.”
Scottish shoppers are starting to catch on to this fact, according to a survey carried out in October by YouGov of more than 2,000 people in the UK. When asked if they trust the deals they see advertised on Black Friday, a third of Scots said they never do.
When able to choose as many options as applicable, the most popular way Scots find out if a deal is genuine or not is by comparing prices directly on different websites (answered by 62 percent), where the fourth most popular option is to use a comparison service (answered by 19 percent) instead.
What will Black Friday 2021 mean for Scots?
With the big day coming up this Friday, a third of Scots said in the survey that they plan to buy discounted products during the Black Friday sale, with more than one in four planning to spend up to £500 on bargains.
To find out the possible number of fake deals this year, PriceRunner has been keeping track of prices on more than 20,000 products since the end of August from the UK’s 50 most popular retailers.
Prices have already started to increase ahead of Black Friday, as 13 percent of all tracked products have increased in price by on average 19 percent (as of 23rd November). This indicates the possibility of a large number of fake deals during Black Friday this year as well.
A further third (or 29 percent) of Scots are worried that the products they may want to buy during Black Friday might not be for sale due to the ongoing HGV crisis.
According to data from PriceRunner, some of the products that are largely out of stock and might be hard to get your hands on right now are toys (12 percent), laptops (38 percent), watches (30 percent), tablets (30 percent), game consoles (28 percent), TV’s (26 percent) and golfing products (25 percent).
All Scots want for Christmas is cash
Getting ready for Santa early, 86 percent of those who plan to buy bargains on Black Friday said they will use the occasion to buy Christmas presents.
According to the survey, able to choose as many options as applicable, the top gifts Scots want for Christmas this year are:
1. A gift card or money, 26%
2. Clothes, 24%
3. An experience, 16%
4. A perfume, 16%
5. Alcohol/spirits, 15%
Of those planning to bag a bargain on Black Friday, 48 percent will be shopping only or primarily online. In general, 70 percent of Scots said they shop online more now than in physical shops, compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic started.
Best tips for shopping the Black Friday sales
Giving her advice on how to get the most out of the sale, Christine Gouldthorp, Consumer Expert at PriceRunner, shared her five top tips on how to bag a bargain during the Black Friday sale:
1. Use a comparison site to get the best price today on the product you want to buy, don’t just check a couple of your favourite websites as there is a high likelihood of a better deal somewhere else
2. When you’ve found the product you want, remember to check its price history to make sure the price hasn’t been increased before the sale
3. Keep track of the products you want by setting a price alert for them, getting an email or app notification when they drop in price, let someone else do the work for you!
4. Make a list of what you actually need during Black Friday to avoid getting carried away by deals and buying things you don’t need.
5. The best deals are usually found on Black Friday, although some retailers have extended their sales period to the full week. However, there are often even greater price reductions on Cyber Monday on the products that are left, just don’t wait too long as stock will likely run out quickly this year.