The biggest day of sales for the year, Black Friday, is soon approaching, but be wary of being caught in a sales trap.

Millions of people worldwide are eagerly refreshing their favourite online shopping websites to find once-in-a-blue-moon deals.

It is Black Friday and the item you have been wanting to buy all year is listed with the 2 deadly words, ‘on sale’, surely you have to pull the trigger while it is available?

Well, unfortunately mass sales are not quite that simple when major corporations are involved.

Whether your favourite brand is offering legitimate deals in an effort to convince you to buy extra items or artificially inflating an item’s price so it can be lowered on Black Friday, they will always look after their bottom line first.

British consumer watchdog, Which? did a study in 2019, tracking the price of 83 items over the course of the year.

Only 4 of those items were at their lowest price on Black Friday.

BusinessInsider did a similar case study on Takealot this year, noting 5 sale items that could be found cheaper on other websites, even without being listed as ‘on-sale’.

It is very easy to be caught by the allure of a sale, but you will need to be smart in order to truly take advantage of Black Friday, rather than letting it take advantage of you.

How to get the best bang for your buck:

1. If, like most people, you need to save up for expensive items then keep track of their costs throughout the year.

It is very likely that said items will be sold for an extended period, so unless it is desperate, try and hold off for the best deal.

Check the price a few times over the year to see whether it is fluctuating, so you can properly gauge what a good price would be.

2. Not everything ‘on-sale’ is cheaper. Black Friday will have a lot of genuinely good deals, but that does not mean they all are.

If shopping in-person or online, retailers have certain tricks to get you to buy more than you were planning to.

In a physical store, many retailers will offer loss leaders in less common areas of the store. These are popular low-cost items that are sold cheaply in order to get you to a specific targeted area of the store.

Once there, the retailer hopes that you will be caught by the flashy ‘on-sale’ banner of another item.

Similarly, when checking out online, be wary of the extra items that are offered with your basket.

The website’s algorithm will have tracked your searches so that it can offer you something it knows you want, right as you are about to pay.

3. Stay calm and go in with a purpose. Aimlessly browsing a store on Black Friday is a retailer’s dream.

Everything you see on the day is designed to catch your attention and you will invariably see something that you did not know you even wanted.

Having a list of items that you want at specific prices and sticking to it is the best way to avoid being drawn in.

Sure, R500 is cheaper than R1 000, but you are still buying something that you do not necessarily need and would not have purchased otherwise.

You will be able to find some great deals on Black Friday, but make sure that those are the only ones you pick.

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