Black Friday used to be a day associated with in-store shopping, but this year, with COVID-19 front and center, many retailers are focusing their efforts online. Major retailers, including Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, won’t even be open this year on Thanksgiving, so no head starts on shopping in person after your meal.
“Honestly, you’re just better off shopping online,” advises Michael Bonebright, a consumer analyst with DealNews.com.
Here are some of the sites to visit to help you find the best deals.
I’ve been visiting DealNews for years – I like how deals are vetted using years of historical pricing data. Most deals include explanations on why you should buy, like “this is the lowest price we’ve seen by $5” or “this beats last year’s deal by $13.”
Another good stop is SlickDeals.net. In fact, it’s one of the sites I visit every single day for a quick look at the best deals trending online.
Be sure to check their “Front Page” for the top deals on the web. The neat thing here is that every deal is submitted by the community, then voted up or down by other users, so the absolute best rise to the top. SlickDeals also has a team of editors that helps make sure deals are still valid and work as advertised.
Radio Host Clark Howard keeps a site’s worth of deals at ClarkDeals.com. I like the “Sizzlin” section for a quick glance at what’s hot.
You can also lean on Google to uncover deals on something you really want. Just search Google for the product name along with deal and then hit the “news” tab to see any blog posts on that product.
CouponCabin is primarily focused on promo codes and cashback, but their blog is also a valuable source of information about the latest Black Friday deals.
“We’re checking all of those deals, thousands a day to make sure they are legit, to make sure you’re not going to get any surprises,” said Andrew Gretchko of CouponCabin.com.
As usual, Amazon is going all out on deals, many of the biggest discounts are on it’s own products. You’ll save on Ring, Echo devices, Fire TV sticks, tablets and many of Amazon house brands including AmazonBasics, Wag, Belei, Solimo and Happy Belly.
A few deals to take advantage of: customers who use Amazon Reload to replenish their Amazon Gift Card balance of $100 or more get a $10 bonus. Also, first time Amazon Gift Card shoppers will get a $15 promo credit with the purchase of $50 or more in Amazon Gift Cards.
Amazon says they’ve extended the returns window to January 31, 2021 and many items can be returned to locations including Kohls and the UPS store without even being in a box.
Wirecutter is a great reviews website. The twist on their deals page is that everything on it is also recommended by their editors.
Reddit is not necessarily a site you think of for deals, but its users are all over them. The /r/deals site has 172,000 users sharing and discussing the best finds on the web.
Finally, here are direct links to Black Friday offers at Walmart, Target and Best Buy.
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