Black Friday: These tips you should consider when bargain hunting

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November is ending, and Black Friday is just around the corner. Experts warn against discount traps again and again.

If you’re browsing online stores or wandering through shopping streets and malls, you’ve probably already noticed that there’s a real rain of discounts. Everywhere retailers are tempting customers with offers of -20, -50, and even up to -70 percent off. Many people are tempted to buy.

But that’s precisely what experts warn against every year. On the one hand, you might be tempted to buy things you don’t need. And on the other hand, some stores raise the price of popular products considerably shortly before the start of Black Friday Week and then make you believe that you’ve just snatched up a mega deal, even though you might be paying the same or even more due to the price surcharge.

Above all, consumer protectionists from the Chamber of Labor warn against hidden additional costs, increased shipping charges, and fraudulent fake providers. To ensure that consumers are not left with huge bills, in the end, there are a few things they should be aware of before they go bargain hunting.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when shopping
Throughout Black Friday Week, there are tempting deals that should encourage you to buy – but the discount battle reaches its peak this Friday, November 25, 2022. But since not all sales are created equal, here are a few tips you can follow.

Create a wish list
If you want to make sure you don’t buy products you don’t need despite a good deal, you should have been creating a wish list all year. Now is the time to check if your favorites might be on sale. Finding a few Christmas gifts for yourself or your loved ones is even better.

Compare prices with those before Black Friday.
It happens again and again that suppliers of various goods increase their prices shortly before the start of Black Friday Week. If you then pay 20 percent less, you have saved nothing. So that we are not deceived here, it is advisable to note the prices of the goods, which one is interested in, already a few days before and with other offerers, who do not offer a discount on it, to compare, how much the product costs there. This may be time-consuming, but believe us, you’ll be amazed at the traps you avoid!

Compare offers
If you missed out on looking at the prices before the mega discount week, you have another option: you can compare the offers on several sites to pay for the best possible deal for your desired item. For example, Austria has special portals such as geizhals.at or idealo.at, which provide an excellent summary for this purpose.

Get an overview
Before you fall into an utterly exaggerated shopping frenzy and plunge into expenses (which is not advisable in times like these), it is advantageous to get an overview. In addition, Black Friday can be pretty overwhelming for the inexperienced! So you can get a resume if you don’t feel like rummaging through countless online stores or natural stores for the best bargains, for example, on the black Friday sale.at.

Pay attention to the payment method.
In all the overabundance of bargain providers, you can sometimes be blinded. Online, highly dubious merchants often mingle with trustworthy stores. Even if the ordering process looks pretty unobtrusive in most respects, one thing that should make you skeptical: is the payment method. If only prepayment is accepted, then you should be extra careful. The safest option is still the “purchase on account” variant. Because here, you only have to pay when you already have the product.

Check imprint
This brings us to the next point! Often offers – for example, costly branded goods – are too good to be true! If unsure whether the website is fake, you can quickly check the imprint. If this is dubious or non-existent, you should not place an order. By the way, one sign of a reputable online store in Austria is the e-commerce quality mark.

Pay attention to the environment.
Another critical point is that just because the discounts fall from the sky does not mean that you HAVE to strike. After all, we should always consider the environmental aspect. After all, orders provide for shipping routes as well as packaging waste. In the case of returns, transport must also be taken into account. In addition, you never know exactly what happens to the goods that don’t fit. So before you fall into the shopping frenzy and your wallet is looser than it should be, please think about it: Do I need it or not?