In Case You Missed This Valuable Post
Every year, Evans on Marketing offers a list of holiday shopping tips intended to help shoppers avoid overspending their budgets. Be smart holiday shopping 2017. Below are our 2017 holiday shopping tips in the form of an infographic. Follow them. And be the smartest consumer that you can.
As we noted last month (“U.S. Consumers Start 2017 Holiday Shopping“), the holiday season starts earlier each year. Thus the date for this post has been moved up. In 2012, our shopping tips were published on December 10. This year, the post is on November 13. Why? Many retailers have already launched their holiday shopping campaigns. Virtually no large retailer is actually waiting for Thanksgiving or Black Friday to begin their marketing campaigns.
Smart Holiday Shopping 2017
So, here are our 2017 shopping tips as a checklist. Click the infographic to see a larger version.
By applying ALL of the tips in the infographic, you will be a much better holiday shopper. Start shopping now. Do not wait until Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or just before Christmas. Do not shop for all gifts at one time. Buy them as prices drop for each big-ticket item. Do not be fooled into thinking that retailers offer discounts (“sales”) on all the products that they promote. Some products are at their regular selling prices. Be flexible and comparison shop for the best deals. And try not to rely on impulse shopping. Stick to a shopping list.
That’s actually true, prices for many products aren’t the cheapest on Black Friday rather they get before Christmas, coming from a personal experience. But then retailers target what customers know and try and play it to their advantage. It’s very necessary to know the difference between list price and regular price because that’s a thing that can work against you. There are many companies who offer year round sales and the difference isn’t that much on Black Friday. But as we all know Black Friday targets the sweet spot of the customers.
For me, shopping online for gifts is challenging because I usually don’t have a very clearly defined idea of what it is I want to get for someone. I don’t know what types of products to be looking for or what sites to be visiting. I prefer to walk through a shopping mall and browse items until something catches my attention or gives me an idea. I also tend to get excited and purchase the item I have in mind right away while I’m at the mall. I think another valuable tip would be to resist the temptation to purchase as soon as you see something that you want, and instead take the time to look up better prices online and anticipate sales at multiple retailers to get the best price.
Another tip I’d suggest is browsing for gifts on Groupon, because Groupon offers a lot of unique (and personalized) gift ideas at a good discount. I’d always check out the company before purchasing their product through Groupon, and read the customer reviews, but I’ve had a lot of success purchasing gifts on Groupon.
Agreed. But sometimes, Groupon prices are not the lowest and they may be clearance items (not labeled as such).
Working in the retail business, I have worked through the “biggest deals of the year” type of sales and can vouch that those are not always the biggest deals. Working at Abercrombie and Fitch, I have watched certain items go for cheaper on days where big sales aren’t even occurring. In addition to that, chances are if you’re shopping on the days of the year where EVERY ONE decides to do their shopping as well, items go out of stock extremely easily and are quick to run out on certain sizes. It also deems inconvenient when you have to wait 2 hours for the dressing rooms and have to shop around the hundreds of people trying to do the same thing you are.
good observation
For me, a last minute shopper, this has actually been very helpful. I’m always the type to wait until the week before Christmas before getting my holiday shopping done. This post has actually been quite helpful for me to know that many companies will price match for Black Friday, because as Black Friday is approaching, I still have not even thought about what I’d like to get for Christmas gifts, and I end up spending most of Black Friday getting swindled into deals and sales on items just for myself.
Some firms will not match Black Friday prices.
I love shopping! Thanks for posting this information. Also, a point I think I should add is to read a variety of product reviews from various sources. A lot of reviews are paid for and could be misleading. Also, if you’re interesting in seeing how products work, there are many people on YouTube who create videos for exactly this purpose. Heed recommendations with a grain of salt, and form your own opinions based on your observations.
I am a shopping lover, especially online shopping. Once I was the person who would buy things when saw discount. As a result, I bought lots of things that I never used. After I came to U.S., I found out that so many discount here and I would try to find out what is the best discount for me. And also think twice when you want to buy a thing. Maybe just after an hour you would find out that you are not such interested in that thing. It can avoid over-purchasing.
This article gives us very good tips when we’re going to shopping. There are many good advances and experiences for me to learn. After reading this article, I realized that it teaches us how to use the smart way to buy something we want. When we buy something, we could not miss understand to means of “sale”, we need to prepare and search enough information to compare and make sure it is the right time to shop something we would like to buy, and it is necessary.
Most of the product are not in the lowest price in Black Friday.However people always believe Black Friday everthing is cheapest like “free”.Like China’s 11.11.This just a way to attract customer.