Black Friday discounts offered early

Monday, November 12, 2018 - 11:57 by Mike Price

Many retailers are choosing to start the ball rolling sooner rather than later with their initial batch of Black Friday deals, rather than holding off until the 23rd of November to launch steep discounts via shopping online.

Currys PC World is just one of the firms that is encouraging shoppers to part ways with their cash in the first half of the month, with its ‘Why Wait?’ promotion allowing customers to claim cash back on certain products if they are reduced in price once the big day arrives.

One of the main reasons that such tactics are being deployed is that a lot of consumers have already been reported to have reduced their spending during October and early November in anticipation of making bigger savings on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Retailers are still likely to face a rush over the course of the Black Friday weekend, which might create problems in terms of site performance and subsequently with over-subscribed delivery services. However, by incentivising early purchasing, some of these issues could be alleviated.

In the case of the Currys PC World offer, it does seem like having to pre-register to be eligible for cash back in the case of a price drop is not the most elegant solution and puts the onus on the customer taking action, rather than keeping things simple. Other retailers are going one step further by applying sale prices now and promising to keep them low for the next couple of weeks.

The potential for delivery issues mentioned earlier may well become a reality, with estimations from Dixons Carphone suggesting that the vast majority of orders will be fulfilled in this way, rather than via in-store pickup, according to Internet Retailing. For shoppers who are impatient, perhaps early ordering is the best option.