Do we fool Black Friday?
The time is approaching when retailers get up to 40% of their annual revenue. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, New Year. At this time, the biggest sales are planned, and they are being heard all over the Internet. But, if you look at the prices, many discounts will be unreal. An example is the recent sale of Bachelor’s Day on AliExpress. According to the VitaliPA user, out of 9.8 million discounts offered, at least 4.1 million were completely fabricated.
This year, Black Friday will be November 24, and some sales in Russia and the States have already started. We from Pochtoy.com understand what tricks to expect from the stores, and how you can get real big discounts.
Tricks that use against us
Black Friday managed to earn a bad name, especially in Russia. Many people just do not trust her. And they have good reasons for this. The organizers of the shares and the participating retailers use a lot of dirty moves in order to maximize their money on the HYPE. These tricks, if you look at it, give either a very modest benefit to the client, or do not give it at all (the average real discount on Russian and Chinese sites on sales days does not exceed 9%).
The most frequent admission - the cost of goods sharply increase before the sale, and then from these overpriced prices give "discounts". This behavior of sellers on AliExpress was monitored by Business FM editor Sergey Bobrik:
I found out that a week before the sale, the sellers had greatly inflated the price of the goods. On the day of discounts the price will correspond to the regular price. Thus, out of the 22 positions that I have selected, only one turned out to be real - this is a mobile phone, a discount on it is about two dollars.
In fact, it is very easy to notice such a trick (unless, of course, the thought “damn, right now 10 thousand can save money!”). Specifically for AliExpress, there is an extension for the AliExpress Tools browser in which you can observe the price dynamics over time - see the photo. Also, nothing prevents to glance at the neighboring sites, to look at other sellers, to see if there is a price “Do” somewhere, on which the thing is actually sold.
Finally, there is another, most reliable way to save your money. It is necessary to determine in advance what item you would like to take. Drone, smartphone, power bank, laptop. And periodically monitor its value on your favorite site. Sometimes the best discounts are not arranged on the “H” day, but the week before. Or a couple of days after all the fuss, when it becomes clear to the store that the sales were not justified, and they have plenty of goods. This strategy is good because when you have a specific thing on your mind, a neighboring product with an over 9000 discount doesn’t seem so attractive. It becomes much easier to circumvent the tricks of marketers.
On overpricing before the "holiday" tricks of online sellers do not end. It happens that discounts are quite real, and with them you can save well. But nobody warns you that they apply only to a couple of dozen goods. Alex Exler wrote about his experience of communicating with Chinese online stores:
Everything works just there: you have to click the Share on Facebook button and share it in your chronicle on Facebook. It works clearly, the code is issued. I got the code - it gave this out. That is, in fact, only the first 20 customers will receive a discount, who will introduce the corresponding coupon. You understand what the chances of getting into this number.
In Russian stores go even further. The price of hot goods on the sly is increased several times . Hope that some users, who have been waiting impatiently for the emergency, will not compare prices, and take what they want. There are not many such customers, but a cheat of 200% guarantees that the site will receive its profit. Some headphones, monitors, radios and netbooks, as a colleague Pashkevich researched , to the state of emergency at Russian stores grow in price by 250-350%. So you really have a black Friday, when then you find out that you overpaid 50 thousand rubles on the purchase of the device.
In sales often take part stock or unnecessary goods. Retailers expose those positions that are pitiful to be thrown away and cannot be sold. Or with discounts give trash, which they buy, but later realize that the thing is absolutely not needed. In this case, the buyer creates the feeling that he was deceived.
So a negative attitude to the promoted sales from Russian and Chinese stores known to us is quite justified. According to the user Pozhiratel, on the “Day of the Bachelor” on November 11, the biggest sale of the year on AliExpress, 28% of discounts were fake , and 48.7% did not offer anything substantial. Pozhiratel collected a base of 510,700 products, and compared their prices "before" and "after." Only buying 23.3% of things on the day of sales really turned out to be profitable. The researcher came to the conclusion that the sale at the largest Chinese site - “this is just a marketing ploy, the likelihood that you will get something with a discount of 10% or more is 1 to 4”. At the same time, sellers with a good rating and a large number of sales do not shun "fake" discounts.
What's in america
In the US, the situation is radically different. The idea of sales has been working flawlessly for many years, they appeared there long before the Internet and before Alibaba, people have it in DNA. Last Friday of November in America is the most profitable day of the year. In one day there are more goods bought up than in some weeks. Sales growth - by 15-20% per year. In 2016, Americans only spent $ 12.8 billion online. The reason is simple - real discounts. People see that this is not a hoax, but a real opportunity to get the desired product at 20-40% cheaper, and they vote with their wallet.
Shopping is also beneficial - due to sales. In one day of Black Friday, they make an average of 3 days of sales, which, especially for large networks, is a fairly large amount of money that covers advertising, discounts, and for sweets.
Of course, all the old tricks are also used, albeit a bit more carefully. We are in Pochtoy.com on duty to face such constantly. Happens, you want to recommend a discount about which they blow all over the Internet, you look - and it is not real. People just try to draw attention to their site. They do not worry about bad reputation: if you are not well known, the Internet has a short memory. Fortunately, sites with low traffic mostly indulge in this.
There is another category of sites, sales on which you should not trust. It is, let's say, shops with permanent discounts. These include, for example, the popular Carter's and OshKosh , which sell clothes for children. Whenever you go, they always have a “sale”. And with crazy numbers - 50%, 60%, 80%. Of course, there is no sale in fact for such percentages here, it’s just a store strategy. Regular customers treat this with understanding, because prices are really low here. Jackets for $ 30 (1800 rubles), children's pajamas for $ 10 (600 rubles), children's pants $ 10- $ 15 ... And you get used to not paying attention to the pop-up offers of giant discounts.
But there are few such tricks. All major retailers play fair, value their name. The fact that year after year they are forgiven for Russian sellers is unacceptable in the States: they will sue. And even Carter's on Black Friday and on other holidays makes real offers. For example, they will give you bonus pants if you took two pairs, or throw off 20-25% if you enter a code.
Worthy sales from stores that track their reputation have already started. Sections with good discounts for Black Friday are open at Amazon, Walmart, Kohl's. ToysRUs offers a discount of 15-30% on children's toys. Amazon sells the Nintendo Switch console for $ 300 and the Boze sound system for $ 299. The savings are far from 40%, but a few thousand rubles are saved. Amazon intelligently alternates discounts, each day offering several hundred new ones in a special section on Black Friday .
The hottest goods are sold out in a few hours, and therefore there is no sense in posting them in advance. For example, the XBox One S per day “H” BestBuy promises to charge for $ 189 , and the Microsoft Surface Pro laptop will temporarily drop in price from $ 999 to $ 629 . On a couple-three purchases you can save half the salary, but for this they need to be specifically viewed, and do not yawn, starting from the 23rd.
Walmart and eBay, which Amazon is gradually ousting from the Internet, have become very active this year. To remind yourself, Walmart is already offering several thousand discounts on products, from tablets to diapers. EBay has a much more complicated situation. The auction model failed, and the site is trying to adapt to the store model. This is given to him very difficult, given his name and reputation (we wrote about the big problems of the eBay business in the article for GT ).
But for buyers in this solid plus: while eBay spends the last billions on its promotion, we remove all the cream. From November 13 until the end of all sales (including Cyber Monday), eBay gives the same price on things as the most profitable competitors - Amazon, Kohl's, Macy's, Walmart, JCPenney. And then the sellers are reimbursed out of pocket. He already has quite serious discounts - toys, clothes, electronics. And until November 20, ebay has a coupon PSHOPEARLY, giving -20% for several thousand things. Yes, this is not a price cut in half, as advertisers can promise, but the savings are quite real and guaranteed.
A few more discounts on electronics, starting in advance; can compare:
Product | Price in Russia | Regular price in America | Black Friday Price | Saving |
|
| 69-77 thousand rubles | $ 998 | $ 798 |
|
|
| 18-21 thousand rubles | $ 249 | $ 218 |
|
|
| 72 thousand rubles | $ 869 | $ 619 |
|
|
| 21 thousand rubles | $ 249 | $ 169 |
|
|
| 27 990 rub | $ 299 | $ 199 |
|
In Russia, not many people are passionate about Black Friday, and therefore, stores are forced to make discounts unreal. In the US, there is no such problem. In 2016, 205 million Americans participated in shopping. This year, retailers are counting on 250 million. The whole country clearly knows when to order will be the most profitable.
What to buy?
Traditionally, the most profitable purchases in the days of pre-holiday sales are electronics, household appliances, household items and toys. It is on these categories of goods sellers offer the greatest discounts. From electronics, discounts are often given on TVs and cameras. The reason is simple - for goods with a high starting price, the discounts are the most noticeable and attractive. For example, the B & H network for cameras and lenses has already opened three sections: for Sony , for Canon and for Nikon . Discounts start at $ 150 and go up to $ 1,429 (in fact, up to $ 800- $ 1000, the starting price is slightly overpriced). The opportunity to save one and a half thousand dollars looks much more attractive than, say, a chance to save $ 50 on headphones. Even if the camera has a 30 percent discount and 75 percent on headphones.
And most often they buy, surprisingly, women's clothing. Her sales on Black Friday in 2016 increased as much as 5 times. Children's products began to take apart 2.5 times more actively, but smartphones only 2 times.
It is believed that Black Friday is about technology. In fact, not quite. Last year’s biggest discounts were on household items and toys. In individual cases, they reached 50%. Smartphones, tablets, etc. are more than Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Black Friday. This year it falls on November 27th. The coolest discounts on electronics retailers prefer to leave under it.
Is there a future
Despite the fact that shop windows are full of advertising and promise of discounts on Black Friday, experts note that Black Friday is gradually going down in history. Sales in recent times actually begin a few days before it and continue after the holiday weekend. And then, of course, follows Cyber Monday, the day of record online sales.
Five or ten years ago, on the day of the state of emergency, one could see crowds of Americans waiting for the opening of supermarkets, arranging fights for the most discounted goods. The craziest was Black Friday 2008. One employee of Walmart then even trampled to death .
Such scenes will soon be in the past.
Now about a third of purchases are made via the Internet, 55% of them from a smartphone. The main day of shopping ceases to be such an important cultural event in the life of America, as it was before. Someone starts calling Thanksgiving "Black Thursday." And the USA Today newspaper, looking at the discounts that started already on the 13th, proclaimed the entire month of November “Black Month”. Who knows, maybe it will come to the “Black Year”?
So far the fact is this: there really are discounts, although not as serious as advertised. If you know worthy retailers and keep track of the price, buying things in emergency days is a real way to save many thousands of rubles. Especially if you take in American stores, where goods are initially cheaper. Saving 10,000 rubles on one smartphone - why not?
American stores do not send goods directly to Russia, but this is actually solved very simply. You get your address in the USA for free at Pochtoy.com , send items to us. We combine them, pack and ship them, allowing you to save on parcel weight. For everything about everything - from $ 8.99. And when registering on this link and entering the GEEKTIMES code, $ 7 comes to your account. Only when shopping abroad, remember that goods are more expensive than € 1000 when importing are subject to a duty, and if you do not want too much trouble, it is better not to cross this line.
All Articles