Jaw-dropping discounts, extraordinary prices, unique opportunities - such catchphrases will soon fill the store windows and online shops almost all over the world. At the end of November, do retailers really reduce product prices by several dozen percent?
In fact, it is pretty easy to shed some light on whether you can actually buy a TV, laptop, handbag, perfume, games console or any other product for half price during Black Friday or Cyber Monday (in 2021, taking place on 26 and 29 November).
"All you need to do is keep a cool head and treat information regarding the price drop with caution. We may even risk a statement that the more impressive the price cut, the greater the caution. After all, it is our money that is at stake," notes Bartosz Sawicki, an analyst at Conotoxia.
How to avoid overpaying during the sales?
- Avoid getting carried away with the percentage discount.
- Compare the price of the selected item in other shops - just enter the name and code of the product in the internet search engine.
- Check if online retailers offer a lower price than the stationary shop.
- If possible, trace the price change history (e.g. on an auction portal).
- When buying in foreign shops, use your currency wallet and multi-currency card - this way, you can pay directly in foreign currencies.
Millions hoping for an opportunity
As common sense dictates, golden opportunities do not await us at every corner, and there are plenty of examples of retailers often deliberately raising prices beforehand. They do this just to be able to show off their impressive discounts later. Yet, it seems that they are the ones who stand out in the sales festivities. From a trader's point of view, it is about luring customers and selling as much as possible. From the buyer's point of view, it is all about getting the product as cheaply as possible.
Only in the United States, the number of people benefiting from Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales is approaching 200 million, according to the National Retail Federation. In other countries, for example, in Poland, where the number of consumers is incomparably smaller, and the tradition of November sales is only just getting established, the bargain offers seem to evoke comparable emotions and behaviour. According to Expertsender's 2020 report "Poles and Black Friday'', as many as 4 out of 5 customers, i.e. 78.1% of respondents, are tempted to buy at a reduced price. The same report also says a lot about the scale of the whole phenomenon in this country. Over 60 percent of its citizens have already decided to make a purchase on Black Friday at least once in their life.
At the same time, many voices were saying that the discounts in Poland are only a taste of what consumers in other countries - especially the richest ones, where the sales eldorado was supposed to begin at the end of November - can expect.
Evidence showing that the reality is not all that great abroad can be found in the publication "How to avoid fake Black Friday deals" by the British website Which, from September 2021. Journalists analysed how the prices of 119 selected products changed in shops. The journalists analysed how the costs of a chosen 119 products were edited in shops. It turned out that only 3 of them, i.e. slightly more than 1%, could be bought significantly cheaper during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Although also marked down, the overwhelming majority could be bought for more or less the same as the seeming bargain prices six months before and six months after the November sales.
Online shopping becomes even more popular, i.e. Black Friday without borders
The mentioned above Expertsender report showed that one in three Poles assumes that online shops offer better deals than traditional trade. Last year, the coronavirus pandemic, which has not yet been overcome, also encouraged people to shop online.
Some of the important advantages of online transactions include access to shops in different cities or even countries, and therefore a much wider choice of goods and an increased chance of finding a real bargain. On the other hand, one has to be prepared for longer delivery times and slightly higher transport costs when buying abroad. Currency exchange and customs tariffs on certain non-EU goods are also factors to watch out for. Anyway, shopping abroad may turn out to be advantageous, and Conotoxia's currency converter available at https://conotoxia.com/currency-exchange/currency-converter easily and practically calculates the price expressed in a foreign currency into the currency of your choice.
"In the past weeks, the zloty did not encourage Poles to buy euros, US dollars, francs or pounds. The world's main currencies climbed to multi-month highs against the Polish currency. Lately, the zloty has been slowly making up for its losses. We may cautiously assume that the trend in favour for the zloty will continue and in the current quarter the euro will still cost around 4.50 PLN," forecasts the analyst at Conotoxia.com, a web portal offering a multi-currency card, which is particularly useful when shopping abroad (both traditional and online). It enables favourable transactions in over 160 currencies from all over the world.
So, where did the name Black Friday and the tradition of November sales come from?
Black Friday is a much older term than the custom of cut-price shopping. It probably dates back to 1869, when a sharp fall in prices caused a significant market crash.
Far later, in the middle of the last century, US shops began inviting customers to sales on the day after Thanksgiving, which has a changeable date, falling on every fourth Thursday in November. The bargains caused increased traffic, traffic jams and car crashes, and police officers in Philadelphia were the first to use the term Black Friday to refer to these circumstances. The history of Cyber Monday, which is based on online sales on the Monday just after Black Friday, is much shorter.
Conotoxia cuts currency prices
Conotoxia users who want to shop abroad or just exchange currency during Black Friday and Cyber Monday can use a special offer from Conotoxia. If they enter the discount code "BlackFriday" when making a transaction, they will gain an even more favourable exchange rate.
The discount code can be used many times when exchanging PLN to another currency or other currencies to PLN. The code is valid from November 15 to 29, 2021.