Black Friday 2019: What date do the sales start and how to find the best deals?
Love it or hate it, there's no denying the unstoppable force of Black Friday. What started off as a tradition across the pond has now become the highlight of every British bargain-hunter's calendar.
Whether you're brave enough to flock to Oxford Street or prefer to shop online from the comfort of your own bed, there are serious savings to be made. Laptops, games consoles and clothes are all sold at a fraction of the price - perfect if you want to do some early Christmas shopping.
Because this event only comes around once a year, you need to be as prepared as possible - ideally, knowing exactly what you're looking to buy. To help you prepare for your guilt-free shopping spree, therefore, we have created a guide of everything you need to know about Black Friday - including the start date, how to find the best deals, how to be safe when shopping online, and predictions of this year's big-sellers.
What is Black Friday?
Black Friday is a tradition that originates from America, where retailers cut prices on a huge range of items the day after Thanksgiving. However, in recent years Britain has also jumped on the bandwagon.
As such, you can expect major UK retailers to cut prices on a huge range of items - including big-budget electrical items, beauty gift sets, kitchen equipment and clothes.
When is Black Friday?
The official day for Black Friday 2019 is November 29. However, many retailers actually slash their prices from the middle of November in an attempt to keep ahead of competitors - so keep an eye out for bargains throughout the month.
This also applies to online shopping, where sales typically run for an extended period in order to help improve the process of sales and online deliveries.
History
Police officers in Philadelphia were actually the first to coin the term 'Black Friday' in the 1950s. Large crowds of tourists and shoppers came to the city on the day after Thanksgiving, causing chaos and traffic jams, so police officers had to work long shifts to control the carnage. As such, they labelled the day Black Friday. The name spread throughout Philadelphia and was later printed in The American Philatelist magazine in 1966.
By the late 1980s, the name was commonly known across America and linked to post-Thanksgiving sales.
Black Friday only spread to the UK in 2010, when online retail giant Amazon introduced the concept, promoting a range of discounts and deals. In 2013, supermarket Asda (owned by American retailer Walmart) held its own Black Friday sale - which resulted in chaos, as shoppers physically fought over flat-screen televisions. Following this, the sales bonanza spread across the UK, with many retailers now offering online deals, too.
How can I find the best deals?
Although it is still too early to know the specific deals for Black Friday 2019, there are ways you can make sure you're the first to know when shops announce their discounts.
The Telegraph will be updating our Black Friday channel with offers as soon as they're made available, so it's worth bookmarking it ahead of the big day.
Sign up to email updates from retailers, download their apps and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. That way, you'll get notifications that keep you in the loop.
It's also a good idea to do your research in advance and bookmark the products you want to buy - as such, you create a shortcut to seeing the discounts as soon as the deals are released.
Sign up for Amazon Prime, because the online retailing giant gives Prime members exclusive discounts as well as early access to "lightening deals" (the ones that usually sell out within minutes) 30 minutes before the rest of the internet. That extra time could be crucial on Black Friday.
Tips for shopping on the big day
Online shopping is usually a leisurely activity - something you can do while watching a series on Netflix. Not on Black Friday. On this day, you're in a race to get the items into your basket and checked out before the deal is no longer available. Sound stressful? Don't worry - we've got some tips to help you get the best deals available on the day.
Set up an online account in advance. Create an account on the sites where you'll be shopping on Black Friday. To speed up the checkout process on the day, make sure you store your account details so you can shop without wasting precious time.
Haggle using live chat. While haggling can be mortifying at a market stall, it's easily done online. All you need to do is type the deal you want, or the discount code you've been given, into the website's live chatbox and see if the retailer can shave a little more off the price. In December 2015, Telegraph Money managed to haggle £65 off a Dell laptop. If you don't ask, you don't get.
Grab an abandoned basket discount. This is a cheeky method that isn't guaranteed to work - but it's worth a shot. Some retailers offer customers discounts if they see they have put an item into their basket and not checked out. So, go on the website, add items to your basket and then close the window. A few days later, you might receive an email trying to entice you to buy the items at a discounted price. Retailers who have been known to offer this discount include Asda, Asos, H&M and Waitrose.
Check Flubit. If you've found a product you like on Amazon, and you have a spare couple of hours, enter the URL into the Flubit generator - it will tell you if there's a better deal elsewhere on the internet. This can take up to three hours and Flubit, which receives a commission on each deal it facilitates, does sometimes admit that Amazon has the best price on an item.
Shop around. Don't fall for the first deal you see. Instead, conduct a simple search on Google's 'Shopping' channel to check whether other retailers are offering a better discount. If you don't have time to check the prices yourself, you can use a price comparison site such as My Supermarket, which collates the best deals and allows you to see which are cheapest.
How to shop online safely
During the frenzy of Black Friday, consumers can fall prey to online scammers. The first step to avoiding this is to shop on sites with which you are familiar - such as Amazon or a high street retailer. When creating accounts for these sites, you should keep your passwords complicated and change them often. The following are also precautions to take to stay safe when shopping online.
Always use a credit card, instead of a debit card, to pay for items. That way, if the products fail to arrive or aren't as promised by the seller's site, the credit card company has liability (under "Section 75") and should refund you the money.
Set up credit card alerts. You can set up purchase alerts through your bank or credit card company, where you will receive texts or emails when purchases are made that exceed a certain amount. This will alert you to any unusual activity on your card and thus protect you against scams.
Be wary of non-secure checkouts. The checkout stage is where you and your credit card are most vulnerable to a fraudster's attack. Therefore, make sure there is an encrypted checkout process - a small padlock should appear next to the site's URL in your browser.
Don't share unnecessary information. Phishing scams are rife around the Black Friday weekend, so be wary of any emails purporting to be from a major retailer that request additional information. Remember: bank details and personal information should not need to be 'confirmed'. So, never respond and never click on hyperlinks. If in doubt, call the retailer directly.
Move away from mobile shopping. It may be convenient, but shopping on your mobile poses security risks on Black Friday. Scams include abbreviated URLs on social media (leading to phishing scams) and public networking hacking (it's easy to pull personal data from unsecured Wi-FI networks). If you do want to shop on your mobile, make sure you're at home and on a password-protected network.
What happened last year?
Last year saw Amazon, Currys PC World and John Lewis cutting their prices on electricals, with some truly impressive deals. In the beauty aisles, Boots, Mankind and a number of independent beauty retailers offered some great discounts - so they're worth keeping an eye on for this year's Black Friday deals.
If this year is anything like last year, the top sellers will be electrical items - which seems to be the key trend for Black Friday. Some of last year's best-sellers included the Sony Playstation 4, the Bose QuietComfort Noise Cancelling headphones, the Huawei P20 and the Dell Inspirion 13 laptop.
Electrical home devices were also popular - especially the KitchenAid 150 Artisan mixer, Bosch WAT28371GB washing machine, Google Home smart speaker, Amazon Fire TV stick and Amazon Echo Dot smart device.
Home and beauty products were also popular - including the John Lewis Beauty Advent Calendar, Royal Doulton tableware, and Egyptian cotton towels and 200-thread-count bedlinen from John Lewis.
What might be on sale this year?
It's still too early to tell what exact deals will be on offer this year, but we can predict that there will be discounts on some of 2019's most popular products.
For instance, wireless headphones have been a huge trend this year - with the Apple Airpods leading the pack. However, when the sales start, you should also keep your eyes peeled for deals on what we have rated the best wireless headphones on the market - including the Creative SXFI AIR and the Beats Solo 3 headphones.
Tablets continue to be popular, and we can predict sales on some of the high-end versions - such as the iPad Air and the Microsoft Surface Go, which our team at Telegraph Recommended rated as the best tablets.
Unless the internet suddenly ceases to exist, smartphones will continue to be in high demand. Look out for deals on the Google Pixel 3A and OnePlus 7 Pro - two of the best smartphones on the market, according to the Telegraph Recommended team.
