Black Friday 2023: These retailers have the biggest discounts this year
The busiest and most hectic shopping season has begun.
Black Friday, the often frenzied shopping day following Thanksgiving, is almost here. Holiday shopping can be stressful as is and adding the madness of hundreds of shoppers, long lines and demand for highly sought after items can become overwhelming. Luckily personal finance website, WalletHub, surveyed thousands of deals across the United State's biggest retailers to find out what stores will be offering the best deals and how shoppers can make the most of the chaotic day.
Read ahead for what we know.
What are the best places to shop at during Black Friday? Top 5 retailers
JCPenney: Offers an average discount of 59%, making it the fifth time the retailer has earned the top spot on WalletHub's report since 2014. JCPenney offers the biggest markdowns on apparel and accessories with an average discount of 57.83%, however other significant discounts include a 59.46% discount on appliances, a 59.20% discount on jewelry, a 40.92% discount on toys, and a 63.13% discount on all other product categories.
Macy's: Offers an average discount of 58.2%, with some of the best deals being on jewelry (65.94%) and furniture (47.81%). Clothing is the second-best product category with items marked down by an average of 52.6%.
Belk: Offers an average discount of 54.8% and although there are few locations near Nashville you can still take advantage of online deals. Belk is the retailer offering the biggest markdowns on appliances (60.26%), as well as consumer packaged goods (65.79%) like makeup, shampoo and perfume.
Kohls: Offers an average discount of 48.8%. Their biggest savings are being offered on jewelry (71.93%) and they are also the retailer offering the biggest savings on computers and phones (37.75%) and consumer electronics (40.17%).
Target: Offers an average discount of 32.7%. Their biggest markdowns include furniture (43.66%), computers and phones (27.38%) and toys (33.25%).
More: How much to spend on Christmas in 2023? See Nashville's holiday budget and how to save this season
How to get the best deals during Black Friday?
According to Jane Boyd Thomas, a professor of marketing at Winthrop University, the best way to maximize bargains on Black Friday is to have a shopping plan in place. Leaving the shopping to chance can lead to wasted time simply roaming and not benefitting from the best deals.
Lalatendu Acharya, an assistant professor of health sciences at Indiana University Kokomo said shoppers should prepare their shopping lists in advance and be clear on the specifications they're looking for in the desired product.
"Be prepped with the price history of the items so that you know you are getting a good deal. Follow the social media handles of the products/ retailers you are targeting," he said. "Then, look at various deal websites like Brad Deals, Google Shopping, Capital One Price Shopper, coupon aggregators, etc., and compare prices."
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Early bird shopping isn't just for in-store shopping either. Experts recommend doing online shopping earlier in the day as well.
"Some shoppers will be up at midnight shopping," said Thomas . "Popular sizes in apparel and shoes often sell out quickly, so shopping early is important."
It is also important to consider the cost of shipping, the cost of returns and the retailer's return policy.
More: When did Black Friday start? The history behind Christmas shopping kick-off
Methodology
WalletHub surveyed more than 3,500 deals from 13 of the biggest United States retailers’ 2023 Black Friday ad scans and calculated the average discount that each retailer plans to offer. The average discount was weighted based on the pre-discounted price of the item to give more credit to the retailers discounting higher-ticket items.
WalletHub then organized the deals into categories such as “apparel and accessories,” “consumer electronics” and “appliances.” When calculating the category averages, WalletHub considered only the retailers that had at least five discounted items in that particular category.
Source: WalletHub
WalletHub surveyed the following retailers:
Amazon
Belk
Best Buy
BJ's
Costco
Dell
JCPenney
Kohl's
Macy's
Newegg
Target
The Home Depot
Walmart
The data used to conduct the study was collected from each retailer’s official website and BlackFriday.com.
Diana Leyva covers trending news and service for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@gannett.com or follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @_leyvadiana
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Black Friday: These retailers have the biggest discounts, survey says
