Black Friday goes online

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many of the Black Friday deals to go online. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is usually the busiest in-store shopping day of the year and the kickoff for the holiday shopping season. It's the most crucial time for retailers. "For retailers that rely more on their in-store shopping experience and those that have been struggling even before the pandemic, this shopping season could determine whether they stay afloat in 2021," said Matt Wehner, a shopping expert at BestBlackFriday.com. BestBlackFriday.com, a website that tracks trends in the holiday shopping season, said the pandemic caused two significant changes to the shopping event. First, more deals will be available online. Most Black Friday deals have been available online for years, but Wehner believes this year the in-store component will be even less prominent. "While stores are holding in-store events, they're doing a lot to discourage crowding. So shopping in stores this year will be less celebratory," Wehner said. Kohl's, J.C. Penney, Macy's and many other stores have emphasized contactless curbside pick up this year to dissuade people from in-store shopping. But just because shoppers won't flood stores this year, it doesn't mean holiday shopping will slow down. "Stores may be less busy, but there will be a lot of action online," Wehner said. "As soon as retailers start sending their official Black Friday sales online, popular items will sell out just as fast as they would on store shelves." The other significant change is that instead of making all the deals available at once for a few days, stores have spread them out in waves. "Take Target and Walmart, for example," Wehner said. "They're running multiple Black Friday ads and deals, with various drop dates throughout November." What's popular? With the new release of the next generation of gaming consoles and the pandemic forcing people to spend more time at home, Wehner expects gaming consoles to be more popular than ever. "Gaming consoles are highly likely to sell out this year, especially the new Playstation 5 and Xbox consoles," Wehner said. "Even the Nintendo Switch — which is more than three years old — has been seeing lots of popularity this year due to the pandemic, so expect Switch bundle deals to run out quickly." He also expects TVs to sell out quickly since more people want to upgrade as they spend more time at home. Best Deals "Based on the ads that have already come out, the categories with the strongest deals are what we've seen in previous years," Wehner said. He added people could easily find 50% off on small kitchen appliances and smart home tech. TVs are also less expensive for larger screen sizes than last year. Fitness trackers and smartwatches, like Fitbit and Apple Watch, will be around $30 to $60 off at retailers. AirPods have a more significant discount this year at $50 off the Pro version and $30 to $40 off the standard one. "We saw the most basic AirPods with the wired charging case fall to $99 at Walmart during its early Black Friday sale, so we expect that price to come around again," Lehner said. But the retailer he recommends people keep an eye on is Kohl's because it's offering the same price on popular items as other stores, but it also throws in Kohl's Cash, which increases the savings. As a final tip, Wehner said shoppers have to pay attention to sales and act quickly. "Items sell out quickly online, so be sure you know when your favorite retailers' sales are going live and be ready to check out immediately," Wehner said. "If Walmart's early Black Friday sales are any indication, popular items will be out of stock in minutes."