Shoppers urged not to buy into dodgy Black Friday deals

More than 99% of

More than 99% of products featured in Black
Friday^[1] deals cost the same
or even less at other times of the year, new research
suggests.

An analysis by Which?^[2] of more than 200
deals in last year’s sales bonanza found that UK shoppers are
“almost guaranteed not to score the cheapest price of the year by
buying on Black
Friday^[3]”. 

A total of 40% of the products “were cheaper than their
Black Friday price at other times of the year”, according to the
consumer watchdog, which looked at deals by retailers
including Amazon.co.uk, AO.com, Argos, Currys, John Lewis and
Richer Sounds. And all but 0.5% were the same price at other times
in 2020. 

Although the law requires discount prices to be “genuine”,
companies can use loopholes to get around the requirement. Some
compare the so-called discounted price to a higher price “that
the same retailer has previously charged for that product, the
recommended retail price of the product set by the manufacturer, or
a price charged by a rival store for the same product”, Which?
explained.

But the higher price may not be “the last price the product was
sold at, because there have been other prices in between”. Or a
deal may not be as good as it sounds “if, when the product was sold
at the higher price, another type of discount such as a multibuy
was also available”.

In addition to misleading deals, consumers are being warned
about outright scams around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A
campaign to raise awareness around the sale of fake goods has been
launched by the National Markets Group for IP Protection (NMG).

The Journal of Trading
Standards^[4] said that “traders in
counterfeit goods are looking to exploit the shift to online buying
by attempting to offer products which are often dangerous goods on
social media platforms”.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Group, a member of the NMG, cited
clothing, footwear, accessories, watches, toys, cosmetics, perfumes
and electrical goods as some of the products most likely to be
counterfeited and sold unlawfully at this time of year.

British shoppers were scammed out of an estimated £2.5m during
the Black Friday sales period last year, reported The Guardian^[5]. 

“Many never received goods they ordered from unfamiliar
websites, and some were subsequently targeted by criminals using
bank details given during transactions,” said the paper.

But even though many shoppers got stung, forecasters are
expecting a bumper Black Friday in 2021. With research showing
that consumer
confidence has soared^[6]
in recent months, analysts PricewaterhouseCoopers^[7] has predicted sales
of more than £9bn.