For The Best Holiday Deals: Shoppers Should Wait Till #CyberMonday

When it comes to sales events, Black Friday is often thought of as the biggest. But the Monday after Thanksgiving is quickly becoming the shopping day of choice for many Americans. In fact, in 2015 consumers spent $3 billion on what is known as Cyber Monday versus $2.7 billion on Black Friday, according to Adobe.

Cyber Monday is a term that was coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation to encourage online shopping on the day that many people were returning to work after the Thanksgiving holiday, said Benjamin Glaser, features editor of DealNews.

“Of course, now people don’t need any encouragement to shop online, on Cyber Monday or any other time during the holiday season,” he said.

However, if you’re trying to come up with a holiday shopping strategy, here are some reasons you might want to skip Black Friday and wait for Cyber Monday instead.

1. You’ll Find Better Deals

“It might seem like Black Friday has all of the deals,” said Mike Catania, founder of PromotionCode.org. But an analysis by the site actually found that it ranks behind Cyber Monday for savings. Waiting for prices to come down on Cyber Monday can save you about 10 percent, Catania said.

Savings are particularly notable for certain categories of items.

“Cyber Monday is the undisputed champion for deals on small electronics, toys and clothing,” Catania said, adding that the average discount is 5 percent higher for small electronics and clothing and 10 percent higher for toys than on Black Friday.

Plus, shoes and beauty products are majorly discounted during Cyber Monday sales, said Amy Chang, lifestyle savings expert at Slickdeals.net. It’s also a good day to score deals on laptop computers and travel, according to DealNews.

2. You Can Avoid the Crowds and Save Time

Although a growing number of consumers are shopping online, the stores are still crowded on Black Friday. More than 100 million consumers shopped in stores over Thanksgiving weekend in 2015, according to the National Retail Federation. Half of consumers who shop in stores over the weekend do so because they think the deals are too good to pass up. And about a third shop because it’s tradition, according to the NRF survey.

“Black Friday is a social experience, and the rush of fighting through throngs of people just adds to the excitement,” Catania said. “For a lot of us, that’s just needless stress during an already-stressful period.”

Fortunately, Cyber Monday offers an alternative. In addition to saving money on gas and possibly parking, you’ll be saving time you would have spent driving to stores and waiting in lines.

“Who doesn’t love the comfort of shopping from home in their pajamas?” Chang said. “No waiting in long lines, no driving, no fighting over parking spots. Just click, buy and wait for it to show up at your front door.”

3. There Are More Site-Wide Discounts

You don’t necessarily have to shop in stores on Black Friday, because most retailers do make their sales available online. However, Black Friday markdowns are typically product specific, Chang said. So, you’ll see only certain items on sale on retailers’ websites.

On Cyber Monday, though, retailers tend to offer more site-wide discounts, Chang said. So, you’ll have an opportunity to save across a broader range of products. And many of the deals last for an entire week, she said.

“So, if you’re shopping with a more generalized idea for a gift rather than for a specific gift, there are greater opportunities for consumers willing to wait a few more days,” Catania said. He notes that more than half of the site-wide discounts on Cyber Monday will range from 20 percent to 40 percent off.

4. You Might Be Able to Score Free Shipping

Free shipping is the most sought-after retail policy for holiday shoppers this year, according to the 2016 Deloitte Holiday Survey. And Cyber Monday will likely offer online shoppers a better opportunity than Black Friday to score free shipping, Catania said.

So far, 57 percent of Cyber Monday deals that have been advertised are tied to free shipping versus 41 percent of Black Friday offers, Catania said. That could change as both shopping days get closer and retailers roll out more offers.

However, even if a retailer doesn’t offer free shipping on Cyber Monday, you might be able to avoid shipping charges by having your items sent to one of the store’s brick-and-mortar locations. Then you can pick it up at your convenience. For example, Walmart — which didn’t offer free shipping for purchases less than $50 last holiday season — does offer free shipping if you choose store pickup when ordering online.

5. It’s Easier to Compare Prices Online

“The great thing about shopping online is that the internet allows us to tap into comparison shopping,” Chang said.

So, you can quickly ensure you’re getting the best deals on Cyber Monday by visiting a site such as PriceGrabber.com to compare prices before you buy. Or you can download a browser add-on, such as PriceBlink, which automatically alerts you as you shop online if an item you’re interested in is cheaper at another retailer’s site.

Although there are price-comparison apps that let you scan the barcodes of items to see if another retailer is selling them for less while shopping in stores, these apps mostly offer prices from stores with which they have affiliate relationships, Catania said. So, the app might not show some retailers where prices are lower.

“When you’re shopping online, you have additional time to do actual research,” Catania said.

You also can take advantage of deal sites that help you find the best offers. For example, Slickdeals.net has more than 10 million community members who post the best deals daily in the site’s forums. The top 30 to 40 deals make it on to Slickdeals.net’s homepage, so you know those are the best offers available, Chang said.

6. You Might Be Less Likely to Overspend

You might be able to keep spending under control by shopping online on Cyber Monday rather than hitting the stores the Friday before. Research by the International Council of Shopping Centers found that consumers spend significantly more money shopping in physical stores than they do online. One explanation for this phenomenon could be the tactics retailers use to get you to spend more in stores.

“Shopping online inherently removes some retailers’ most effective techniques,” Catania said. “There are no focus-based displays, no urgency in seeing only a few items on a shelf and no other physical shoppers to actively compare against.”

Plus, the design and layout of physical stores are meant to increase the time you spend there.

“Dwell time is profitable: each 1 percent increase in dwell time equals a 1.3 percent increase in spending,” Catania said. “While consumers can easily dwell on a website, too, a home office lacks the retail environment conducive to overspending.”

So, consider waiting to do your holiday shopping on Cyber Monday to get better deals, increase your odds of scoring free shipping offers and avoid the temptation to overspend in stores.