Tips to survive in the wild that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday

The preparation for guaranteed sale shopping success

Making the most of those Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals takes a lot of preparation. Not only physically and mentally, but it’s important to do your online and in-person research in advance. The latter is also particularly beneficial when trying to hit your 10 000-step count target in the hope of a free weekly smoothie.

Charlette Roetz, Head of Marketing at vehicle tracking specialist, Tracker says, “Our aggregated data has shown enormous shifts in traffic patterns throughout the protracted Covid period, as people navigated lockdown, curfews, movement restrictions, an enhanced online experience working from home (WFH) and th

e gradual return to our everyday activities. In the spirit of the approaching year-end festivities, this has inspired a tongue-in-cheek navigation of the impending online and retail humdrum of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. We wish all South Africans a safe and successful shopping experience!”  

W.P. Kinsella said: “Success is getting what you want, happiness is wanting what you get.”
We could not agree more so we are sharing these easy steps to help you secure the proverbial Black Friday bag. Resulting in happiness and a reason to update your Facebook status with a humble brag about the sweet deals you managed to grab!

1. Research is essential to find the best bargains. Shop around, compare prices, compare products. If an item has a bad review, remove it from your list – life is too short for that kind of negativity. This is going to help you decide if you should be queuing at midnight to get in store, or logging on to shop online. Or doing both at the same time!

2. With the price of fuel on the rise, we recommend using a maps app to plan out the best route when popping in to bag all the deals available in-store. This will save you time and money, both of which are precious commodities in the sale race.

3. If you are opting to shop online, start filling your cart. It’s important to add a few back up items just in case you cannot get the product that you really want and then need to buy yourself something else to cheer yourself up. 

4. Make sure all the sites you are shopping on are safe and secure and preload your credit card details so it’s only a case of fastest fingers first and adding an OTP when checking out on the day.

5. We also recommend investing in a UPS. If there is loadshedding on the day, you’ll be able to shop up a storm without interruption.

6. Have a stress ball close by as its always a possibility that the popular websites could crash and you want to be able to keep your cool as you continue hitting refresh and adding to your cart.

7. Concentration is key and if you want to make sure that you can seal the deal, consider sending your family out for the day or booking them into a hotel the night before. It’s a win-win!

8. Stock up on snacks and water. You need your body to be a fine-tuned bargain hunting machine so it’s important to hydrate and refuel throughout. We even encourage some carbo loading the night before to make sure you can go the distance on this shopping marathon.

9. Schedule in at least two extra hours for some ‘value added’ shopping. This is when you have bought everything you wanted but come across an interesting link and want to explore that site for other items you did not know you needed. Like maybe unicorn Crocs or a hairdryer for your dog. All are considered essentials on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

10. Last but certainly not least, make sure that your delivery and contact details are correct. If your colleagues already suspect that you might have a little bit of a shopping addiction (who are we to judge) then maybe consider putting in some WFH days around delivery time…

Then it’s a matter of practising patience while you eagerly await the delivery of all of your parcels. Hopefully there is no buyer’s remorse and if there is, remember to always check the stores return policy before you hit purchase so that your returns or exchanges are a breeze.

Sidenote: please recycle the packaging of the orders you keep, and don’t spend what you don’t have!