Black Friday is the most awaited shopping event of the year. During this time, stores have remarkable deals and discounts, helping people save. However, the endless offers also confuse buyers. Many fail to find deals on their favorite products and services and spend more than they should. Therefore, it’s crucial to develop a strategy for the shopping season. These ten hacks will ensure customers have their best Black Friday ever.

Create a wish list and research in real time
This may seem like the most basic suggestion, but it’s a valuable hack for Black Friday. Research helps identify the best deals and save more. But how to research? First, create a list of products, such as a pair of shoes, new headphones, and a dining table for the home. Then visit multiple retailer and brand websites and compare the prices of each product. While browsing websites, look for newly-available discounts, possible launches of new products, exchange offers, and other lucrative deals. Doing so will help find the most value-for-money offers.

Look for early-bird deals
One doesn’t necessarily have to wait until Black Friday to get great discounts. Many stores and shopping websites roll out early-bird deals weeks before. For example, retailers like Target offer a price match guarantee starting over a month before Black Friday. If a customer purchases a product and finds out its price is lower at another store, they can contact customer service and receive a refund of the cost difference. But remember, such offers have terms and conditions, and one would have to produce the receipt of their purchases.

Use money-saving shopping apps
Black Friday has traditionally been associated with lining up at physical stores. However, this has changed due to the influx of shopping websites and apps. Today, almost every product, from shoes to furniture and jewelry, is available online. Retail apps also offer better deals than their brick-and-mortar counterparts during events like Black Friday. Furthermore, they send notifications to users, informing them about their latest deals and product launches. What’s more, many apps enable customers to compare prices of products.

Shop local
Big brands and retail outlets spend huge bucks on Black Friday marketing to attract maximum customers. Consequently, people forget about smaller local stores that advertise less. But this doesn’t mean they aren’t any good. One can contact a local electronics store or a home improvement contractor and ask whether they have any deals and discounts that match or are better than those advertised by bigger stores. If they do, one can save money while supporting local businesses during Black Friday.

Use social media to get deals
Brands and retailers extensively use social media to connect with their audiences. In fact, nearly every business these days has a dedicated social media team to keep their clients updated about new product releases, deals on specific products, or policy changes. In the run-up to Black Friday, they use social media to give customers hits about upcoming promotions. Therefore, a great shopping hack during (or before) Black Friday is to track the social media pages of retailers or brands.

Use accumulated cashback
Many online and offline retailers offer points and cashback every time customers purchase. However, people tend to ignore such points and use their debit or credit card to shop the next time. An excellent shopping hack is to accumulate and use these points to buy an expensive product. It can help save a considerable amount, which can be allocated for other purchases.

Plan and target particular stores
Instead of following every popular retailer and brand on social media, customers can target particular places where they have shopped in the past and built camaraderie with the staff. Store owners are likely to notify their loyal customers before others about new Black Friday offers. More importantly, though, targeting certain stores for certain products is a systematic way of shopping.

Ask for gift cards
Continuing from the previous point, loyal customers can ask for gift cards and cashback if they have a good rapport with the store staff and owners. Gift cards, like cashback, can be redeemed for purchases made later.

Subscribe to newsletters
Many retailers publish newsletters through email. One can subscribe to these newsletters periodically and learn about any discounts or offers for Black Friday.

Take advantage of loyalty programs
Some shop at particular stores or brands so frequently that they get an option to subscribe to loyalty programs. Those who are part of a loyalty program can know about discounts before others. More importantly, such customers get better offers. Buying a loyalty program is worthwhile for shoppers during Black Friday.