Black Friday 2020 is fast approaching. The biggest shopping event of the year, and the unofficial start of the holiday shopping season, is just around the corner. However, the 2020 event will be a bit different this year. Indeed, it will be highly different for consumers who are used to shopping in traditional brick-and-mortar retail locations.
Read more: Black Friday vs Amazon Prime Day
In this article, we will go over when Black Friday 2020 will officially start. We will also show how that date is something that has slowly become old-fashioned when it comes to when deep discounts will actually being. We will also show how the current coronavirus outbreak, and the subsequent slower economic situation, will force retailers to make even more changes for the event. Finally, we will offer our predictions for what kinds of deals and discounts we can find during Black Friday 2020. That includes some discounts on products that you can take advantage of right now.
When is Black Friday 2020?
Officially, the event will be held on Friday, November 27. If you want to learn more about the history of the Black Friday event, check out our article at the link below:
Read more: What is Black Friday?
What should I expect from the event this year?
As we mentioned, brick-and-mortar stores, which have already seen smaller amounts of traffic over the last few years, will see even fewer shoppers for the event in 2020. That is due, of course, because the coronavirus threat will keep many people from going out at all. Therefore, online sales, which have been seeing explosive growth during Black Friday in the past few years, will almost certainly see even bigger sales growth for the 2020 event.
During the last few years, deep Black Friday discounts have also expanded beyond the traditional “Friday after Thanksgiving” date. They have started online sometimes as much as a week in advance. Now, many retailers have stated they plan to offer Black Friday-style discounts throughout the month of November.
What have retailers already announced for the event, before and during Black Friday 2020?
Amazon has already held its big Prime Day sales event earlier in October. However, it has started its Holiday Deals event, with daily deep discounts on various products, including Amazon’s own hardware devices. We should get more information on the retailer’s more specific Black Friday plans very soon.
Credit: Walmart
Another major retailer, Walmart, has announced plans for three major deal events ahead of the traditional Black Friday time period. The company is calling it Black Friday Deals for Days. All the events will begin online at Walmart.com, and will be available in the retailer stores a few days later.
Here’s the current schedule of Walmart’s sales events for its month-long Black Friday event
- First event – Online November 4 at 7 p.m. ET, with more deals going online November 7 at 12 a.m. ET, and 5 a.m. in stores, local time
- Second event – Online November 11 at 7 p.m. ET, with more deals going online November 14 at 12 a.m. ET, and 5 a.m. in stores, local time
- Third event – Online November 25 at 7 p.m. ET, with more deals going online November 27 at 12 a.m. ET, and 5 a.m. in stores, local time
Credit: Best Buy
Best Buy has also announced early sales that are live right now. It’s calling the event Prep for the Holidays, with Black Friday level discounts available on many products right now.
Target has announced it will begin Black Friday-style deep discounts on November 1. Those deals will be going live throughout the entire month.
Other major retailers like Costco, Sam’s Club, Kohl’s, Home Depot, Lowes, Gamestop, and many more are expected to launch pre-Black Friday deals much earlier than normal as well.
What products are expected to be offered at big discounts during the event?
Credit: Best Buy
If you bought products during Amazon’s Prime Day event in October (along with other retailers during the same time period) at big discounts, you can likely expect to see the same during the Black Friday sales events as well. That includes huge price cuts on things like big-screen televisions, audio products, tablets, laptops, streaming video devices, smartphones and much more. Smart home products, and especially smart office devices, will likely be selling at discount prices this year as well, as more people work or go to school from home.
Because Black Friday is the start of the traditional holiday shopping season, you can expect a bigger emphasis on toy discounts for the kids. Also, video games and game consoles will likely get big discounts as well. This year will be more interesting as both Microsoft and Sony are launching new game consoles during the month of November (the Xbox Series X and S and the Playstation 5, respectively). While we don’t expect to see those consoles to get discounts during Black Friday, retailers might bundle them with some free games. We also expect to see big discounts on current generation consoles and games as well.
Finally, we might expect to see some streaming services to offer discounts, or special trial offers, during the event.
What if something I buy before Black Friday goes down in price later in November?
Many retailers are already offering ways to give customers some price guarantees. For example, Best Buy is letting customers know they really need to sign up for the retailer’s My Best Buy reward service. If those members buy a product on sale, and if that product’s price goes down before November 28, they will get back the difference in price.
Also, Target is offering a Price Match Guarantee from November 1 through December 24. If you buy a “Black Friday deal” product during that time, and then the price goes down on Target’s web site, or at Target.com, the retailer will give you back the difference.
In general, you should check if the retailer you are buying a Black Friday-labeled deal with will offer a price guarantee if that product’s price goes down.
Are there any early Black Friday 2020 deals available right now?
Yep! As we mentioned, Amazon and Best Buy have already launched big early Black Friday discounts right now. Here’s just a sample:
Amazon
Best Buy
That’s our look at Black Friday 2020. We will be updating this article with more information on the massive holiday sales event in the coming days and weeks.