Black Friday 2021 is approaching. Although many companies, including Amazon, have already started selling discounted goods at the beginning of the month, transforming "Black Friday" into "Black November", the twenty-four hours of maxi discounts long awaited by users will only arrive at the end of the month.
BLACK FRIDAY 2021: THE DATES
To be precise, in 2021, the actual Black Friday will be held Friday 26 November,the Friday after Thanksgiving Thursday. The event, year after year, has reached such a high reach and diffusion, as to push physical stores and e-commerce platforms to lengthen its duration. Until last year, in fact, there was talk of the "Black Friday week" which ended on the Monday following Black Friday, with the now well-known cyber monday. This year, however, from the beginning of November, many big sellers have already started their discount campaign, with offers on a vast range of products: from household appliances (among the most popular), to technological devices, passing through clothing, household products, make up and beauty products.
BLACK FRIDAY IN ADVANCE
Amazon, for example, on November 8th launched the "Black Friday in advance" which will end on November 18th. There are already many discounted items, but if you are not in a hurry, the advice of the experts is still to wait: the most substantial offers will in fact arrive on November 26, especially as regards large appliances and technological devices. So if today you could find your favorite product at a 20% discount, on November 26 the price could be even lower.
BLACK FRIDAY 2021: SHOPPING RACE
According to a study carried out by Pwc, this year 85% of Italians intend to buy something for Black Friday. ”Among those interested – explains Erika Andreetta partner of PwC Italia, consumer market consulting leader – over four out of five Italians (86%) intend to buy items for themselves, while 63% will go shopping for their family and 16% for friends and acquaintances". The average expenditure could be around 235 euros (from 157 euros in 2020) and many want to take advantage of this commercial event to start giving Christmas presents.
BLACK FRIDAY 2021: BEWARE OF INCREASES AND SCAMS
When you decide to buy a product, you need to pay the utmost attention. Not always the offers that we find ourselves in front of, reports Altroconsumothey are really convenient. Two alarm bells that should not be underestimated:
- If the discount seems exaggerated to us, it often really is: in many cases “the discount percentage is calculated based on the list price of the product at the time of market launch. Thus it is easy to boast discounts of up to 50% on products released several months ago and which, in the meantime, have already suffered a physiological drop in price”, explains the consumers' association.
- Just as often what is passed off as a "discount" is actually not. “The prices recorded on a good number of offers, in fact, were often close to the market minimums, but in fact the unmissable offers were very rare. In other cases, the Black Friday discounts coincided precisely with the minimum price of the product: in short, nothing exceptional”, Altroconsumo says.
In short, before buying any product it is always advisable to carry out careful checks. If, for example, the intention is to buy a device on Amazon, there are two tools that allow us to understand what the real price trend is: Keepa and Camelcamelcamel. Altroconsumo has instead created a page dedicated to Black Friday, containing all the information on the most popular products during this discount period.
Even more attention must be paid to the offers that are offered to us via text messages, emails or posts on social networks: it could be scams or attempted theft of bank details. “In most cases, these pages have the purpose of stealing users' bank credentials and credit card data to empty their current accounts, and even fake online shops are registered which, after having collected the money from consumers, do not send the goods and disappear into thin air – explains the president of Absolute users, Furio Truzzi – In the next few days the scam attempts using these tricks will multiply, therefore we invite consumers to pay the utmost attention and today we are disclosing a set of rules with useful advice to avoid falling into the trap”.
AMAZON: COURIER STRIKE
Just Friday 26 November, on the occasion of Black Friday, deliveries will be at risk, at least for those who buy on the Amazon platform. Drivers and employees of companies associated with Assoespressi, which carry out deliveries on behalf of the American giant, have proclaimed a general strike which will block the distribution of parcels. About 12.000 workers will be involved in the protest, to which will be added the so-called "Natalini", another 3.000-4.000 seasonal workers called for the peak of the holidays.
The purpose of the strike, announced by the national secretary of Filt CGIL, Michele De Rose, is to ask to "lower workloads and rhythms of work, which have become unsustainable, and to reduce the weekly working hours of the drivers", explained the manager of the Filter. But according to De Rose, it is also necessary to “give employment continuity to all staff, on the occasion of tender and contract changes. The liability of drivers in cases of damage and deductibles must be reduced and the economic value of the trip must be increased and the result bonus introduced". Finally, it is necessary "to guarantee the legislation on privacy, data management and remote control, excluding any repercussion of a disciplinary nature".
