How to avoid fake offers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday: are those prices real?

Black Friday is just around the corner, and some companies have already launched special offers. However, as more businesses and retailers join this massive shopping event, more users are starting to question whether the discounts they come across are truly genuine.

To determine whether Black Friday discounts are truly great deals worth taking advantage of—or not—it is always recommended to carefully decide which product you want to buy during this period and start comparing its price in advance, as well as checking it across different online stores.

To avoid falling for misleading discounts, there are some tools that can help you identify whether you are looking at the deal of the year or if the price has remained unchanged—or even been artificially inflated.

• CamelCamelCamel
• Idealo
• Keepa
• Stickdeals
• Paypal Honey
• Kelkoo

CamelCamelCamel

If you are certain that your next smartphone, tablet, video game, or pair of sneakers will come directly from Amazon and you simply want to verify if the price is truly a discount, CamelCamelCamel is the ideal tool for checking deals.

Focused on providing historical price data for Amazon, this tool allows you to install a browser extension so you never miss a deal that interests you on the retail giant’s platform. Alternatively, you can just enter the product’s URL into its search bar to confirm the price.

Idealo

On its website, the price comparison tool Idealo has created a special section dedicated to Black Friday deals. In this section, you can set an “ideal price” for a product and receive alerts when the item’s price drops to meet that amount. Additionally, you can access up to a year’s worth of price history for the product, allowing you to verify the authenticity of these deals.

As you can see in this case, the offer is completely fake as its current price is the highest this product has had ever.

Additionally, if you install the Idealo app, you can scan the barcode of the products you want to compare prices for, in several European countries.

Keepa

While the public version of Keepa is already highly useful, registering unlocks even more features. By doing so, you gain access to Premium Data functionalities, such as more advanced search tools, the ability to import and export large product lists, access to Amazon’s best-seller lists (updated every few hours), price increase alerts, and more.

Stickdeals

Slickdeals is a deal-aggregating platform featuring discounts curated by its team and user community. It allows users to browse coupons and create custom deal alerts by entering keywords like product or retailer names.

Alerts can be tailored to notify about any deal or only those highly rated by the community or featured on the front page. Frequent visits are recommended, especially during events like Black Friday, as Slickdeals provides access to retailer circulars for stores like Best Buy and Target in advance.

Paypal Honey

Formerly known as Honey, PayPal Honey is a browser extension that helps users save money by finding and applying coupon codes at checkout, with its signature orange icon appearing on product pages.

It offers tools to view historical pricing, compare prices across retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, and track items via its “Droplist” feature. The “Smart Droplist” automatically adds frequently viewed items, sending alerts when prices drop.

While some Amazon alerts may occasionally lead to unavailable deals due to third-party sellers, Paypal Honey remains a convenient tool for savvy shoppers.

Kelkoo

This is a straightforward price comparison tool that helps you find the best deal by comparing the prices of the product you are searching for across various stores with up-to-date information. You can enter a specific search or browse through its category list to find the item you want among thousands of brands. However, unlike other tools, it does not provide access to the product’s price history.

Now, nothing will stop you from hunting for deals and bargains this Black Friday. Happy shopping!

Image: Depositphotos