While Black Friday takes place this Friday in physical stores, the commercial offer has already started online on many merchant sites. This commercial operation is sometimes a source of trickery on the part of traders, who boost prices and make people believe in good deals. Here’s how to check that the price displayed is the right one.
Know how to spot fake promotions and scams. While the French are preparing to spend between 300 and 400 euros on their Christmas gifts this year (according to a CSA survey for Cofidis), the hunt for good deals is already on.
This Friday, Black Friday officially begins in stores, but it has already started online. The giant Amazon, for example, opened the ball of reductions on Thursday, November 21, and until Monday, December 2. Even if this promotional offer is not part of an official sales period, commercial practices remain regulated.
However, some merchants decide not to respect the law and display prices presented as discounts, which generally are not. There are several tools to monitor price developments: when it comes to online shopping, consumers can arm themselves with a few applications and digital tools.
CamelCamelCamel, Keepa, Idealo….
· Keep
Starting with the Keepa mobile application, designed to track prices on the Amazon platform. By browsing the interface, users can observe the price variations of a product over a given time.
· The scout
This independent site also allows you to compare the prices of an item. And this, on different commercial platforms, or brand sites at the same time. It is quite easy to use: just enter the name of the product you are looking for and scroll through the different offers, the cheapest being displayed in the first results.
· Ideal
Operating on the same principle as the Le dénicheur site, Idealo allows you to analyze the overall evolution of a product through different online sales platforms. And the choice is wide, with electronic items, plane tickets, sports products, childcare, groceries, video games, fashion, and even pet stores.
· CamelCamelCamel
For this site, which also specializes in analyzing the prices of products sold on Amazon, simply copy the URL address of the good in question. CamelCamelCamel will then be responsible for revealing its price history over the last few months up to a year.
Be wary of certain misleading mentions
As summarized by UFC-Que Choisir, during this Black Friday period, the seller is almost free to choose to display the reference price that suits him. It can be that of a competitor, used in the past, or even a catalog, on the sole condition that its origin is mentioned.
“The percentage reduction on the amount applied is thus calculated in relation to this famous reference price. The higher it is, the more impressive the promotion will be,” warns the consumer association.
During this period of strong promotions, the mentions differ and not all are equal. You should be wary of the labels “price recommended by the manufacturer”, “price quoted by a competitor”, or even “price charged on our site”. All these mentions encourage misunderstanding among consumers. To avoid being fooled, the best thing is to compare.
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