Black Friday Strategies: Do You Need to Start Early for Online Deals, Too?

If you're a frequent dealnews reader, you're probably well aware that we actively encourage consumers to reconsider any plans they may have to shop in-store on Black Friday. In fact, according to a past poll, 44% of you are planning on skipping the brick-and-mortar shopping altogether. (Another 32% were planning on doing a strategic combination of in-store and online.)

Thus, many of you are probably planning to stay in your PJs on Black Friday, relishing the additional day off that you can spend surfing the web for deals. But just because you're skipping the crazy lines in-store, can you also skip the early wake-up?

Perhaps, but you may miss out on some worthwhile offers. Last year on Black Friday, we posted 277 online deals before 10 am ET (compared to about 80 or 90 on an average shopping day). However, 10% of those deals expired before 10 as well. By noon, 13% of our deals from the day had already expired.

That may not seem like a lot at first. But consider this: Normally, the numbers are about a third of that. Moreover, these expired deals accounted for nearly 20% of all the Editors' Choice deals we posted last Black Friday. Thus, the deals that made up that small percentage were actually some of the more desirable ones.

Keep in mind, too, that our data includes only the expired deals that we caught at the time; it's likely that an above average number had expired without us knowing. Moreover, a general sale deal won't expire in the traditional sense, but the top items within the promotion could very likely get snatched up quickly. On a day when most shoppers are on the hunt for very specific products, this is a factor you should consider.

So your best Black Friday online shopping tactic is this: You can still act on a wealth of good deals on Black Friday if you wait to start your search. But a sizeable chunk of the day's best offers will already be expired if you do. An excellent way to make sure you catch deals on all your favorite items throughout Black Friday weekend is to set up an email alert or download one of the dealnews apps for iPhone or Android.

Photo credit: LifeofJustin.com