#Everything you need to know about Black Friday in the UK

You might think that you know your way around Black Friday by now, but this year is different. You should unlearn everything you thought you knew about it, because the 2020 shopping season has a mind of its own.

THE BEST BLACK FRIDAY 2020 DEALS SO FAR

Nintendo Switch bundles — up to £25 off

Currys Black Tag Event — best Black Friday prices guaranteed

Dell — 15% off hundreds of laptops and desktops 

PureVPN — save 85% with the exclusive discount code Mash20. 

Ever since it was announced that Prime Day would take up two days in mid-October instead of mid-July, retailers seem to have pretty much agreed to make all of November about Black Friday. For obvious reasons, sales at physical shops haven’t been at their best since the first lockdown struck. We don’t think the shift to online shopping is temporary, and at the least, it’s going to have a significant impact on the traditional plans for the biggest shopping event of the year. To put it bluntly, there’s probably not much of a reason to leave your house on Cyber Weekend.

If many people are avoiding shopping in-store as much as possible, it only makes sense for retailers to go where the customers are: online. Given ahead-of-schedule Black Friday releases from almost every retailer and a lot of early deal announcements, it’s clear that some are distancing themselves from the usual in-store sales. We’ve already seen leading retailers dropping seriously impressive TV and AirPods deals at the end of October. The calendar doesn’t seem to matter anymore.

We all know someone who thrives on getting to the front of the queue for the Black Friday sales (maybe that person was you). This year, you won’t find any shops with big events, but all is not lost. Google Shopping has conveniently launched , just in time to guide scrambling online shoppers and provide quick side-by-sides of prices on the same item from different vendors. So, Black Friday is still going to be big this year — it’s just going to be slightly different. 

Image: pexels

What’s important to remember is that the official date of Black Friday (Nov. 27 this year) is essentially meaningless. Black Friday deals that start on a certain time on a certain day will probably drop in the days or weeks prior, and your biggest worry will be how fast you can click “refresh” instead of standing outside in the cold waiting for the doors to open.

Where to find the best deals on Black Friday

To keep the momentum up after Prime Day, retailers released their Black Friday plans far ahead of time — a sign that the season is no longer limited to just a weekend. Whether you’re shopping for home appliances, consumer technology, or something else entirely, you should have no trouble finding strong deals from all the biggest Black Friday retailers.

Pretty much every leading retailer takes part in Black Friday these days, but these sites are going to be your best options for finding the very best deals in 2020:

• Amazon: Amazon Prime Day and Black Friday 2020 are more or less one giant event this year. There were mere days between the end of Prime Day (Oct. 14) and the beginning of Amazon’s early Black Friday sale (Oct. 26). Amazon will still honour actual Black Friday and Cyber Monday on their true dates of Nov. 27 and Nov. 30, and we’re expecting plenty of deals on TVs, speakers, headphones, consoles, and much more.

• Argos: If you’re looking for big bargains, the Argos Black Friday sale is a good place to be. You should find strong offers on your favourite products, including laptops, gaming software, and appliances. You will also be able to find deals on toys and gifts, just in time for Christmas. 

• Currys PC World: Currys always seems to deliver when it comes to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and this has something to do with its Black Tag event. This event runs until midnight on Nov. 19, with a bunch of impressive deals on TVs, home appliances, headphones, and much more. There is no need to wait until Black Friday for the best deals, because if Currys lowers its prices further on the big day, it will refund you the difference on your purchase. To qualify for this, all you need to do is register your purchase within 14 days. So why wait? 

• Dell: Dell has already launched a wide range of early Black Friday deals, with to 15% off hundreds of laptops and desktops, and up to 40% off monitors. We are expecting plenty more deals from the popular retailer of quality technology, and if you’re on the lookout for laptops, desktops, gaming equipment, and accessories, Dell is probably the best place to shop.

Of course, there are a lot more retailers that will make an impression over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping season, including the likes of Carphone Warehouse, John Lewis, and Lego. We’ll keep you posted on all the best deals from everywhere on Mashable, so you don’t need to spread yourself too thin.

The most popular items for Black Friday 2020

What’s not so different from other years is the list of items that are likely to feature heavily during Black Friday: 4K TVs (especially smaller models under £100 and affordable mid-size QLEDs), Instant Pots, air fryers, stand mixers, and toys. You can probably expect to see a bigger spotlight on working-from-home gear like standing desks, webcams, and cheap Chromebooks.

All eyes will also be on Amazon, and we can make some pretty educated guesses as to what items will be big based on Black Friday last year and more importantly, Prime Day (which happened just a few weeks ago). Echo devices, Fire Tablets and Fire TVs, Kindles, and Nintendo Switch bundles are almost guaranteed to see big discounts. Unlike Prime Day, Amazon’s Black Friday deals are for all Prime and non-Prime customers. 

How this year is going to be different

Don’t expect many GIFs of people being run over in front of automatic doors (we hope this shoving stops in other years too, to be honest).

Waking up at the crack of dawn to rush down to the shopping centre and eat pre-spend McDonald’s at ungodly hours is a tradition that many people hold dear. While some iteration of that may still be possible this year, the in-store edge just isn’t the same this year. In attempts to reduce lines and overcrowding to comply with social distancing regulations, we suspect that most retailers will inch away from deals that can exclusively be purchased in person. Click and collect might be big, though.

Image: Pexels

How ridiculous does planning an early-morning Zoom call to collab with friends during your scouring of Black Friday sales sound? Because we might be suggesting that. Prime Day’s frequent stock problems reaffirmed our inkling that you’ll be doing a lot of refreshing on Black Friday, especially for those items that everyone is fighting over like 4K and Fire TVs, Instant Pots, or AirPods. Have your friends keep an eye out for the items you’re looking for — and have them scoop it up they come across a restock before you do. It’s all about being a team.

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