How to avoid fake offers this Black Friday

New research ahead of Black Friday has revealed as many as 50% of retailers have already increased their prices before the sales begin.

Black Friday (27th November) is a bumper time for retailers in the lead up to Christmas, with millions of shoppers hoping to bag a bargain, but many offers advertised online have been revealed to be fake. Price comparison site PriceRunner analysed 15,000 products from 50 of the UKs biggest retailers, and found as many as 5 in 10 of those retailers had increased their prices in an unusual way already. This would indicate that many of the offers retailers are preparing to advertise on Black Friday will actually be ‘fake’ – this is when a retailer artificially inflates the price prior to a sale, so that product looks like is on offer, even though it is selling for close to the original, pre-price increase, amount.

A further survey of the UK public, conducted on behalf of PriceRunner by YouGov seems to suggest that a majority (57%) of Brits don’t trust the offers they see on sale during events like Black Friday, but only slightly more than 1 in 3 (34%) have ever used a price comparison website to find out.

Aston spoke to Christine Gouldthorp expert in consumer products, brands and behaviour from independent comparison site PriceRunner to reveal the mistakes all shoppers make and give top tips to avoid being stung this Christmas.