Black Friday 2017: shopping trends and predictions

Want to know what the experts are tipping to be the most popular Black Friday deals this year. We asked Olof Karp, country manager of PriceSpy UK & Ireland, to share his thoughts.

With a month to go until Black Friday 2017, shoppers will be scouring the web to get an early insight into what bargains they may be able to get on the day.

Looking back at last year’s deals can give a good indication of the sort of products that can be expected to big on Black Friday this year.

What we bought in 2016

Based on data pulled from PriceSpy, the most popular items around Black Friday 2016 were: TVs, perfume, mobile phones, vacuum cleaners, headphones, console games, tablets, activity trackers, watches and LEGO.

The most popular retailers included Amazon, Tesco Direct, Argos UK, John Lewis, Curry’s PC World, eBay, CeX, Game, Grainger Games and Wickes.

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Did anyone save money?

While many retailers claim to offer huge savings, it is important for shoppers to check that they are actually getting a bargain.

Many shoppers can be drawn in by the headline prices, without checking the RRP or the price history of items throughout the year.

Unfortunately, it's becoming more common for retailers to gradually raise the price of products in the months leading up to Black Friday, only to then ‘drop’ them for the big day to make deals seem better than they really are.

One way to avoid being caught out is to use a price tracker like PriceSpy. As well as showing where to get the cheapest deal it gives you the price history for an item, which can help you judge whether the current cost is a good deal or not.

Below are the most popular searched items on PriceSpy over Black Friday 2016.

We’ve used the data on each product to see if shoppers saved money with the Black Friday deal or if the item was cheaper at any other point during the year.

	RRP	Black Friday 2016 deal price	Lowest price in 2016	Black Friday saving?
Samsung UE49KS7000 TV	£1,299	£789.99	£789.99	£509.01
Nintendo 3DS XL	£179.99	£159.99	£124.99 (September 2016)	No
Fitbit Charge 2	£139.99	£80	£80	£59.99
Dyson V8 Absolute	£448.99	£273	£273	£175.99
Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge	£520	£449.99	£419.99 (August 2016)	No
Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare 2	£35	£20	£20	£15
Apple iPad Mini 2 32GB	£220	£189	£189	£31
Samsung UBD-K8500 (Blu-ray player)	£268	£199	£179 (August 2016)	No

Source: PriceSpy data

Black Friday 2017 predictions

Based on current shopper activity on PriceSpy, here are the 10 most popular items we reckon shoppers will be after this Black Friday, which falls on 24 November.

We’ve included the current best price for the item and the lowest price the item has been so far in 2017 to give you an idea of the price you should aim to beat on Black Friday.

	Current best price	Lowest price so far in 2017
Nintendo Switch	£279	£198.50 (January 2017)
Beats by Dr. Dre Solo3 Wireless	£179.99	£172.90 (April 2017)
Sonos Play:1	£179	£148 (February 2017)
LG OLED55B6V TV	£1,479	£1,398 (June 2017)
iPhone 7	£449.97	£429.99 (July 2017)
iPad Pro	£424.99	£286 (June 2017)
Samsung Gear S3 Frontier	£311.99	£227 (August 2017)
Paco Rabanne Invictus EDT 100ml	£73	£36 (July to October 2017)
Little Tikes Crazy Coupe	£42.50	£23.99 (February 2017)
Dyson V8 Animal	£349.99	£319.99 (August 2017)

Source: PriceSpy data (correct at 23/10/2017)

How to get the best deal on Black Friday

With the wealth and variety of bargains to be had, serious shoppers would be best placed to set up price alerts for prized items now. That way, they’ll be notified of any sudden price drops throughout the month of November.

For more on how to get a bargain on the day take a look at Black Friday 2017: how to get the best deals.

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