Black Friday Shopping Strategies

Holiday shopping starts in earnest on the Friday after American Thanksgiving, Nov 23rd, otherwise known as Black Friday. This year the kickoff is starting even earlier, with Amazon forcing the hand of big box retailers like Best Buy, Walmart and Target who have all announced they will be starting their Black Friday sales on Thanksgiving night, at 8 or 9 pm, depending on the store. If you're planning on going after some of these juicy deals, it's essential to devise a strategic plan of attack well before Black Friday dawns.

For most Canadians, Black Friday is a cross-the-border phenomenon, though with online sales taking a bigger bite of total sales, enthusiasm for a cross-border run might be more tepid this year. Nonetheless the event itself is a juggernaut: the US National Retail Federation (NRF) estimated that shoppers spent $52 billion at retail stores and online over the Black Friday weekend. The NRF's latest study predicts the average shopper will spend $749.51 on gifts and other holiday-related goods this year. With such huge expenditures on that weekend, planning is key to saving the most money and making a trip worth the effort.

Here are five strategies for a successful Black Friday shopping excursion: