Between Click Frenzy, Black Friday and Cyber Monday (which, like Halloween, have undoubtedly snuck into Australian culture at this stage) November is the month to grab an amazing deal. Here’s all the info you need on getting the most out of the year’s biggest internet sales, and how you can prepare yourself.
Three of the biggest online sales of the year are all clustered in one month – conveniently in the month before Christmas, too. Click Frenzy is the first of these, and the only Australian-based sale. The other two are Black Friday and Cyber Monday – essentially the equivalent of Boxing Day sales but centered around the Thanksgiving holidays in the US. You’ve probably seen footage of all out brawls in Walmart over Black Friday sales, but don’t worry, the online version is a little more civil.
Click Frenzy (Tuesday, November 13)
As usual, Click Frenzy will begin at 7PM AEDT on the Tuesday of the sale, on November 13. If you’re not in AEDT, you can check the time it starts in your area here:
- Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart: 7:00pm
- Perth: 4:00pm
- Darwin: 5:30pm
- Brisbane: 6:00pm
- Adelaide: 6:30pm
- New Zealand: 9:00pm
But of course, you’ll want to pre-prepare if you want to grab the best of these sales. While we don’t have any info on what the sales include yet, last year’s November Click Frenzy was selling a TV for $10. As you can imagine, the competition gets pretty intense.
Make sure you subscribe on Click Frenzy’s website to get the best of the deals sent straight to your inbox. We recommend setting up a throwaway email or at least a separate account, so you can keep all your Click Frenzy stuff in one place. You don’t want normal emails getting in the way of that great deal you’re after, but you also don’t want all the deal emails clogging up your inbox.
It also helps to follow along on the website – make sure you whitelist Click Frenzy to make sure you can see the top banner where the latest deals pop up.
Once things get busy next Tuesday, you can count on the website really struggling under the load of all the people trying to get a deal. Expect pages to time out, or not load properly. If you can, make sure you’re on your fastest and most stable internet connection available. Plug into ethernet if you can, or tether from 4G if your fixed connection is rubbish.
Click Frenzy’s official advice says to refresh and be patient, but it’s worth mentioning that you should be a little strategic with your refreshes. If a page is struggling to load, it’s sometimes better to leave it to continue, while sometimes you have to know when to give up and load again.
Remember to keep an eye out on Lifehacker as the sale draws nearer as well, of course: we’ll be updating you with all the best deals, tips and tricks you’ll need to navigate this November’s Click Frenzy.
Black Friday (November 23) & Cyber Monday (November 26)
Black Friday and Cyber Monday were once separate sale events that, falling so close together, kind of became lumped into the same thing, especially as Black Friday deals crept online. While originally Black Friday was meant as a US shopping event falling on the Friday after Thanksgiving, it has crept across the world in the last few years. Now you can not only take advantage of Black Friday deals in the US, you can also shop for them at Australian stores too.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/11/everything-you-need-to-know-about-black-friday-in-australia/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/11/blackfridayAU-410×231.jpg” title=”Everything You Need To Know About Black Friday In Australia” excerpt=”One of the busiest shopping days of the year is finally upon us. Black Friday is here. More importantly, the bargains are here. Here’s everything you need to know about Black Friday in Australia.”]
It’s worth noting that due to the time difference, Australian Black Friday deals will be available on the Friday, while American deals won’t start until late Friday night.
Aussie retailers like The Good Guys, Harvey Norman and Kogan have already started prepping their Black Friday sales, while other big retailers are bound to have sales both online and in store – for example Myer always has a big sale for both Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Two of the biggest online retailers, eBay and Amazon are bound to be participating in both sale events this year, so it’s worth being prepared for those. This is Amazon’s first Black Friday while being active in Australia (having launched in December last year) so hopefully they will rise to the challenge after a somewhat disappointing year for Aussies.
If you want to be prepared ahead of time, make sure you’ve signed up for Amazon Prime: you’ll get free shipping, and also probably some exclusive deals just for Prime subscribers. If you haven’t already, you can get your first month for free, which will take you all the way through this November deal season.
Ebay also has Ebay Plus, which will offer similar perks to Amazon Prime, as well as double FlyBuys points on your purchases. Ebay Plus also has a 30 day free trial, so you can get on that now as well.
For both sales, it’s worth deciding early what you’re looking for and how much you’re willing to pay for it. So many of these sales pray on your most instinctive urges, making you click as fast as possible lest something go out of stock. Price jacking can be a legitimate problem, so make sure you know ahead of time what a regular price for your item is, and what a good sale price is. Don’t trust the websites to point out good sales to you.
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/09/how-to-avoid-price-jacking-on-ebay/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/07/eBay_Office-410×231.jpg” title=”How To Avoid Price Jacking On eBay” excerpt=”As any bargain hunter worth their salt will tell you, eBay ‘price jacking’ is a depressingly common problem. As an online marketplace, eBay does not set the prices of goods it sells – which makes it easy for third-party sellers to rip people off. This is especially prevalent during site-wide sales, with merchants regularly inflating the “RRP” to fool uninformed customers. “]
Make a vague shopping list so you know what you’re looking for in case it comes up on sale, otherwise you’ll end up with a whole lot of cheap stuff you nevertheless don’t actually need.
Always make sure you’re on the right websites for the retailer you’re looking at, especially if you came to the page through social media or an unmarked link. Check twice if a deal is too good to be true.
Now even though these sales are happening later in the month, it’s worth keeping an eye out through the whole of November, as many retailers launch early surprise sales or start their sales in the weeks leading up to the dates. Follow along here at Lifehacker’s Deal section and we’ll keep you in the loop!
[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/deals/” title=”See More Lifehacker Deals Here!” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2018/08/Fashion-410×231.jpg” ]
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