Black Friday Apps
4 Black Friday Apps
Decorations are showing up in shops and homes and gift lists are getting longer. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday rapidly approaching, the savviest shoppers are already using Black Friday apps on their smartphones to keep an eye on the deals.
According to ShopperTrak, Black Friday 2011 was the largest retail spending day yet, with $11.4 billion changing hands. This year as always, the plethora of ads shoved in your face during the weeks leading up to Black Friday makes it hard to find the best deals. To help you out, we checked several Black Friday apps that have been updated and released for 2012, many of which accompany websites. Use these Black Friday apps to stay abreast of the latest deals and add items to a saved shopping list while you're out and about. When you return home, log on to the site for easier viewing.
- FatWallet. FatWallet's new Black Friday Deal Finder 2012 app is the iPhone and iPad version of its Black Friday website. Don't be fooled by the low star count in the Apple app store, which reflects the older version of the app. Recent reviews rave about the new Black Friday app's design and the ability to view product images; several people call it a "must have" for shoppers this year. The app also lets you look through scanned Black Friday ads, quickly navigate to the desired product page, and continue on to the merchant's page for purchase. An updated feature lets you search through scanned ads to find specific items, making it easy to check deals against your gift list. Shopping through FatWallet's Black Friday website while logged into your FatWallet account earns you cash-back rewards on online purchases.
- TGI Black Friday App. DealCatcher's TGI Black Friday app was one of the highest rated Black Friday apps last year for the iPhone and the site just released an updated iPhone and Android app to track this year's day of deals. Browse by popular deals as well as the newest ads and sort through stores or product categories to fulfill your shopping list. Some items may be available before Black Friday and you can compare prices across a number of vendors as well as shop online through the app.
- BlackFriday.fm. Black Friday is fun for some shoppers and stressful for others. That's why the folks at BlackFriday.fm have created the Black Friday Survival Guide app for the iPhone and Android devices. The app keeps you updated on all the Black Friday news about the latest leaked ads and retailers' latest plans for Black Friday. As with the other apps, you can look through the scanned Black Friday ads or product categories and add items to a shopping list.
- BlackFriday.com. The website for BlackFriday.com is easier to navigate than its app but they feature a tempting offer: earn cash back while shopping. Savings ranging from 2 percent at Walmart to 5 percent at Kmart add up quickly. Note, though, that looking for the latest deals or searching through leaked ads with this Black Friday app can be a bit cumbersome.
Shopping Tip.
With so much information being "leaked" in the weeks before Black Friday it's easy to get dragged down by information overload. It's also easy to be swept up in the storm of gale-force sales and overspend on items you don't really need. The Black Friday apps noted above are helpful resources for finding deals this November. But the best approach to holiday shopping calls for a list of specific items or people you want to buy presents for and using the search and wish list-functions in the Black Friday apps to find exactly what you need. The gift to yourself? You'll save money, and more importantly, avoid overspending this year.
