It’s Thanksgiving Day: you’re stuffed with food and letting the tryptophan work its magic, slowly rendering you more and more comatose. As you drift off into a stuffing-induced sleep, you have nightmare flashbacks to last year’s Black Friday. Hordes of mindless deal seekers, armed with warm coats, tents, and a plan of attack that doesn’t preclude maiming you to grab that $5 movie.
Before you set that 2am alarm clock to get in line for your Black Friday deals, let our team of deal experts clue you in on the best deals to buy on Cyber Monday, saving you lost sleep and hours of frustration.
HDTVs
Purchasing an HDTV online is not the logistical nightmare that it once was. HDTVs are a huge market for e-tailers and the successful ones have in-place streamlined procedures to not only get your HDTV to you in a timely manner, but also ensure your happiness with it.
Many of the top stores have professional delivery services for the larger models, typically 48” and above, which will allow you to schedule a delivery time. This also gives you a chance to inspect the TV, power it on, and make sure there aren’t any immediate issues with your purchase.
Accordingly, the very first thing you need to consider when purchasing an HDTV is the store’s return policy. Whether the dimensions end up not working for your home, the TV lacks a needed feature, or it arrives with a bad LCD screen, there are a lot of potential pitfalls with an HDTV that put far more emphasis on choosing a retailer with a good return policy than most any other type of purchase. Also ask about returns for LCD defects like stuck or bright pixels; retailers can be very picky about these and a seemingly small defect can be troublesome, especially on smaller displays. Lastly, always be sure to keep all the packaging in good condition, in the case that you need to arrange a return.
Whatever you do, follow our top tip for ensuring you have a happy HDTV purchase: research, research, research. All HDTVs are not created equal and you will end up a much happier consumer with a little research.
Clothing
For a long time, shoppers only bought clothes in-store. You have to be able to try them on, which is even more true today with the seemingly random numbers that designers attach to their clothing sizes. While there are a few e-tailers which offer free return shipping on clothing items, your best bet is to find a place that has both and online and physical presence.
Nearly all of the popular clothing chains, including Kohl’s, Sears, Lands’ End, Express, and others, have a very strong internet presence and their Cyber Monday offers will be very competitive with the in-store Black Friday deals. Save yourself the early alarm and long lines by buying online and head to the store for a return once the floods have subsided.
If you aren’t sure of your sizes in a particular brand’s clothing, be sure to check out the Help section of their website where you will find detailed information on measurements to ensure you get a good fit on the first order.
Computers
Brick & mortar retailers simply cannot stock the same variety of PCs that an online store can and comparing them in-person is a severe chore, in part due to the annoying sales guy who wants you to buy a $30 USB cable and a $300 protection plan.
E-tailers don’t have the floor space limitations of a physical store and websites make PC shopping a breeze with search options that filter out results based on your specifications, multi-angle photographs, user reviews, and detailed specifications. Some brick & mortar retailers also have an extensive online repertoire that you could probably order from in-store, but in our deal hunting experience we rarely find these deals to be as competitive and then you still have to pay state sales tax. One exception is the Tiger Direct and CompUSA chain, which operate primarily online and offer near identical deals in their limited number of retail locations.
The last note on computers is the same as all the other items we’ve touched on: return policies. Computers are typically under their own set of terms when it comes to returns, but thankfully given the large volume of PC sales retailers handle they are typically well setup to handle return shipping with minimal hassle on your part. Regardless, a smart shopper is always diligent and reads the fine print.
Smartphones
Smartphones are some of the most complicated, common-place, and popular devices in today’s consumer market. Before clicking the big “Add to Cart” button, especially if this is your first smartphone purchase, you want to give serious consideration to first putting hands-on your new lifeline. Subtle things like device thickness or screen size can make or break your daily usage of such an expensive item and these can be hard to judge from online specs.
The win-win with a smartphone purchase is to buy from a company that has both online and local stores. We typically see the online arms of smartphone dealers like Verizon, AT&T, Best Buy, and others have better or identical offers compared to the physical stores. This allows you to check out your preferred model in-store, before the shopping armageddon that is Black Friday, make the purchase online during Cyber Monday, and still have the benefits of a local store for after-purchase support.
via Business 2 Community http://www.business2community.com/trends-news/best-stuff-buy-cyber-monday-0684799?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=best-stuff-buy-cyber-monday
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