The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Wilfrid Laurier chapter.

While Americans are busy thinking about Thanksgiving (because for some reason theirs is in November), Canadians are busy thinking about Black Friday. “Sale” signs are being put up and emails are being sent to notify us about the upcoming deals. All of the flashy advertising will surely get us excited and with e-commerce becoming more prevalent, online shopping may be the only place we look at this Black Friday. Online shopping is very different from shopping in-store, so, here are some tips to help you make the best purchases online during this Black Friday.

Start Early

This goes for both online and in-person, but it’s very important to start your shopping early so you’re not confused and stressed on the day of Black Friday. Scroll through store websites and see what items will be on sale. Look at the requirements for certain detailed deals, like buy 2 get 1 50% off only for summer collection, and see if your potential purchases fit the guidelines. Knowing what you want to buy beforehand makes your job on Black Friday easy; all you will need to do is make the payment for all of your purchases. You won’t be wasting time looking for what you want and will have a lower chance of your wants being sold out. Everybody will be trying to get the limited number of sales items and going straight towards your goal, instead of wandering around the site, will ensure you as one of the first checkouts of the day.

Add then Think

This is a strategy that I use every time I shop online. One of the perks with online shopping is that you have a shopping cart to keep track of items that you want and you can add as many items to it as you want, with no hassle. Take advantage of the unlimited space in the shopping cart by adding every item that catches your eye. Once you’re finished scrolling through the site, you can start removing items that you don’t want. If you think about every item before you add it to the cart, it’ll waste time as you contemplate all the pros and cons of each item that catches your interest. Your analysis will also be flawed since you’re unsure about what’s to come. I’ve had many experiences where I didn’t add things to my cart, then realized there were no other items like that piece, and have had to scroll through the whole website again to find it. Putting everything in your cart gives you a big picture of everything that you may want and you can then start comparing and removing similar items until you have your final curated order list.

Reviews/ Photos

When shopping online, there’s a lot of uncertainty because you can’t feel the item or see it in person. All you have to base your understanding on is the website description and photos, but also the customer reviews. One of the most important things to do when shopping online is to LOOK AT THE REVIEWS. While some reviews may be biased, they’ll never be as biased as the brand’s own description and photos of items. Look at what people are saying about the item in the store’s review section and check other websites, like YouTube, where reviews might be less curated. See if there are photos showing the items in realistic lighting rather than professional set lighting and see if you still like the product. Reviews will be your best way of knowing the truth about an item and you’re likely to be more satisfied with something with better reviews, compared to better advertising.

Sizing

Lastly, this section only applies to clothing but, finding the right size can be very difficult when shopping online. It also doesn’t help that many sizing charts are difficult to understand and aren’t consistent across different brands. The best place is to look at reviews, as mentioned previously, to see if people think the clothes run small or large, for example, and make your decisions based on this. However, if you have bought clothes online before, use it as a guideline. Wear the item, see how it fits, then check online to see its measurements in the sizing chart (e.g. length – 32cm, hip size – 96cm etc.). Keep a record of these measurements so that next time you won’t have to pull out the measuring tape (that you will probably misuse anyway) and instead just see which size best matches with the measurements of your previous purchase.

Black Friday shopping can be stressful but it can also be very fun and exciting. Keep these tips in mind and have fun making the best purchases!