Early Black Friday Deals

Harry Smith speaks with AOL consumer advisor Regina Lewis about online deals ahead of "Black Friday."

Early Black Friday Deals Harry Smith: Retailers are going all out to get your business this holiday season, including Black Friday style sales online. AOL Consumer Advisor Regina Lewis has been scouring the Internet for the best deals, and she's here with some good news. We don't have to wait, do we? Regina Lewis: It's prime time. Harry Smith: Tell me, since I — you might as well head to your computer right now. What kinds of deals are we seeing out there? Regina Lewis: Well, we're seeing some exceptional deals. If you take Amazon, by way of example, they have something called "lightening deals." They emerge every two hours. In the evening, it picks up, and it's every half hour. Deep, deep discounts. Now, here you've got to be decisive. Remember, it's not yours just because you have it in your shopping cart. You actually have to complete the checkout process before you own it. Harry Smith: Wow. Regina Lewis: People get burned on that. Harry Smith: Wow, so there are limited numbers of items out there. Regina Lewis: Correct. Harry Smith: You suggest you really have to pull the trigger on those deals. Regina Lewis: Act fast. Harry Smith: All right. Now is it just in every single website out there that — is it sort of everywhere, because it used to be you'd have to wait until Cyber Monday. Regina Lewis: Yes. Right. Harry Smith: Forget about it now. Regina Lewis: No, they're absolutely starting now. In part, Harry, because Thanksgiving Day has emerged as one of the biggest online shopping days. The one exception to buying early that I should point out is if you're buying electronics, oftentimes they have 15-day return policies, so if you buy now and put it under the tree, by the time you unwrap, you're outside of that window because the clock starts when you buy it. Harry Smith: Oh, that's — that's really — that's good to know. All right, let's talk about some of the other things to keep in mind as we're going online to beat the Black Friday rush. You say make sure you keep track of coupon codes. Regina Lewis: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, certainly, you want to know the coupon code, and those are readily available. You can find them on sites. This year, you can really up the ante by not just having the coupon code, but by earning cash back when you shop. So if you go to a site, like Shortcuts.com for example, you lock in the code, then you start shopping, and you are earning cash back at the various online retailers. They are keeping a tab for you. Three months later, they send a check in the mail, cold, hard cash. We've tested this. Plus, if I was using a bankcard that had rewards on it, one percent cash back from Bank of America has something along those lines, double win. Harry Smith: So you could double win. Regina Lewis: Yeah. Harry Smith: Wow. That sounds a little complicated, but is it simpler to use online than it sounds? Regina Lewis: It is. You know, the bottom line is it's not just what you buy and when you buy it, it's how you buy it. Harry Smith: How you buy it as well. Now, how — like, the thing you were just talking about, these kind of super-fast sales, how do you get on, like, an alert list so that it pops up on your handheld or on your computer? Regina Lewis: Okay, if you do nothing else, you want to be on that list. You want to raise your virtual hand for deals. It's like saying I'm a bargain bee. Target me. So how do you do that? You sign up for their email newsletter. You sign up for the text alerts, which you just pointed out. You become a Facebook fan. You follow their Twitter feed because, as a loyal customer, you'll get served these special coupons, these special deals. Why are they so good? They want you to share them with your friends. Harry Smith: Right. Oh, okay. So that — Regina Lewis: Because now — it makes perfect sense, right? Harry Smith: You become part of their viral marketing. Regina Lewis: Exactly. Harry Smith: All right, very good. Regina Lewis, thank you so much. Regina Lewis: All right. Harry Smith: It's always much appreciated.