Google says it can help shoppers to avoid Black Friday crowds and long lines as they hunt for deals on the bargain-day kickoff of the holiday shopping season.
The search giant has come up with three tips after crunching data from a sample of users in November and December of last year.
Tip 1: Shop early in the morning, late afternoon or late evening on Friday. According to Google, Black Friday traffic peaks between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., which makes a lot of sense as people will often opt to seat with their laptops after lunch.
Tip 2: Avoid electronics and cellphone stores. Those have the highest traffic of the season on Black Friday. Traffic to electronics stores is twice as high on Black Friday than other weekends during the holiday season. At cellphone stores, the traffic is 1.6 times as high, Google says. If you find out that some online store’s page doesn’t load – don’t be surprised! Even the Dubai Chronicle’s server crashes at some hours of the Black Friday as the website experiences the highest ever online traffic from bargain hunters.On the other hand, shopping malls, discount stores, superstores and department stores have the highest foot traffic on the Saturday before Christmas.
Tip 3: If you are looking for something in particular, check if the store has it in stock before venturing out. Many stores show in-store availability on their websites. Google also shows product availability for nearby stores on smartphones. Nowadays, people increasingly prefer to shop online and avoid Black Friday crowds in the physical stores.
Interesting factoids: Mobile searches per user are 11% higher in electronics stores and 8% higher in department stores on Black Friday compared with other weekends during the holiday season, Google says. And holiday shoppers are expected to rely on their smartphones more than ever to research and compare products, with 82% of smartphone users pulling out their devices while in a store this year.
