Many consumers believe they are scoring a great deal during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or other major shopping events — but are they? A new study from Oxylabs reveals that over 70% of products in major US marketplaces were actually more expensive on Black Friday compared to the week before.
Oxylabs tracked the prices of 61 172 products across two major US e-commerce marketplaces from 13 August to 29 November 2024, using its Web Scraper API. The research focused on bestselling items across various categories, including video games, toys, electronics, home and kitchen appliances, sports and outdoor equipment, clothing, beauty products, and office supplies. Pricing data has been observed on an hourly basis.
“We set out to analyse how the prices of various products fluctuated in the lead-up to Black Friday. Contrary to the aggressive advertising of massive savings, many of the items we examined were actually priced highest on Black Friday. This suggests that relying on major shopping events for the best deals may not be the smartest strategy,” says Rytis Ulys, head of data and analytics at Oxylabs.
In the first marketplace we analyzed, the discounted Black Friday price was the lowest price during the entire week prior to Black Friday in only 28% of cases. The remaining 72% of deals were not saving consumers any money. Looking into prices during the whole research duration, Oxylabs’ team found that about one in 10 products were cheaper or cost the same earlier this autumn.
The situation in the second analyzed marketplace was slightly better. The Black Friday deal’s price was the lowest during the entire week in 59% of cases. Looking back one month prior to Black Friday, the Black Friday deal’s price was the lowest price during that period in 86% of cases, while 14% were not actual “deals” from the consumer’s perspective.
The study also uncovered that many advertised “former” prices used in Black Friday promotions were not offered regularly three months prior to the sale. According to Ulys, this raises concerns about the possible violations of the laws surrounding false price advertising.
“While deceptive pricing manipulations are forbidden by law both in the US and EU, it’s quite easy for sellers to evade detection. To protect consumers and ensure legal compliance, regulatory bodies must employ large-scale price intelligence strategies, utilising advanced web scraping and data analysis technologies. However, these opportunities are often overlooked due to persistent misconceptions around web scraping,” Ulys explains.
He adds that regular consumers are in an even more difficult position to prove that a discount is deceptive, especially without access to an entire pricing history. “This leaves retailers free to display inflated prices and discounts that seem impressive, even when they aren’t truly significant.”