Black Friday 2021: Online shopping tips to score the best deals

The most popular online shopping days of the year are right around the corner, and if you're hoping to score great deals on Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2021, now's the time to start creating a shopping plan.

According to experts, most retailers offer the same Black Friday sales online that they do in-stores, which means you don't have to wait in line outside your favorite store at 4 a.m. Still, there are a few steps you can take to ensure your online shopping goes off without a hitch. With a little advance planning, you can get everything on your list at the best possible price without ever leaving the comfort of your home.

Make sure your internet is up to snuff

It probably goes without saying, but if you're planning to do your Black Friday shopping online, you need to make sure your internet is fast and reliable. Retailers often have limited quantities of hot-ticket items, such as the year's most popular electronics, and you can easily miss a sale if your internet lags or gets stuck buffering. If you've had problems with internet bandwidth in the past, consider upgrading to fiber internet, which delivers a super-fast gigabit connection that can support all your online shopping, streaming and browsing.

Monitor prices on must-have items

Some retailers use deceptive techniques to make their Black Friday deals seem better than they are. For instance, they may increase the price on popular products right before Black Friday to make discounts look bigger. To ensure you're getting the absolute best deals, it's best to monitor the prices of items on your shopping list in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving.

Luckily, there are many tools that make this a fairly easy task. For instance, CamelCamelCamel is a browser extension that shows you the price history of Amazon products, and PriceGrabber lets you compare product prices across various retailers.

Follow your favorite retailers

If you're planning to shop at one specific retailer, such as Amazon, Walmart or Target, it's worthwhile to follow them on social media, download their app and sign up for their newsletter. Most stores use these communication methods to send out news about their best Black Friday deals, allowing you to act quickly when you see items you want. If you don't want your inbox flooded with marketing emails, you can always unfollow or opt out of notifications once the holiday has passed.

Clip coupons automatically

In addition to Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts, some retailers offer other promotions during this popular shopping week, such as free shipping. To ensure you're taking advantage of all possible promotions, you may want to use a tool like Honey, a free browser extension that automatically finds coupons available on the internet and applies them to your purchase. It works on thousands of popular websites, and it has a price-tracking feature to help you find the best deals. You can also shop through a website like Rakuten, which gives you cash back on purchases from certain retailers.

Don't compromise your online security

In the rush to score great deals on holiday gifts, you might be tempted to make purchases from unfamiliar websites, but it's important to keep online security best practices in mind as you do your shopping. The last thing you need right before the holidays is a compromised credit card.

When you're shopping online, you should always look for both SSL encryption and Verisign protection, which help to protect your financial information. You'll also want to ensure that your computer is free of viruses and malware, and that you only shop using a secure private Wi-Fi network.

Black Friday 2021 is coming up fast, and you can get all your holiday shopping done quickly and easily with these tips and tricks. With a fast internet connection from Ting and some online shopping know-how, you won't even have to step foot in a physical store!