What’s your Black Friday plan?

Are you a huge Black Friday enthusiast?  I’ve already admitted I’m not… But last year, instead of leaving the house at midnight to fight the crowds and miss out on a night’s sleep, I put my jammies on and shopped OldNavy.com at midnight!  I got the exact same deals they were running in-store, plus free shipping and cashback through Ebates.

So, based on my experience last year, here’s some tips for Black Friday shopping online:

• Make a plan

Just like you would if you were headed out into the real word, make a plan for which sites have which sales starting when.  Make a list of what you want, what sizes and colors, and what time it goes on sale. Know what you want so that there’s no hesitation on a limited-quantity deal.

• Know what time the sale starts

Remember that many sales start in Eastern time, which is awesome for those sales that start at “midnight” – that’s 10 PM here, so you can order your stuff and go to bed at a decent hour!

• Be ready to click “Complete Order”

I think I may have missed getting 90% off a Kitchen Aid mixer because I didn’t have all my ducks in a row.  It wasn’t until after the coupon codes were claimed that I realized I should have put a few minutes into preparation.

If you’re trying to get limited-quantity deals online, I would suggest doing the following:

• Create an account on the site and save payment information.
• Make sure you are logged in just before the sale starts.
• If you’re shopping through a cashback site like Ebates, [shopathome], or ShopScotch, go through their site before the sale start so that their cookie is already activated.
• Search for coupon codes ahead of time, and write them down on your plan sheet!  Don’t be googling at the last minute.

• Be patient

Expect some internet “lines”.  Last year, I had to refresh Old Navy’s site several times because it was so busy it kept locking up.  It’s frustrating, but remember that you could be standing in line outside a store in sub-freezing weather.

Want some in-store Black Friday deals from local businesses? Go here!

You also should be prepared to double-check your orders to make sure they didn’t get submitted twice.  Sometimes when a site is busy, you’ll click “Submit Order” and it accepts, but doesn’t send you an email confirmation right away, or locks up before it can show you an Order Received page.  So, just be aware that sometimes your order did go through, even if you didn’t think it did.

If you’re not sure if it went through and really want those items, you can try placing another order – just be prepared to cancel it if it got charged twice.

Another tip: if you’re not sure if your order was placed, go back to the shopping cart – if your items are still in the cart, it likely didn’t get submitted.

Well, those are my tips for shopping online on Black Friday.  I’ll be posting tons of online deals here on Springs Bargains, so check here often if you’re like me and don’t want to brave the crowds, either. :)