Best Amazon Black Friday Deals 2021: What to Expect

Amazon Black Friday deals will never be the same again. In truth, Amazon appears to re-define Black Friday to its liking each year. For Black Friday 2021, Amazon pull all the stops. To be sure, Amazon is not the only retailer with Black Friday deals. However, when Amazon announced the beginning of this year’s Black Friday Amazon deals on October 4 and told the world that it will roll out its new program of Black Friday-Worthy Deals throughout October and November, we can only imagine the looks on the faces of upper management in other major U.S. retailers. So Amazon Black Friday deals have already started.

Best Amazon Black Friday deals 2021

Are Amazon Black Friday deals available now?

Yes! Amazon Black Friday deals are already here and we’re gobsmacked. To be sure, it’s not the case that Amazon played all its cards and rolled out all Amazon Black Friday deals on October 4. There will be a relatively limited window of time when all Black Friday Amazon deals are available. That will happen on November 26 and last perhaps through Cyber Monday on November 29, assuming inventories hold out. However, there are new Amazon Black Friday deals rolling out every day on an ongoing basis right up until November 26.

Two significant elements of this year’s early Amazon Black Friday deals include daily Epic Deals rollouts and brand showcases. Amazon’s Epic Deals will come from all product categories, but you can expect a hefty selection of popular products and brand names. In the first days of the Black Friday Epic Deals rollouts Amazon featured Apple AirPods Pro, Beats Studio Buds, a 75-inch Sony TV, and much more. Amazon has already begun offering significant discounts on Fire HD tablets, Echo devices, and other Amazon-owned brand devices.

Amazon also promises product showcases with limited-time deals with deeper discounts on select days during the two month roll-up to Black Friday. Amazon mentioned Apple, Hasbro, Sony, Shark, L’Oréal Paris, Bose, and KitchenAid as examples of brands with special deals. We always advise caution with limited-time deals because any time you buy without first researching the products and cross-checking the prices, you’re taking a chance. Limited-time and limited-quantity deals can be tempting, but we urge you to be sure to price check. The saving grace is you can cancel purchases before they ship and you can return a product you don’t want or if the price drops later on.

Should you shop the Amazon Black Friday deals now?

Our vote is a strong yes. We’re probably going to see the same supply chain issues as last year, so we’d recommend doing your holiday shopping as early as possible and taking advantage of the early deals.

If you wait until Black Friday, there’s a very good chance the item won’t arrive in time for the holidays. In fact, we may even see them on backorder before Black Friday 2021.

A lot of the Deals we’re seeing at Amazon now can be considered doorbusters and are seeing select products down to their lowest-ever price so there’s no harm in shopping now.

What’s a few extra bucks off if the item doesn’t arrive in time?

What should you buy in the Amazon Black Friday sale?

Be sure to check Amazon Black Friday deals if you are shopping for Apple products, Roomba robot vacuum cleaners, Dyson vacuums, fans, or air purifiers, Instant Pots, Ninja Foodis, Bose, Eufy, and other major brands in the same categories. More below on Apple and the others.

Amazon Black Friday deals are indeed epic, especially in specific product categories and in some cases particular brands. However, there are many product categories where Amazon may have a bare representative selection of products with decent deals, such as refrigerators, ranges, and other large appliances. In general Amazon doesn’t have an amazing selection of large appliances. Sometimes you’ll see sponsored appliance deals on Amazon for Samsung, Frigidaire, or other major brands, but those are the exception.

Another category where Amazon is particular is TVs. The launch of the new Fire TVs may indicate a sea change in Amazon’s depth of major brand TV deals, but we don’t think that will happen soon. If you’re shopping for TVs other than Fire TV, start with Walmart Black Friday deals and cross check with Best Buy Black Friday deals for the best prices and the widest selections.

The most notable brand to shop on Amazon is Apple. Apple is known for sticking to its premium-level prices as a consistent policy. Even when Apple has sales on its own website, the most common offer is not price cuts, but Apple store gift cards you only can use to buy more Apple products. Amazon is the best place to find deals on Apple products. If you’re shopping for new or refurbished Apple iPhones, iPads, iPods, MacBook, Apple Watches, or any other Apple devices, see Amazon first. Amazon usually has the deepest inventory of previous model Apple product.

Amazon also does a huge business selling refurbished Apple devices. Amazon backs Amazon Certified refurbished or renewed Apple products with  a 90-day replacement or refund guarantee. Amazon pledges that Amazon Certified Apple renewed devices will function as new, have at least 80% of the original battery life per charge, and be blemish-free.

Instant Pots are another popular product to shop on Amazon. Walmart at times has better deals on a specific Instant Pot multifunction pressure cooker model, but Amazon has the largest selection Instant Pot models and deals compared to Walmart’s relatively lean model selection. Amazon has similar deep and broad selections and deals on Ninja Foodi multifunction small kitchen appliances, and both Nespresso and Keurig single serve coffee and espresso machines.

Amazon is the place to shop for robotic vacuum cleaners. Amazon carries all robot vac brands, but you’ll find the greatest selection of iRobot Roombas, Ecovacs Deebot, Eufy, Roborock, and other major brands.

Dyson’s premium corded and cordless vacuum cleaners, fans, air purifiers, and hair drying appliances are another high tech brand with major representation on Amazon. The same holds for Bose, Beats, and other category-defining electronics and tech manufacturers.

If you’re shopping for smart home products, Amazon’s wide selection of house brand products include Amazon Echo smart speakers and displays, Fire TV streaming video sticks and TVs, Ring doorbells, security lights, alarms, and cameras, Bcameras, and eero mesh Wi-Fi network extenders and systems. Amazon Alexa is highest profile smart home digital voice assistant and Amazon is the place to find the largest selection of Alexa compatible devices of every description.

How to get a free Amazon Prime subscription to shop Black Friday deals

Sign up for the free one-month Prime trial at the start of November and it’ll see you through both the Black Friday deals event and the Cyber Monday deals event. You don’t have to be an Amazon Prime subscriber to buy most Amazon Black Friday deals, but Prime members do have early access and special pricing on select products as well as two-day shipping or better on millions of products. Amazon is aware that people start a Prime subscription just to get the best Black Friday Amazon deals, but apparently enough free-trial subscribers stick around to continue their subscriptions. So Amazon wins by letting people ride for free.

Amazon Black Friday deals tips & tricks

Taking advantage of Amazon’s 30-day free Prime subscription with the intent of cancelling before the trial ends is a common shopping hack. There’s an even wiser well-known strategy you can use to heighten your chances of scoring the best price possible on Amazon Black Friday deals: Amazon returns.

Most products sold on Amazon can be returned for a full refund within 30 days. The way this tip works is to shop early for the first best deal you see on a product high on your priority list. If you see the same product at a lower price any time within 30 days of the shipping date of the first item, but it again and return the original. If you want to wait until the official Black Friday sale on November 26 to see if the price is lower, just be sure to order after October 27. Actually, to be on the safe side, give it a few more days before making the original purchase.

The buy now and buy later cheaper strategy can work, but, as mentioned above, inventories and delayed shipping dates can take the thunder out of your brilliant strategy if you have to wait weeks or months to receive the same product you shipped back just to save a few dollars.

Amazon is generous with its returns policy, but the depth of information Amazon maintains on its customers suggests that anyone who returns products often may eventually have a harder time with return approvals, especially when they ask for refunds and not replacements.

One last trick you can try is when you notice the estimated shipping time of a popular product has slipped by months. As long as Amazon will still take your order, the company will hold the price. Your card isn’t billed until the product ships you can keep shopping for the same product elsewhere. If you find it at a comparable or lower price with earlier shipping from another merchant, you can buy it from the other retailer and then cancel your original order with Amazon before it ships.

Amazon Black Friday deals FAQ

There’s so much written about Black Friday that it may surprise readers to learn that there are people who aren’t aware of Amazon’s massive involvement with Black Friday sales. We address a few of the most basic questions below.

When is Amazon’s Black Friday sale?

The official single day of Amazon’s Black Friday sale is November 26, the Friday after Thanksgiving. On November 26 you can assume that Amazon will have the greatest selection of sale items that in most cases will be offered at the loweest prices of the year.

However, Amazon Black Friday deals start earlier every year. Other retailers do the same to be competitive and to stretch out the holiday shopping season. In previous years, Amazon has started Early Black Friday Amazon deals one or twoo weeks before Thanksgiving. This year, however, Amazon dropped a retailing bomb by starting earlier than ever. On October 4 Amazon announced its Black Friday-Worthy Deals sale. During every day in October and November, Amazon will rollout new special deals on popular product categories. Amazon will also highlight specific brand names in select categories each day leading up to Black Friday.

Does Amazon do Black Friday?

Absolutely. Amazon doesn’t just “do” Black Friday, Amazon is re-shaping Black Friday into a solid two month sales event. Amazon’s size and sales volume, aided by comprehensive distribution and shipping networks together make Amazon the tail that shakes the dog. In other words, Amazon is such a large player that Black Friday Amazon deals have already changed what used to be a single-day sales event.

When does Amazon Black Friday start?

Amazon started early Black Friday Amazon deals on October 4 with the announcement of Amazon Black Friday-Worthy Deals. On the traditional Black Friday sale date, Amazon will begin the day at 12:01 A.M. PST.

Are Amazon Black Friday deals only for Prime customers?

You do not have to be a member of Amazon’s Prime customer program to take advantage of Amazon Black Friday deals. However, and this is a significant qualifier, in order to get the most out of Amazon sales and services any time of year, and especially during huge sales events such as Black Friday, non-Prime members miss out. Amazon has special Prime member-only deals, Prime member early access, and special Prime member pricing on select products. Prime members also qualify for free two day shipping on literally millions of products and, depending on customer location, access to same-day delivery as fast as five hours in 12 metropolitan areas.

Amazon Prime members can apply for cash rewards Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Cards, access free films and TV shows, free music, and free two-day prescription delivery from Amazon Pharmacy. The list of Amazon Prime member benefits goes on and on, but the bottom line answer to the original questions is: No, Amazon Black Friday deals are not only for Prime customers.

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