Great discount percentages are achieved by first raising and then lowering the price of the product.
Black Friday is a discount campaign organized in November. PDO
During the Black Friday week, many chains attract consumers to shop with huge discount percentages.
However, according to the price comparison service Hintaoppa, the consumer should be careful, because currently 11 percent of the offers during the Black Friday week are so-called fake discounts.
The price guide compared the prices of the products on October 1 this year and Black Week Tuesday, November 22, when the Black Friday discounts had started in most stores. The data revealed that 11 percent of Black Friday deals were fake discounts. In addition, the price had risen by as much as 18 percent of the products.
Compared to last year, there were slightly fewer fake discounts. At that time, the corresponding figure was 13.5 percent.
Rapidly raising prices and then lowering them due to a large discount percentage is prohibited in the Consumer Protection Act.
These products have the most fiddling
Great discount percentages are achieved by first raising and then lowering the price of the product. In this case, the discount percentage appears to the consumer to be higher than it actually would be.
According to the price guide, the prices have first risen and then fallen the most for tools (22 percent of products), footwear (15 percent of products), monitors (15 percent of products) and watches (13 percent of products).
– In addition to artificially increased discount percentages, consumers should remember that not all products are at their cheapest on Black Friday. Even though it is the cheapest shopping day of the year as a whole, at the moment no less than 18 percent of the products are sold at a more expensive price on average than in the last month, Hintaoppa’s country manager Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett reminds in the announcement.
Consumers on alert
The survey guide conducted by Hintaoppa in October reveals that about a fifth of Finns do not trust offers at all and more than half do not trust offers at all. Only one percent says that they trust the offers completely.
– The survey also revealed that 42 percent feel that they have been cheated on big discount sales days or have noticed afterwards that the offer was not genuine or particularly affordable. The artificial discounts that have increased in recent years are certainly apt to increase consumers’ criticality towards big discount days, Matinvesi-Bassett believes.
The study was carried out in the M3 Panel managed by Bilend from 7 October to 13 October 2022. 1,000 Finns between the ages of 18 and 75 responded to the online survey, and the sample was quota-based to be nationally representative according to gender, age and place of residence.