Black Friday may be over, but holiday deals and promotions are still in full swing. Last year, online sales on Cyber Monday hit $2.04 billion, making it the biggest online shopping day in history. Sales this year are predicted to be around $3 billion, according to Adobe Digital Index. But Cyber Monday has, perhaps inevitably, morphed into “Cyber Week” — a seven-day slate full of discounts and bargains from online retailers.
But even as shoppers increasingly turn to their computers or phones instead of venturing into actual stores to find holiday deals, the same basic rule of bargain-hunting still applies: It pays to shop around. As a new report from consumer site WalletHub found, some online retailers offer much bigger discounts than others.
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WalletHub reviewed 30 of the largest U.S. retailers and more than 3,000 of their Cyber Week deals. It found that online retailers averaged a 36.4 percent discount compared to their listed prices. (You can read about WalletHub’s methodology here.) Groupon offers the biggest price markdowns, 61.8 percent on average, while Gander Mountain, an outdoor apparel retailer, delivers the smallest average discount, 13.5 percent.
It’s worth keeping in mind that bigger discounts don’t necessarily mean better deals — they might just reflect higher starting prices.
Retailers offer the biggest number of discounts on apparel and accessories, though the largest discounts are for jewelry. Even so, the 54 percent average Cyber Week discount on jewelry is smaller than the nearly 63 percent discount available normally, suggesting that you might be better off waiting to buy that special bauble. The books, movies and music category comes in second with an average discount of 51 percent.
Out of nine product categories WalletHub checked — ranging from laptops and TVs to jewelry and microwaves — it found that only three have better discounts available during Cyber Week than on Black Friday: tablets, refrigerators, dishwashers and washing machines.
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Below are the 30 retailers with each store’s average Cyber Week markdown, ranked from highest discounts to lowest.
- Groupon: 61.8 percent
- Belk: 58.6 percent
- Bon-Ton: 56.0 percent
- JCPenney: 52.6 percent
- Macy’s: 51.7 percent
- eBay: 50.5 percent
- Kohl’s: 50.2 percent
- Sears: 48.6 percent
- Amazon: 41.7 percent
- Kmart: 40.2 percent
- Lowe’s: 34.5 percent
- Stage: 33.5 percent
- Walmart: 33.5 percent
- Lenovo: 32.9 percent
- Modell’s: 32.8 percent
- Staples: 32.5 percent
- Office Depot and OfficeMax: 32.4 percent
- Army and Air Force Exchange Service: 32.4 percent
- Dell Home: 32.1 percent
- Target: 31.4 percent
- Sam’s Club: 30.4 percent
- Toys “R” Us: 30.3 percent
- hhgregg: 28.4 percent
- Sports Authority: 28.0 percent
- Cabela’s: 27.1 percent
- Gap: 25.6 percent
- Best Buy: 23.5 percent
- CVS Pharmacy: 22.8 percent
- Walgreens: 21.9 percent
- Gander Mountain: 13.5 percent
