Prisjakt.no and the Consumer Authority (Forbrukertilsynet) warn that some products may increase in price when Christmas shopping is seriously kicked off with Black Friday next week.
“My first advice to consumers is that they must be smart and aware when hunting for the good Black Friday deals. Not least, you must be aware that some products actually go up in price during Black Week/Black Friday, which is easy to overlook among all the offers,” says Are Vittersø, CEO at Prisjakt.no to Dagens Næringsliv.
Last year, 30 per cent of the 10,000 most popular products at the Norwegian service Prisjakt.no went down in price, while 13 per cent went up in price, according to figures from the price comparison site.
“The fact that there is a large price reduction on one particular model does not mean that similar models are at their cheapest on the same day,” Vittersø told the newspaper.
Increased by up to 50 per cent
Pricerunner, a similar service to Prisjakt.no in Sweden, has also made a review of the prices ahead of this year’s Black Friday, which will be launched next Friday.
The review shows that the 50 largest online stores monitored by the service increased prices by 10 per cent on 18 per cent of their products from September 1st to November 20th this year.
On average, TV prices rose by 46 per cent during the autumn.
Warns against “sales bluffs”
To Dagens Industri, the head of Pricerunner Nicklas Storåker says that raising prices is not prohibited.
“But if these are the same items being put on sale on Black Friday, it’s nothing but a ‘sales bluff’,” he says.
Of the goods that rose in price before last year’s Black Friday, a third of them were presented as sales goods, and thus what Storåker referred to as “sales bluffs.”
“There may be various reasons for raising prices, but we can see suspicious patterns,” he says.
Always know the previous price
According to Vitterstø at Prisjakt.no last year, jackets, game consoles and headphones went to the most discounted prices. At the same time, in the same categories, most goods increased in price. The call is therefore to follow closely, he tells DN.
Department Director Jo Gjedrem of the Consumer Authority tells the newspaper that they follow the marketing of sales every year around Black Friday.
“Unfortunately, every year we find several misleading cases, including that no pre-sale prices are stated and that prices for products are set in advance of the day of sale. Consumers should always know what the pre-sale price is, if not they can be fairly sure that the item has not been reduced,” he says.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
It’s true they increase the price then do the % sale. so what’s usually 2360koron becomes 4000koron by 50% sale. Rather than the 50% sale of the initial price unfortunately that happens everywhere to be honest.