Record Black Friday discounts for shoppers as locked-down stores slash online prices by 70%

SHOPPERS can snap up record Black Friday discounts already as locked-down stores slash online prices by up to 70%.

Crisis-hit high street names have made extreme web price cuts to avoid being stuck with a mountain of stock as Lockdown 2 robbed them of four weeks’ bumper pre-Christmas trading.

Insiders say discounts have never been this big five weeks from Christmas — with an unprecedented number of retailers holding sales.

It beats the five in 10 stores that accountants PwC said were on sale a week before Black Friday last year.

Online-only shops have also begun mega deals to compete with high street brands’ promotions.

Price cuts around 70% include Sports Direct’s Pierre Cardin shirt, a Jasper Conran suit at Debenhams and The Entertainer’s Funko Pop! toy.

How to compare prices to get the best deal

JUST because something is on offer, or is part of a sale, it doesn’t mean it’s always a good deal.

There are plenty of comparison websites out there that’ll check prices for you – so don’t be left paying more than you have to.

Most of them work by comparing the prices across hundreds of retailers.

Here are some that we recommend:

Google Shopping is a tool that lets users search for and compare prices for products across the web. Simply type in keywords, or a product number, to bring up search results.

Price Spy logs the history of how much something costs from over 3,000 different retailers, including Argos, Amazon, eBay and the supermarkets. Once you select an individual product you can quickly compare which stores have the best price and which have it in stock.

Idealo is another website that lets you compare prices between retailers. All shoppers need to do is search for the item they need and the website will rank them from the cheapest to the most expensive one.

CamelCamelCamel only works on goods being sold on Amazon. To use it, type in the URL of the product you want to check the price of.

Half price deals include WHSmith’s Code Name Bananas book by David Walliams and ao.com’s robotic vacuum cleaner.

Currys has chopped 34% off Samsung 43in smart 4K TVs.

High street chains are switching stock from shut-up stores to warehouses to ease delivery delay fears.

But experts said desperate shops’ price cuts will wipe profit margins.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, of the Centre for Retail Research, said: “Shops bought stock not knowing there would be a second lockdown so do not have time to sell some of it.

“It means discounts before Black Friday are bigger than before as retailers try to sell goods online.

“Online retailers are also competing and offering discounts now. The problem is reducing prices also reduces profits.”

British Retail Consortium boss Helen Dickinson said: “Retailers thought they were finding their footing then the second lockdown in the crucial Christmas trading period threw away the progress.”

All prices are correct at the time of publishing, but bear in mind they may change. Here are our top picks: