Are Cyber Monday deals the same as Black Friday? It's a question everyone asks – so here's our verdict
Is Cyber Monday as good as Black Friday? More and more people ask that question every year, especially as both American sales events take root across the globe.
Once upon a time, the two events served very different purposes. You'd find the best Black Friday camera deals, for example, at bricks and mortar stores like Walmart and Best Buy (usually accompanied by news broadcast-bating footage of shoppers stampeding each other while battling to grab physical products).
By contrast, the best Cyber Monday camera deals would be found exclusively at online e-tailers (accompanied by crashing websites rather than crushing crowds) such as Amazon and Etsy.
You see, Black Friday marks the unofficial start of the Christmas shopping season, since it takes place the day after Thanksgiving. And, in order to enable online stores to compete (oh, how times change), Cyber Monday was established in 2005 to promote internet shopping.
However, from single-day sales events, we now have sales bonanzas that seem to envelop the entire week either side of the two days.
Back in the day, you'd have to physically go to Walmart on Friday to get Black Friday prices because they were in-store only. And if you went there in person on Monday, you wouldn't be able to get Cyber Monday prices because they were web-only.
Get the Digital Camera World Newsletter
The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!
Now, it's largely all just a free for all. Black Friday pricing is the same in a physical store as it is online, and many stores offer Cyber Monday deals even if they don't have a website!
All of which begs the question… which is better? Are Cyber Monday deals the same as Black Friday? It's not quite that straightforward a question to answer.
The thing is, though, Black Friday offers increasingly run all the way through Cyber Monday, as the two events become less separate selling occasions and more punctuation points on the same extended sales parade.
Many retailers do hold back specific deals for Cyber Monday that aren't available on Black Friday. Sometimes these are as good as or better than the Friday deals, sometimes they're not. Sometimes stores slash prices a bit more to clear inventory that didn't move over the weekend. Sometimes you've waited too long and you miss the best prices.
So, there's no hard and fast answer. Our best advice is, if you see a good price on something you're interested in, jump on the offers right away! Trust us, you don't want something to sell out because you're waiting for the price to drop even more!
James has 22 years experience as a journalist, serving as editor of Digital Camera World for 6 of them. He started working in the photography industry in 2014, product testing and shooting ad campaigns for Olympus, as well as clients like Aston Martin Racing, Elinchrom and L'Oréal. An Olympus, Canon and Hasselblad shooter, he has a wealth of knowledge on cameras of all makes.
