Amazon kicks off early Black Friday sale

IT’S less than two months until Christmas, but you can already score up to 90 per cent off as retailers jump the gun on their Black Friday sales.

Black Friday has become Black November. Picture: David McNew/AFP/Getty

BLACK Friday has come early this year.

It’s the biggest event on America’s shopping calendar, traditionally held on the day after Thanksgiving — the fourth Thursday in November — and analysts are tipping 2016 to be the biggest spending day of all time.

What started as a US event has in recent years spread to the UK and has grown in popularity in Australia, where shoppers can snag discounts of up to 50 per cent on items despite the lower Australian dollar.

In the past, sales would start online the following week on “Cyber Monday”, almost as an afterthought, but retailers soon started offering online sales alongside in-store offers all the way through the sales period.

And as competition heats up, retailers are pushing ever-earlier deals, so Black Friday is increasingly looking like “Black November”. This year, the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Target and Office Depot have all launched early sales.

Amazon is getting into the swing of things.

Unfortunately, of the early birds only Amazon will ship to Australia. The good news is Amazon’s Countdown to Black Friday sale has some pretty good deals already — and goes all the way until November 25.

As with Amazon’s regular Black Friday sale, the page is constantly updated as items come on sale and (probably artificially) run out of stock, so shoppers will want to keep checking back for the latest deals.

At the time of writing, the best deal on offer was 90 per cent off an Akribos XXIV men’s watch, down from $US695 ($908) to $US72.56 ($94.80). The same watch is available from an Australian online store for $219.

Be aware that some popular items such as HD TVs sell out extremely quickly, and Amazon will be sure to tell you exactly how little time you have left to make that impulse purchase before someone else beats you to it.

But if you don’t get what you want, don’t stress. As The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, the same items will be on sale this time again next year — for the same price.

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