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Best Black Friday Tech Deals For Students Of All Ages 

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Regardless of if you’re heading into middle school, high school, or college, Black Friday is the perfect time to start looking for new devices and technology that will not only help you in school, but in your personal life as well. Many brands have already begun their Black Friday deals online as a means of making up for the lack of foot traffic they’ll likely experience this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are some of the most highly anticipated and popular tech devices going on sale this week:

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Tablets: Tablets are great for kids all ages, and now that there’s a multitude of child-friendly tablet devices on the market, there’s never been more options for you this year. Amazon’s Fire HD 7 Kids Edition tablet is going on sale for $60, which is $40 off its original price, and this deal will be active until December 1st. Amazon’s Fire HD 8 Kids Edition is now $80 as well, $60 off its original price. This deal is also active until December 1st. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is $279.99 at Walmart, $70 off its original price and the deal also includes 64GB of storage and an S Pen.

Laptops: For older kids entering into their college years, Black Friday is the perfect time to purchase a new personal computer for themselves. One of the most popular laptops used among college student’s is the HP Envy due to its high quality performance, and touchscreen capabilities. The laptop is going on sale for $750, which is $250 off its original price. 

Speakers: While speakers may not necessarily be as helpful in your schooling as a laptop, creating a comfortable environment where one is able to play their calming music as they study for the big exam is helpful in itself. Some of the most popular speakers on the market that are going on sale this year include the Sonos Move speaker which is available for $300 on Amazon and Best Buy, $100 off its original pricing. Amazon’s third generation Echo Dot is also now just $19, and the Echo Studio is $40 off as well for $160. 

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Smartphones: Cell phones in general are always a great product to buy on Black Friday because pretty much all kinds of smartphones go on sale. Apple’s iPhone SE is projected to be $200 at Best Buy when one trades in their iPhone 7 or newer. Samsung’s Galaxy A51 is now on sale for $275 as Best Buy as well, $125 off its original pricing. Motorola’s Moto G Stylus is 50% off at Best Buy for $150.

Headphone Deals: Headphones are a universally great gift for anyone, and this year some of the most popular wireless ones are going on sale. The Bose 700 noise-canceling headphones are currently $340 at Amazon, $40 off their original price. This deal will be active until January 4th. Some alternative colors are also on sale for as low as $299 at Best Buy. Apple’s AirPods Pro are $200 also at Best Buy, $50 off their original price. Sony’s WH-1000XM4 are $280 at Best Buy, $72off their original price.

Smart Home Devices: The Philips Hue White Color Ambiance 3-pack will transform any room into a multi-colored paradise. LED lights are extremely trendy and popular right now, so take it a step further and add some sophistication to your room by picking up these lightbulbs at Best Buy on Black Friday for $100, $35 off its original pricing!

These Retailers Are Celebrating Black Friday Early This Year

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With the Covid-19 pandemic throwing a major wrench in the way we all shop, many major retailers throughout the country are deciding to start their Black Friday deals online and early to give consumers ample time to take advantage of the year’s biggest day of sales. And since it’s still early in the holiday season, getting all of your shopping done now will make for less stress later. 

Abbio: The week of October 23rd to October 30th Abbio kitchen is offering its customers 25% of the entire site as a part of the brand’s pre-Thanksgiving VIP sale. Just use the code ABBIOHOLIDAY25 at checkout to receive your deal. Additionally, if you miss this round of sales, from November 26th to November 30th Abbio will be offering 25% off the entire site again for Black Friday/Cyber Monday, simply use code ABBIOBF25 at checkout. 

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Best Buy: Best Buy has already started their holiday season with their daily Deal of the Day. This type of promotion is typical for major retailers like Best Buy during the holiday season, as it gives consumers something to look forward to in regard to waiting for something they want to go on sale. As the name suggests the item on sale changes everyday, but so far Best Buy has offered savings on amazing technology such as the Bella Pro Series 8-quart air fryer, Nixplay digital photo frame, Wakeman camping tent and Conair Hot Air Brush Styler. 

Dell: If you’re in the market for a new PC laptop or computer this holiday season look no further than Dell. Dell is known already for being one of the most affordable and well-functioning brands in terms of their personal computers. The company has already begun rolling out some Black Friday deals on their monitors and other various electronics; currently laptop models are on sale for up to 28% off!

Home Depot: If you have a handy individual in your life you’ve most likely shopped at Home Depot for gifts before, or maybe you just need to pick up some new materials for a home improvement project and you don’t want to break the bank. Either way, Home Depot is already offering a multitude of holiday sales, their biggest has yet to come, however. From November 6th to December 2nd Home Depot will be offering deals on holiday decorations, appliances, tools, and more. You can even pre-order your Christmas Tree now to make it less stressful for you come December!

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Lowe’s: Keeping up with the home improvement theme, Lowe’s is also offering a bunch of holiday deals this year. Like Best Buy, Lowes has begun offering one-day Cyber Steals to motivate customers to check their website everyday for what the daily deal might be. So far the savings have reached up to 40% on select appliances and home renovation items!

Macy’s: Macy’s is known for being one of the go-to establishments on Black Friday, and this year they’re carrying that energy into their online Black Friday deals; which will officially begin on November 16th. Macy’s will have sales in every single one of their departments as usual. 

Target: Target will begin offering their Balck Friday deals throughout the entire month of November with discounts on home goods, clothing, accessories, electronics, and even groceries. Starting on November 29th customers will be able to preview the stores weekly Black Friday Now deals that will last for the entirety of the holiday season. Also, this year Target is introducing price-adjustments from November 1st to December 24th on any item that’s advertised as a Black Friday deal but offered at a lower price online or in store. 

Walmart: This retail giant normally always starts their Black Friday deals early in the season to ease some of the pressure of the actual day. Walmart is starting their deals on November 4th and will progressively add more and more as time goes on until it’s actual Black Friday.

Cyber Monday

Consumers Spent $9.4 Billion During Cyber Monday This Year

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The holiday shopping season has officially kicked off with one of the most chaotic weekends for retail and online stores everywhere. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and finally Cyber Monday truly did set the tone for how intense holiday gift shopping is looking to be in the coming month. According to data curated by Adobe, Cyber Monday in particular broke e-commerce records, as shoppers in the United States spent about $9.4 billion online this year! 

According to the same data, Americans spent close to $1.5 billion more than they did last year; granted $3 billion of the money spent this year was on smartphones alone, another record broken for the smartphone industry. Technology has truly developed and thrived this year, so it makes sense that a hefty percentage of spending was on smartphones and other electronics that were on sale this Monday. 

During the peak times of online traffic, consumers were collectively spending $12 million every minute. After this weekend, US online shoppers have spent close to $82 billion since the beginning of November on their holiday shopping.  Representatives from Adobe said that the original forecast for Cyber Monday Sales didn’t exceed $8 billion, even with the massive amount of money consumers have already spent before this past weekend. 

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“That’s despite very aggressive pricing on the part of online sellers. “Retailers unlocked sales earlier to combat a shorter shopping season, while continuing to drive up promotion of the big branded days including Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Consumers capitalized on deals and ramped up spending, especially on smartphones, where activity increased on days when shoppers were snowed or rained in,” said John Copeland, head of Marketing and Consumer Insights at Adobe, in a statement.

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According to Tech Crunch Magazine, the top items sold this year on Cyber Monday included Frozen 2 merchandise, LOL Surprise Dolls, NERF products, Nintendo products, Star Wars merchandise, Samsung TV’s, Amazon Fire TV, Airpods, and air fryers. A diverse group of products for sure, but when we think about where each of these products fall demographic wise, it makes a lot of sense. Of course, smartphones also took a top spot, accounting for almost a third of the total money spent, sending overall smartphone sales for the year up 46%. 

Cyber Monday has been slowly taking the crown from Black Friday in terms of significant shopping days during this Thanksgiving weekend. More and more consumers are embracing the digital age and staying home instead of getting up early to go to the store and wait for hours in line to get a TV on sale that they could just buy for the same reduced price online that upcoming Monday. Additionally, this year the winter weather hit a lot of the US hard during Thanksgiving weekend, so customers were even less inclined to leave their homes, and more inclined to shop online. 

“Online shopping received some unexpected boosts this holiday season. Retailer fears of a shorter season meant that deals came much sooner than usual, and consumers took notice. In some areas of the country, adverse weather in the form of snow and heavy rain meant that many opted to stay home instead and grabbed the best deals online. Just look at Black Friday, which brought in $7.4 billion online and is just below last year’s Cyber Monday at $7.9 billion,” said Taylor Schreiner, principal analyst and head of Adobe Digital Insights.

With online retail growing everyday, it makes perfect sense that Cyber Monday brought in so much money this year. Tech Crunch predicts that in total consumers will spend $14 billion more than they did this year on their online shopping alone. It’s truly beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

 

Small Business Meeting

How To Prepare Your Business For “Small Business Saturday”

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With Thanksgiving right around the corner shoppers are eagerly planning and waiting for one of the biggest retail holidays of the year. Once the turkey’s have been eaten and the last slice of pumpkin pie is gone, shoppers across the country get ready to wake up early and head to some of their favorite stores in an attempt to get a great Black Friday deal. Black Friday, however, is just the beginning of an extended weekend of shopping deals. Cyber Monday takes the title of second most recognized holiday shopping affair, however, one that is often overlooked is Small Business Saturday. A Saturday that’s meant to remind consumers everywhere that while they’re shopping at retail giants for the holidays this year, don’t forget about the hard-workers that make up local small businesses. Supporting your local small business is especially important during the holidays, while retail in general tends to boom during the holiday month, small businesses are often disregarded in terms of shopping, when superstores and online retail giants have taken over. 

Owning a small business is something that you should pride yourself greatly in. Running an entire establishment and keeping up with modern retail trends can definitely be difficult, but millions of Americans are out there doing it and succeeding. There’s many ways that these businesses can keep up a modern and fresh image, especially during this major shopping weekend, to really draw customers in. 

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Store design, graphics, and branding is obviously so important to catching the consumers attention. The holidays give small business owners another great opportunity to do a mini “re-branding” of their businesses aesthetic, and doing so will draw in the attention of holiday lovers everywhere. If you own a store front property, don’t be afraid to invest in some lights and other festive decorations to engulf the outside space of your business. While tedious, holiday decorations in general evoke a very “homey” and euphoric reaction in customers and will draw them in to see what kind of holiday specials you’re offering. The same goes for interior design, don’t be afraid to make your space festive with some little pre-lit Christmas trees, ribbon, twinkly lights, and glitter, glitter always helps. Even if you just have customers coming in to take photos of the amazing decorating work you’ve done, that’s free publicity right there, so don’t be afraid to do what you need to do in order to get the most foot traffic. 

Social media presence is a major requirement for owning a small business in this age. Your online presence is how you advertise, especially if your business is locally based. If you don’t have any sort of social media profiles for your business, definitely make a few! Especially for the holiday season and Small Business Saturday (SBS), you can turn to your platforms to inform your following of all the great SBS sales you have going on. Word spreads the quickest when it’s done through digital communication, so don’t hesitate to join the digital age, especially when it comes to your business. 

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In preparation for SBS, you also want to ensure that all lines of communication relating to your business are up and running. Telephone lines are cleared, internet access is set up, and you have staff ready to answer any customer questions in a quick and efficient matter. Relating to technology, you want to ensure any digital devices that you use to run your business are set up and in working order before the holiday weekend rush. If you know for a fact that you’re likely to get major foot traffic at one point or the other during the day, maybe invest in an additional “Square Terminal” that can simply be plugged into your phone (or employee’s phones) to take care of credit card transactions with customers, (assuming you’re in some sort of retail industry). Running a small business as smoothly as possible during a holiday retail weekend will stick with customers, and most likely lead to word spreading about all  the great deals your having. 

Finally, ensure that you and your team are ready and prepared for this holiday season. Employee’s tend to feel residual stress from the holiday’s in general that they bring into the workplace, and understandably so. The holidays in general can cause a whole slew of emotions and stresses to occur, be the leader they need you to be and ensure everyone that you’re a team and will work together the whole way through. Bringing in some holiday snacks might keep morale up as well. So whip out the cookie mix, Christmas lights, holiday ads, high-speed internet, and get ready for another successful year in the books of running a successful small business. And good luck this Saturday!