Once the mince pies have been put away and the wrapping paper is being cleared up, spare a thought for the lonely gadgets, clothing and snacks that haven’t been gifted this festive season. The Christmas sales spin up after the big day itself and give you a chance to grab various items at a nice discount.
While not as feverishly followed as Black Friday or Prime Day, the post-Christmas sales are still a great time to pick up a discount, whether it’s on a gift you were hoping for and didn’t receive, or on leftover stock of the year’s big item. Now’s your chance to pick up the best phone you’ve been yearning for, find a new budget GPU to make gaming in 2026 a treat, or buy the best TV that you’ve been holding out for.
As with any sales season, though, there are pitfalls to jumping Scrooge McDuck-like into the vast ocean of discounts. So to help you pick up the buy you’re looking for, here are a few useful shopping tips that’ll keep you true.
Prepare your goals ahead of time
I’m not saying you need to make a vision board and pin pictures of your wish-list to it, but it’s a great idea to decide before the sales start what exactly it is you’re looking for.
If you go into the sales green-eyed, it’s far too easy to impulse-buy something you don’t actually want – it’s easy to be won over by those big ‘deal’ or ‘discount’ signs, especially if a large sum is knocked off.
Keeping a narrow search list lets you keep focused, and ensures that you’ve done enough research on every retailer you consider and item you browse. Don’t let yourself stray off the path!
Set an overall and per-item budget
Following on from the last point, it’s worth preparing ahead of time a specific sum you’re willing to spend: a total amount, and a rough or hard limit for each item that’s on your search list.
This will keep you from spending more in the sales than you’re willing or able to, which is important all the time, but doubly more so given how draining Christmas can be on the bank account!
You can create this budget by looking at the times of product you’re considering, or the market range you’re considering for specific items. This is a research task, so it might seem like it’s wasting time that’d be better spent actually shopping, but keeping your options narrow can save you from buying unnecessary deals.
Only shop on websites you trust
Advice that’s even more pertinent in 2025 than past years: no matter how good a discount, make sure you’re not buying deals from websites that turn out to be phoney.
With the rise of AI website-building and text-generation, there’s been a spate of new websites which seem to be online retailers but are, in fact, scams. Plenty of fake e-retailers exist to try and trick you out of your money, with too-good-to-be-true deals and unmissable bundle packages, and it’s important to only buy in the sales of websites you know and trust.
These can be the big ones from your region, or small retailers that are known for certain products, and of course brand-name manufacturers can be trusted to sell their own products. If you’re in doubt, do research on Google or sites like TrustPilot to figure out whether it’s a real site or a scam, or just use logic: is the deal much better than elsewhere? Does the website show sloppy layout issues or does the text seem AI generated? If alarm bells begin to ring, it’s worth avoiding the shop.
Consider alternative configurations
I’ve already told you to make and keep to a specific shopping list, but there’s nuance there which could save you a lot of money.
Lots of products come in variants: TVs have different sizes, laptops have different internals, phones have memory options. And sometimes one version will have a modest discount, while another could have a huge one, and a third iteration could have none at all. Over Black Friday we saw TVs drop for cheaper than the smaller-sized version of the exact same model, which would be easy to miss if you stuck to just one model.
So unless you’re rigidly stuck in stone about the size or configuration you’re considering, perhaps consider other models of the same product to see if you can get a decent discount. Thankfully, most retailers make it easy to tweak internals or specifics of a product on their page, without clicking on an entirely new listing.
Research discounts before buying
Unfortunately, the next piece of advice is another research one. If you’ve found a discount you like on an item you want, it’s still worth checking out whether this is actually a good price for the product. Christmas sales are good, but not often the best.
Use Google to work out whether an item is at, or near, its lowest price, and if it goes there frequently. Some items go down to their lowest price every other weekend, and others get their biggest discounts over Black Friday. A bit of research can help you understand whether this fantastic deal you’ve found is actually so good, or if you’d be able to get it cheaper by waiting a little bit.
Check out the non-sales perks on sites
The main draw of the Christmas sales is the prices; specifically, how they’re lower after Christmas than the MSRP. But it’s always worth considering perks of websites or specific deals beyond the sales in question, as some could save you even more money.
Research what a retailer offers if you buy from it: free or cheap shopping, a lengthy warranty, any order bonuses or carry-over discounts. Some really stack the savings in your favor with extra subscription services or free trials if you buy its kit, and these might be worth more than a few extra dollars if you’re comparing two alike discounts.
