5 Key Strategies to Snag Black Friday Deals

It pays to be prepared if you’re planning to venture into stores on Black Friday.

Deal hunters face an especially competitive shopping landscape this year. More than 133 million consumers say they plan to shop Friday through Sunday, up from 128 million last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

What’s more, with predictions for flat sales this time around, retailers are feeling considerably less desperate than last year. They’ve tightened inventory and are proceeding cautiously with sales, says Randy Allen, an associate dean for Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management.“Early indications are people are buying,” she says. “They don’t need to give away the store this year.”

For shoppers, that may mean a little extra legwork to create a shopping plan of attack. Use these five tricks to beat the crowds and score the best deals this weekend:

“Some Black Friday deals look more like clearance items; stores trying to get rid of old stock,” says Andrew Eisner, director of content for Retrevo.com, an online electronics marketplace that offers user manuals and consumer reviews. Buy on price alone, and you could end up with a dinosaur -- or a lemon. Read what experts and users have to say about a particular model before adding it to your list.

For example, the $78 Magnavox Blu-ray player on the front page of Wal-Mart’s (WMT) Black Friday ad is a 52% discount from its original $148 price tag. But the player uses an older technology that can’t connect with the Internet to access disks’ special features. In comparison, Amazon’s (AMZN) offering of an LG BD370 player for $130 (48% off) is the better deal because the high-tech player is Internet-ready and can also stream content from YouTube and Netflix, Eisner says. (As a bonus, Amazon’s Black Friday week promotions are already available.)

Just because an item shows up in a retailer’s Black Friday circular doesn’t mean it’s the best deal around. Check circulars to see if an item makes other stores’ sale lists, and use a price-comparison search engine such as PriceGrabber.com or NexTag.com to hunt down current prices online. A $100 Sony iPod speaker dock and clock radio on Office Depot’s Black Friday circular for $79.99 regularly sells for $77.19 at Buy.com. (A price history on engine PriceSpider.com also notes that sales on that model have dipped as low as $50 this month.)

Retailers typically will not match a competitor’s prices on Black Friday, but this year several are bucking the trend, says Dan de Grandpre, the chief executive of sale tracker Dealnews.com. Home Depot (HD), J&R, Lowe’s (LOW), Office Depot (ODP), Office Max (OMX) and Wal-Mart all will, provided you show the competitor’s ad as proof at checkout, de Grandpre says. Think of it as a way to shorten your list of stops, or get another chance at a must-have item.

Some items in the Black Friday sale circulars are available online as early as Thursday. It’s not limited to run-of-the-mill deals, either. Best Buy (BBY) and Toys 'R' Us have advertised that select door-busters would be available online Thursday. Night owls may also benefit from staying up ‘til midnight Eastern time, when most retailers launch the rest of their full Black Friday sales lineup online.

If you’re not thrilled with the prices you see, wait. Sales tend to improve after Black Friday, and this year should be no exception, says Allen. The one category to pay full price: hot holiday toys that are available in limited quantity, such as Zhu Zhu Pets. (Toys R Us circulars promise “tens of thousands” in stores this weekend.) “Don’t wait to see if there’s going to be a deal later,” Allen says. “You might not be able to find them.”