Black Friday 2019 Sales: How to Shop From India and Everything You Need to Know

Black Friday 2019 is just around the corner. The biggest shopping festival in the United States is celebrated one day after Thanksgiving, this year on November 29. Big box retailers in the US open their stores early on Thanksgiving Day itself while online stores have now started offering deals and offer days ahead of the actual Black Friday sale event. While Black Friday remains relatively unpopular in India, there’s still a lot you can buy from the US and get it shipped to India if you’re looking to save some money.

Black Friday Sales: What you need to know

What is Black Friday?

For most Indians, Black Friday has an entirely different meaning. But in the US, it is the day after Thanksgiving Day. It marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. Most retailers, both online and offline, start offering deals and offers in the days leading up to Black Friday.

Although some of the best deals run out rather quickly, some still spill over the weekend. Last year, shoppers in the US spent a total of $6.22 billion in online Black Friday sales alone.

When is Black Friday 2019?

This year, the Black Friday shopping event is on November 29.

Can I grab Black Friday deals while sitting in India?

Yes. Some of the biggest online retailers who offer Black Friday deals do ship internationally. However, in case someone doesn’t, you can always use a third-party shipping service to get your package delivered in India. These services charge you for shipping and you’ll have to pay whatever custom duties are charged at the port of entry in India.

You can also ask a friend or a relative to bring along your online purchases when they visit India, provided everything is under the usual customs limit.

Where to look for Black Friday deals while shopping from India?

As we mentioned earlier, some large online retail stores will directly ship products to India. But this doesn’t include the entire inventory. Amazon US ships a big chunk of electronics internationally, including India. eBay is another option but you’ll have to be slightly more careful while picking listings.

Newegg is another option but they only ship a limited set of products to India and the pricing isn’t always on the sweeter side. It is worth mentioning here again that no matter what sites you pick, you’ll have to consider international shipping and local import duties as well.

How to find the best deals during Black Friday 2019 sale?

If you’re looking to buy during this week’s Black Friday sales, you should start planning right away. Make a list of products you’re interested in and keep a tab on the local prices. Then visit the online stores that ship to India and add those products on your online wish list. This makes it easier to track products and their prices once the sales go live.

On the day of the sale, compare the offered prices with local prices. If the gap is considerable — be sure to factor in the international shipping and import duties — you can then decide if a deal is worth buying from India or not.

Black Friday sales are great for buying electronics that are either not available locally or are overpriced here. Just make sure you don’t buy heavy products because the shipping will break your budget. As always, we’ll be covering the sale extensively and will be bringing you the best Black Friday deals once they go live this weekend.

Should I buy smartphones from the US during Black Friday?

Buying smartphones from the US could be a bit tricky. For starters, most smartphone deals are bundled with carriers. That makes it useless if you’re shopping from India. However, in the event that you’re able to locate a massive deal on an unlocked phone, make sure you calculate shipping and import duties and compare it with the phone’s local price in India before buying.

Black Friday 2019: How to ship products to India?

If you’re shopping during Black Friday on an online store that doesn’t ship to India, you’ll need to use a third-party shipping service. Services like Shop and Ship and Viabox are both popular and reliable. Once you sign up, you’ll be assigned your own physical address in multiple countries. You can use this while making your online purchase.

Once the product lands in your virtual account, they will be shipped to your local address in India. You will still need to pay for shipping (apart from the online store’s shipping fee) and import duties. Both these services also offer calculators that help you determine estimated prices for shipping products to India.