Black Friday and Holiday Season Price Matching Gains Popularity Among Retailers

Black Friday ads will likely start flooding the internet during the second week of November, when most people begin preparations for the biggest shopping event of the holiday season. Each year, more and more people turn to online shopping, either out of commodity, or as a means of avoiding traffic and crowded stores. Consequently, more and more retailers optimize their online shopping services, to accommodate the great number of online sales hunters.

According to gottadeal.com, retail giant Target follows the trend, and has announced that they plan to match their prices to those of popular online competitors, such as Amazon.com, Bestbuy.com and Walmart.com. Their new policy will open on November 1st, and will be in effect all through the winter shopping season, including on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. To support this new strategy, Target will also provide free wireless internet in all of their stores.

The Wall Street Journal published an article last week, in which they explain that BestBuy will apply this same tactic, albeit to a limited degree. Prices will be matched only on appliances and hardware, including products like "cameras, computers, tablets, televisions, MP3 players and gaming devices and consoles". What's more is that prices will be matched with only 20 online retailers, including Amazon. However, the new policy won't extend to third party merchants on retailer sites.

Unfortunately, BestBuy plans to suspend this policy right during the the busiest shopping days of the winter season, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The policy will be in effect starting November 4, but will be suspended from the Sunday before Thanksgiving through the Monday after, according to the Wall Street Journal. This could still be great news for bargain-minded shoppers, especially since Best Buy is usually a consumer favorite when it comes to electronics. For Black Friday, the retailer plans to offer significant discounts and deals, which will likely include a doorbuster HD TV.

Delawareonline.com reports that Target has jumped aboard the online price matching boat and plans to match their online rivals' prices all through the holiday season. Their new policy will be in effect starting November 1 and ending December 16, and will match the prices of popular online retailers, incluidng Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Toysrus.com, Bestbuy.com and babiesrus.com.

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