Black Friday vs Cyber Monday

What’s the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

There's not a huge amount of difference, to be honest. Many Black Friday deals last all the way through to (and beyond) Cyber Monday too.

Cyber Monday was originally unconnected to Black Friday – the term was coined to mark the date when everybody went "Yikes! It’s nearly Christmas and I haven’t bought any presents!" and ordered tons of things online when they were supposed to be working.

It used to be that Black Friday - mostly in store in the US - was focused on consumer electronics, and Cyber Monday more on clothing and jewellery, but the lines are pretty much fully blurred now.

They're now what might more accurately be described as Black Friday And Cyber Monday And The Week Before And After And A Bit More If You’re Amazon, as the online giant spreads its sales rather widely. 

But that’s too long to type, and BFACMATWBAAAABMIYA is a terrible acronym – so let’s stick with Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

We're expecting some awesome deals on noise-cancelling headphones this year

Why do Black Friday and Cyber Monday matter?

For consumers, the Black Friday / Cyber Monday sales frenzy means a whole week or more of what appear to be good deals – and if you’re savvy, and take advantage of TechRadar's Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals monitoring, you really can save a lot of money.

This shopping period has changed the way we shop in the run-up to Christmas, and they’ve had a massive effect on the retail industry, especially online.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are overwhelmingly online phenomena. Many retailers offer Black Friday deals in their physical stores (Cyber Monday, as the name suggests, has always been an online thing), but with a few headline-grabbing exceptions of the fistfight-in-a-supermarket kind it doesn’t significantly increase footfall.

In fact, there’s some evidence that it has the opposite effect, with tumbleweed blowing down high streets as we all shop from our homes, schools or workplaces instead. After all, it's much easier and far less backbreaking, especially if you're after a new large kitchen appliance.

Once we’ve spent that money it’s spent, and if we’ve spent it on Amazon – one of the biggest proponents of Black Friday and Cyber Monday on either side of the Atlantic – then that money is lost to more local retailers.

What sort of Black Friday deals will we see in 2018?

Black Friday has fallen into a rhythm, so some deal predictions are safe bets:

• Amazon will heavily discount its own stuff
• Apple will offer something small, such as gift cards
• TVs are going to get massive discounts
• There will be really big price drops on laptops
• Some accessories will be brilliant value
• You really don’t want to take out a phone contract in the months leading up: networks' Black Friday deals slash the up-front and monthly costs
• Camera buffs will be able to save a small fortune on bodies and compacts
• It’s not just tech stuff – you’ll see big discounts on some power tools and personal care products too
• eBay will run Black Friday deals on new products, not just second-hand items