How to spot a fake sale, a retail tactic to make you think you saved

It’s not hard to find a deal right now; the challenge is knowing whether it’s real.

Retailers go into overdrive during the holiday season, flooding inboxes with roaring Black Friday discounts. But many markdowns are not what they seem, industry experts warn. Some sales for 30, 40 and 50 percent off are simply rollbacks, returning prices to their starting points — behavior that has gotten some retailers in legal trouble for violating consumer guidelines.

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They “mark up the prices and then offer seemingly deep discounts to make the deals look more attractive,” said Jie Zhang, a professor of marketing at the University of Maryland. “This is a form of deceptive pricing.”

Retailers face more uncertainty this holiday shopping season as inflation remains elevated, the labor market is cooling, and pandemic-era savings are dwindling. The industry is bracing for a mild season given that retail sales fell in October — the first decline since March and a hint that consumers may have price fatigue. The National Retail Federation projects spending will grow 3 to 4 percent in November and December — a slower pace than years past.

Though holiday sales have been underway for weeks, Adobe Analytics projects the best discounts will land within the five-day Thanksgiving weekend, specifically on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. A Shopify-Gallup poll found that 86 percent of consumers plan to shop those days and that 16 percent said when comparing retailers, they would opt to shop at one offering better deals and promotions.

Here’s what you need to know about discounts and doorbusters.

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