The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Why Christmas is important earlier this year

2021-11-13T17:02:38.234Z


In 2021 you should take care of gifts in good time. This often saves you a lot of money - and you actually get the products you want. Almost all. A guide.


Enlarge image

Photo: Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa

Have you already bought your first Christmas presents?

Not yet?

Then it's high time.

Because you want to give your loved ones suitable gifts - and also for mundane financial reasons.

I used to buy Christmas presents in Advent.

The time was contemplative, the year was coming to an end.

The Berlin Christmas markets sometimes provided inspiration.

Artists and young tailors sold their new collections in unrenovated pop-up shops in the old east of the capital.

For two years, actually longer, it has been a matter of rethinking. More and more of the gifts are being purchased online - and earlier and earlier. Keyword “Black Friday” from the USA and “Singles Day”, invented in China. Last year the trend accelerated again - because of Corona. Before Christmas 2020, online retailers had turned over almost 20 billion euros, out of a total of 110 billion euros in retail.

This year the Christmas business comes even earlier.

Because retailers have to deal with delivery bottlenecks almost all year round.

Six out of ten retailers said they were affected in October.

"There can be a shortage of popular products quickly," warned Steffen Kahnt, the managing director of the Spielwaren trade association.

This also applies to electronics.

The iPhone 11, for example, is hardly available at the moment.

The Playstation 5 hasn't been used for the whole year.

The retailers' sales target is nevertheless optimistic: 112 billion euros in total in the Christmas business and 23 billion euros in online retail.

The increased prices that portals such as Idealo and billiger.de are currently observing on the market are also helping - up to 78 percent more for graphics cards, for example.

It is all the more important for you to shop smart.

So here's the ultimate pre-Black Friday shopping program:

  • Write down a

    list of

    the things you definitely need to buy before Christmas.

    Think about what the gift should be: which processor and which screen, which Barbie, which scooter, which mobile phone.

    And prepare an alternative right away, in case there are inexpensive variants to the wish list.

  • Set a

    price

    alarm clock

    for all expensive gifts

    on price search engines such as billiger.de or idealo.de. Take the opportunity to see what the cheapest price has been in the recent past and think about what premium you are willing to pay the toy retailer of your choice or your favorite boutique.

  • If the price is currently cheap, strike and

    stash

    the treasure before Christmas. If the price seems high at the moment, let the price alarm run and be flexible. Simply set an appointment for yourself, from when you will consider alternatives. With your list you are also prepared for the discount battles before and on Black Friday. The discount battle can then also be worthwhile for you, in fact last year around the said Friday the prices were a bit lower.

  • Pay attention

    to

    return

    deadlines

    ,

    payment deadlines

    and

    exchange

    deadlines

    for all purchases

    . By default, you can only cancel online purchases for two weeks without giving a reason. Often the retailer even pays the return. Before Christmas, however, many large retailers extend the return and exchange deadlines. Buy where the deadline is long enough if you are unsure about a possible exchange. Incidentally, also in stationary retail. "Notebooksbilliger" is already advertising with exchange deadlines until the end of January 2022. Saturn and MediaMarkt with the end of December. Other dealers will follow.


    It is important to note that with such voluntarily extended deadlines, the very generous statutory rules for exchanges do not apply. The dealer can set it up himself - and may be more fussy than usual if the original packaging is torn.

  • You should

    n't buy

    gifts

    on credit.

    If you get Christmas bonus and you want that to be used for the presents, don't reschedule it. If you are well structured, you can of course already buy gifts with different variations of "shop now, pay later" (payment service provider Klarna). You can buy on account and then pay with the Christmas bonus. Make sure that "pay later" does not become "pay a lot later". But no more than four weeks. Because then interest is due, practically always over ten percent, sometimes even over 15 percent. And under no circumstances should you buy gifts that you will later pay off in installments.


    Love doesn't need to be paid in installments.

  • If, despite all the effort and the large amount of brainpower used, the

    exchange is

    necessary later, make sure that it probably succeeds.

    Explain the return within the agreed period or - if possible - arrange an extra long exchange period with the dealer.

You haven't heard of the financial benefits of your Christmas strategy.

Well:

1. Early targeted buying ensures that you don't buy something at the last minute that then collects dust on the recipient's cupboard.

Savings: 100 percent.

2. Planning purchases always with an eye on the account balance helps you to avoid later overdraft interest.

Every year the banks in Germany report that in January the overdraft facility is overdrawn and a particularly large number of installment loans are taken out.

Save four to ten percent interest, at least for a few months.

3. Price comparison by Preiswecker.

On the day of my price query on idealo.de, the Nintendo Switch game console cost just under 400 euros at the cheapest retailer.

The price comparison shows three more details that are worth paying attention to.

a. The cheapest dealer in the list becomes the cheapest dealer by including a voucher, which you may not want at all. Then skip place 1.


b. The second cheapest retailer promises delivery by Christmas, but if they delivered in two days like other retailers, it would be safer. One of my Christmas gifts for 2020 didn't arrive until mid-January.


c. A glance at the price alarm clock shows that the console was at least 50 euros cheaper for most of the year, so it might be worth the wait. Competitor billiger.de writes that televisions have become significantly cheaper in recent months, whereas gaming products have become more expensive.

The price fluctuations for the game console are certainly not an isolated case: My beloved new yellow bicycle helmet has oscillated between 55 and the list price 90 euros in the price search engines in recent months. I saved around 39 percent, in this specific case 35 euros. And I even bought the helmet directly from a medium-sized retailer with good reviews and not from Amazon. My lace-up shoes in my size and color are currently available for 150 euros, but in the past few months they have been 110 euros. Savings 27 percent. Fun fact, the one-year price curve for the shoe shows that the black copies were particularly cheap on Black Friday and right on Christmas.

4. The look at previous year's models is also not bad for the price fox.

They tend to be sold more cheaply, especially during the Christmas season.

In the past few years it was smartphones and laptops.

It could be more difficult this year for particularly sought-after technology goods.

Price alarm clocks help to assess the price trend over the past year.

So set the alarm clock to a year.

5. The stationary retailers also do their best in the weeks leading up to Advent to keep up with the price war.

You pretty much know what you want.

Take a look there too, the vast majority of retailers now also have decent websites.

6. You should always keep an eye on the shipping costs when dealing with prices in online retail.

The correct comparison includes the shipping costs.

With good price search engines, you can tick the box: Then the providers are sorted by price including shipping.

And when you have done all your shopping on December 15th and are happy with your choice, you may also think again about those who did not get it so well.

The right donation makes you happy.

And you can then deduct the right donations from your tax and thus allow the state to participate in the donation, in your idea.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-11-13

You may like

Life/Entertain 2024-02-02T11:11:22.162Z
News/Politics 2024-02-18T08:11:29.545Z
News/Politics 2024-02-29T13:24:02.594Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.