Black Friday shopping is one of America’s most popular holiday traditions, but there’s always a bit of hassle involved. Traditionally, shoppers have to get up early, stand in endless lines at stores and try to find deals through hordes of other shoppers — all in the name of savings. In 2022, though, Americans shopped from home on Black Friday more than they did in stores, with 122.7 million people getting their deals in person and 130.2 million making purchases online.
Black Friday sales have also been changing during the past few years. They are starting earlier, with some retailers starting their early holiday sales as early as October. That’s good news for consumers who want to stretch out their purchases over a longer period of time rather than buying everything in one day.
So which stores offer the best discounts, and for which items? To answer that question and help consumers maximize their Black Friday savings, WalletHub surveyed over 3,500 deals from 13 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2023 Black Friday ad scans. Below, we’ve listed the stores offering the largest advertised discounts in various product categories such as jewelry and appliances.
Best Places to Shop on Black Friday
Retailer | 2023 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2022 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2021 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2020 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2019 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2018 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2017 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2016 Avg. % Discount by Retailer | 2015 Avg. % Discount by Retailer |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
JCPenney | 59.1% | 64.7% | 57.6% | 56.7% | 61.0% | 65.1% | 66.3% | 62.8% | 68.0% |
Macy's | 58.2% | 53.0% | 58.5% | 56.0% | 46.1% | 48.7% | 45.6% | 63.4% | 56.0% |
Belk | 54.8% | 64.2% | 56.7% | 50.0% | 66.9% | 68.9% | 62.8% | N/A | 59.5% |
Kohl's | 48.8% | 44.2% | 49.3% | 51.9% | 57.1% | 60.8% | 66.3% | 58.1% | 66.7% |
Target | 32.7% | 32.9% | 22.7% | 28.1% | 34.3% | 34.8% | 36.2% | 28.6% | 37.3% |
BJ's | 30.1% | 27.6% | 26.1% | N/A | 39.3% | 31.0% | 32.1% | 32.0% | 30.6% |
Best Buy | 29.8% | 22.9% | 22.3% | 25.3% | 29.5% | 28.7% | 30.0% | 33.2% | 33.5% |
Amazon | 28.5% | 25.7% | 27.5% | 26.5% | 25.4% | 29.3% | 36.8% | 24.7% | 25.8% |
Walmart | 26.9% | 28.4% | 31.6% | 27.8% | 34.3% | 29.9% | 34.2% | 32.6% | 30.1% |
Dell | 25.8% | N/A | N/A | 21.3% | 28.6% | 27.4% | 29.3% | 35.7% | 35.3% |
Newegg | 22.4% | 28.5% | 20.0% | 23.8% | N/A | 28.4% | 28.3% | N/A | N/A |
The Home Depot | 20.8% | 30.9% | N/A | 32.1% | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 31.4% |
Costco | 17.1% | 16.8% | 20.5% | 22.0% | 21.3% | 25.1% | 21.9% | 25.4% | 19.5% |
Overall Average | 35.0% | 37.2% | 32.4% | 32.1% | 40.4% | 37.0% | 37.1% | 39.0% | 40.2% |
In-Depth Look at the Best Black Friday Retailers in 2023
JCPenney
JCPenney is the best place to shop on Black Friday because it offers an average discount of 59.1%. This is the fifth time JCPenney has earned the top spot in this report since 2014.
JCPenney offers some steep discounts on extremely expensive items this year, too. If you’re ready to propose to that special someone, you can get a $6,249.98 diamond engagement ring for just $1,666.65. In addition to significant markdowns on jewelry and apparel, JCPenney has great deals on appliances, offering savings of 59.5% on average.
Macy’s
Macy’s has the second-best Black Friday discounts this year, saving you an average of 58.2% and as much as 85% on certain items. The store’s best deals by far are on jewelry, which will be 65.9% off, on average.
Macy’s is also known for its clothing selection, and that’s the second-best product category for Macy’s Black Friday discounts, with items marked down by an average of 52.6%.
Belk
Belk is the third-best Black Friday retailer, even though it only has physical locations in 16 states, much fewer than the top two stores. At Belk, you’ll receive an average of 54.8% off your purchases, and you can still take advantage of deals online if you don’t have a location near you.
If you’re in the market for new appliances, you’ll definitely want to consider Belk on Black Friday. You can save an average of 60.26%, which is close to twice the average appliance discount offered among all stores (33.5%). Other good categories to shop for at Belk include apparel and consumer packaged goods such as makeup, shampoo and perfume.
Notes:
- The pie chart above displays the product categories in which discounts are more heavily concentrated, represented in percentage terms. The percentages do not represent average discounts.
- The bar graph above displays the average discount percentage for each product category.
Average Store Discounts by Product Category
Retailer | Apparel & Accessories | Computers & Phones | Consumer Electronics | Consumer Packaged Goods | Toys |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon | 33.36% | 25.89% | 25.01% | 27.08% | 24.58% |
Belk | 54.94% | N/A | N/A | 31.94% | N/A |
Best Buy | N/A | 29.43% | 33.44% | N/A | N/A |
BJ's | 14.78% | 28.79% | 29.58% | N/A | 24.65% |
Costco | 23.99% | 24.72% | 9.09% | 19.39% | N/A |
Dell | N/A | 25.81% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
JCPenney | 57.83% | N/A | N/A | 28.82% | 40.92% |
Kohl's | 43.56% | 37.75% | 40.17% | 40.16% | 36.29% |
Macy's | 52.56% | N/A | N/A | 45.09% | 44.52% |
Newegg | N/A | 21.90% | 43.22% | N/A | N/A |
Target | N/A | 27.38% | 23.01% | N/A | 33.25% |
The Home Depot | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Walmart | 52.42% | 15.39% | 20.78% | 0.00% | 27.06% |
Overall Average | 41.68% | 26.34% | 28.04% | 27.50% | 33.04% |
Retailer | Appliances | Furniture | Jewelry | All Other Product Categories |
---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon | 26.46% | N/A | N/A | 38.48% |
Belk | 60.26% | N/A | N/A | 65.79% |
Best Buy | 28.08% | N/A | N/A | N/A |
BJ's | 26.98% | 32.28% | N/A | 31.28% |
Costco | 18.48% | 23.51% | 20.40% | 21.33% |
Dell | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
JCPenney | 59.46% | N/A | 59.20% | 63.13% |
Kohl's | 40.15% | N/A | 71.93% | 55.74% |
Macy's | 47.73% | 47.81% | 65.94% | 56.10% |
Newegg | N/A | N/A | N/A | 39.21% |
Target | 29.00% | 43.66% | N/A | 36.83% |
The Home Depot | 2.50% | 26.59% | N/A | 10.38% |
Walmart | 29.78% | N/A | N/A | 37.66% |
Overall Average | 33.53% | 34.77% | 54.37% | 41.45% |
Ask the Experts
Finding the real deals among the marketing-ploys can be challenging, especially with all the different Black Friday sales out there. We asked several experts to share some of their shopping smarts with budget-conscious consumers. Click on the experts’ profiles to read their bios and thoughts on the following key questions:
- How can consumers distinguish between real Black Friday deals and marketing traps?
- How can consumers protect themselves from overspending on Black Friday?
- Which day do you believe people get the best deals: Black Friday, Cyber Monday or another day? Why?
- What are some tips for maximizing bargains on Black Friday?
- Which types of products are better to buy on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday?
Ask the Experts
Methodology
In order to determine the retailers offering the most money-saving bargains this coming Black Friday, WalletHub surveyed over 3,500 deals from 13 of the biggest U.S. retailers’ 2023 Black Friday ad scans and calculated the average discount that each retailer plans to offer. The average discount was weighted based on the pre-discounted price of the item to give more credit to the retailers discounting higher-ticket items. Our sample excludes deals that did not have calculable percentage markdowns.
We then organized the deals into 9 product categories such as “Apparel & Accessories,” “Consumer Electronics” and “Appliances.” When calculating the category averages, we took into account only the retailers that had at least five discounted items in that particular category.
For this report, we examined the following 13 retailers:
- Amazon
- Belk
- Best Buy
- BJ's
- Costco
- Dell
- JCPenney
- Kohl's
- Macy's
- Newegg
- Target
- The Home Depot
- Walmart
Amazon did not provide all the requested info for all their Black Friday deals. As a result, some deals could not be included in our calculations. A total of 140 deals were included.
This year, many retailers have opted to release several rounds of markdowns throughout the month of November, changing their Black Friday deals on a weekly basis. All Black Friday data collected for this analysis are current as of November 14, 2023.
Sources: Data used to conduct this study were collected from each retailer’s official website and BlackFriday.com.
WalletHub experts are widely quoted. Contact our media team to schedule an interview.