It’s not too late to bag a bargain!

Don’t worry if you’ve not done your shopping yet. We’ve got the best Cyber Monday deals – and you can splurge from your sofa TODAY

FLEX your fingers and sharpen your online shopping elbows – we’re in the middle of Black Friday weekend and it’s not too late to grab a bargain. In fact, some of the best deals are yet to be found today and tomorrow, on Cyber Monday.

Traditionally, Black Friday is an American shopping extravaganza held on the first day after Thanksgiving – which is celebrated in the US on the fourth Thursday of November.

It’s called Black Friday because it was originally the day stores first moved ‘out of the red and into the black’ and had enough money to lower prices and cover costs.

The term Cyber Monday was coined recently and refers to the first Monday after Black Friday, when retailers started noticing a leap in sales online.

Brands then started stretching their discounts across the entire weekend from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, for four days of bumper deals.

A recent study by Amárach Consulting for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that almost one-in-five Irish people will do most of their Christmas shopping over the period.

Sometimes ordering from overseas can come with a hefty postage fee, or require an address in the UK or USA. This can be avoided by using a virtual address service – offered by Parcel Motel or An Post’s AddressPal – which lets Irish customers snap up free or reduced UK or US delivery charges. In the case of AddressPal, goods are sent to the specified AddressPal address where they are collected by An Post and brought to Ireland for a fraction of the price.

‘Black Friday is definitely no longer just one day,’ says retail analyst Zoe Mills. ‘The discounts are continuing for over a week, with big names such as Amazon and Currys offering discounts well in advance.

She added: ‘A lot of it is to do with logistics. By spreading out deliveries over several days, retailers are more able to meet demand and avoid disappointing customers, as well as avoiding problems such as websites crashing because they’re suddenly flooded with orders.’

So, what will we all be buying this year?

‘Black Friday has usually been an electrical event, but that’s levelling off now. Clothing, health and beauty products will be big as the price points are lower,’ said Mills.

And what’s even better about this year’s event is you don’t have to move from the comfort of your sofa to shop for bargains. Our guide is packed with the best and the newest online deals – including 50% off everything at Gap starting today, up to 55% off cordless vacuum cleaners at Currys and, of course, Amazon’s top Cyber Monday deals.

So, grab a cup of tea, open up your laptop and get shopping...