Holiday shoppers depend on Black Friday for scoring deals, but new research shows that some stores will offer bigger discounts than others this year.
According to the new report from WalletHub, JCPenney and several other major department stores will offer the steepest Black Friday discounts across a range of popular products, from apparel to consumer electronics.
JCPenney will provide the largest average Black Friday discounts on its merchandise, with an average markdown of 59.1%, followed by Macy’s, with a typical cut of 58.2%, the analysis found. Discounts may be especially important this holiday to U.S. consumers, who have been walloped by more than a year of high inflation.
“Knowing exactly where to find the best deals can also help you save a lot of time and avoid a lot of aggravation,” WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe said in a statement.
Best Black Friday deals
Here are the retailers ranked by average discount, according to WalletHub’s analysis, which examined 3,500 products listed in the stores’ 2023 Black Friday ads.
The 13 retailers included national online and brick-and-mortar companies, such as Amazon, Walmart, Dell, JCPenney, Macy’s, Costco and Home Depot. However, it noted that Amazon didn’t provide all the information it requested, and so some deals weren’t included in their calculations.
- JCPenney — 59.1%
- Macy’s — 58.2%
- Belk — 54.8%
- Kohl’s — 48.8%
- Target — 32.7%
- BJ’s — 30.1%
- Best Buy — 29.8%
- Amazon — 28.5%
- Walmart — 26.9%
- Dell — 25.8%
WalletHub also examined discounts by nine product categories, including apparel, consumer electronics and appliances.
While JC Penney’s will have the biggest discounts on average, some other retailers have better sales in specific categories, the report found.
For example, Macy’s will offer the best deals on toys, with an average discount of 44.5% for those products, according to the analysis. Meanwhile, Kohl’s will be the top spot to get deals on jewelry, computers and phones, the data shows.
According to the report, jewelry shoppers will find the largest discounts, with an average price drop of 54% across all 13 retailers, followed by apparel and accessories, which will be marked down 42% on average. Meanwhile, the smallest discounts will be found on computers and phones, with an average discount of 26% across the stores.