Cyber Monday UK 2015: how to get the best deals

Cyber Monday is just round the corner, and while some people will have bought all the bargains they can face on Black Friday, there will be others who still haven't finished their Christmas shopping, and will be holding out for more discounts on Cyber Monday.

Cyber Monday strikes on Monday (30 November), and is a day of online sales. It means no camping outside the shops, or rushing in at opening time, you just need to make sensible preparations, find yourself a computer as early as possible, and pick up some brilliant bargains.

The approach has the edge on the door busting raids during Black Friday, because it's so much easier to compare prices. You don't have to trawl the shopping centre, or huddle on the floor checking prices online, you can shop around from the comfort of your home.
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Unfortunately, the attractions of online shopping have blurred the lines between the two events. On Friday, record numbers of people decided against braving the Black Friday sales in-store and bought online instead. It puts the future Cyber Monday in doubt, and in future years it's questionable as to whether retailers will bother with the two.

There are, however, still those who are offering Cyber Monday deals in 2015. Zavvi is making a big splash with what its calling Mega Monday. Meanwhile, HotUKDeals has a list of 101 shops it says are participating - including everyone from John Lewis to Gap, Adidas, Boots and ToysRUs.

Some companies have taken the opportunity to extend the deals period even further so it runs from Black Friday, all weekend, and into Monday. These include Tesco, the Google Play store, Carphone Warehouse and Whistles.

Get the best deals

There are five steps to bagging the best discounts on the day. First, you need to do your preparation. Shop around to find out the lowest price on the items you want -and don't pay any more than this on the day.

Second, bookmark the retailers where you expect to find deals on the items you want, to make it easier for you to shop around on Monday.

Third, get all your deliberations out of the way now. If you cannot make up your mind early in the day, the deals may well sell out while you're swithering.

Fourth, get up early. You want to catch the websites while they have stock, and before they get busy enough to affect the operation of the websites themselves.

And finally, decide what you'll do if the website is overwhelmed. On Friday some sites were freezing, while others were going very slowly. Some didn't let shoppers have access to the page, others let them fill the basket, and then wouldn't let them pay. The retailers were reportedly happy with how the sites performed, but as someone who came across glitches with three separate retailers, I can report that the experience wasn't entirely seamless.

You need to decide whether you have the time and patience to persevere if things go wrong; consider what kinds of savings are worth the headaches; and what you will do if you start to feel like you're hitting your head against a brick wall - will you keep trying or will you use another retailer for a slightly smaller discount?

Once you've done all that, you can sit back, and enjoy the shopping madness in peace and comfort.