How has Black Friday Price Hiking Changed from 2023 to 2024?

Last year, researchers at KnownHost conducted a study that analyzed the movement in pricing across October and November in the build-up to Black Friday to evaluate how genuine Black Friday sales are across a host of tech products.

To find out more about the previous study, read more here.

Price hiking before discount sales is a practice that misleads consumers, by increasing the regular price of a product to then drop it right before the sale, inflating the amount of money it appears customers are saving.

Researchers conducted the study again to examine how price hikes have changed year on year, as well as the behaviour of retailers around the Black Friday sales.

How does Black Friday 2024 compare to Black Friday 2023?

According to research, price hikes increased by 18.7% year over year, as the number products that had price hikes grew from 16 products out of 60 in the 2023 sale up to 19 products in the 2024 sale.

Many products dropped for the holiday season, dropping their prices early November and keeping them low into December. This increased from 5 products in 2023 to 22 products in 2024, an increase of 342.2%.

Participation in Black Friday has also changed across the two years, with regular Black Friday sales dropping by 53.8%, whilst those participating in Black Friday has dropped by 46.1%.

In 2023, accessory and home devices were the most likely to see price increases, with five products rising in price ahead of the annual sale. In 2024, the tablets and phones category saw a similar trend, with five products experiencing price hikes.

Laptops became less likely to increase in price, dropping from three products in 2023 to one in 2024, a 71.7% decrease. TV products also declined, falling from one product with a price hike in 2023 to none in 2024.

Products with the Highest Price Hikes

For Black Friday 2024, the top products with the largest price hikes are Amazon tablets, with the Amazon Fire HD 10 Tablet increasing from $75 in early November to $139.99 right before Black Friday, which is an 86.7% price increase. The Amazon Fire Max 11 Tablet follows in second place, increasing from $159.99 at the start of November to $279.99 right before Black Friday, a 75% price change. The Amazon Fire TV Stick is also in second place with a 75% price hike from $20 in early November to $34.99 right before Black Friday.

In fourth place is the Ring Video Doorbell, which had a 66.7% price increase from $60 to $99.99 right before Black Friday.

Two Motorolas follow with Motorola Moto G Stylus having a price increase of 56.9% before Black Friday and the Motorola Edge 2024 having a price increase of 45.7%.

Which product categories are the most likely to have price hikes?

The product categories most likely to present with price hikes are joint at 26.3% across tablets, home devices and phones across all products with price hikes. Headphones account for 15.8% of price hikes while laptops account for just 5.3% of price hikes.

Conclusion

The possibility of price hikes has gone up between 2023 and 2024, likely predicting a similar trend for 2025. However, there is also an increase in products dropping for longer periods of time for the holiday season, so there is more opportunity to find deals for desirable products.

Methodology

To find out the percentage of Black Friday Hikes, a seed list of 60 products from listicles on the best technology deals for Black Friday 2024 were used across ‘online retailers’ (Amazon).

These product prices were then monitored from October 2024 and across November 2024 using the estimated pricing on CamelCamelCamel. These prices were then compiled and calculated to discover the percentage change of the hikes or drops before Black Friday.

These were then compared to the previous study conducted in 2024 – this study was altered to include 60 products to ensure an accurate yearly comparison (excluding the Watch category).