SALTZMAN: Score deals over Black Friday with these apps

The holidays are rapidly approaching, a season for gift-giving, but why spend more than you need to?

Whether you’re shopping for family, friends or colleagues – or hey, even yourself – your smartphone can be an invaluable companion as you wander the aisles at your favourite retailer or shop online (or a bit of both).

Apps can help you score great deals, as well as give you cash back or reward you in other ways for using them.

While millions of Canadians have circled Black Friday (Nov. 29) on the calendar, know that brick-and-mortar stores and online marketplaces are unlikely be too picky about specific dates this year, so you can expect many of these sales to be available leading up to and just following these days – though it’s smarter to shop earlier than later to avoid sold-out items.

To help identify the best deals, the following are five fantastic freebies to download at the App Store (for iPhone, iPad) or Google Play (for Android devices), or to access in a web browser.

Focusing on your local retailers, Toronto-based Flipp not only aggregates all those paper store flyers we get delivered to our door, but it also highlights the best deals, too.

Simply browse by store or type in a word in the search window to begin flipping through ads. Tap and hold to learn more about a product or quickly tap to virtually clip it into your shopping list.

In fact, it’s a “smart” shopping list that also lets you type in a word, like “Airpods,” and it will show you the best related deals nearby. Or take advantage of the new Watch List feature that tracks deals based on what you have your eye on.

Flipp is ideal for consumer electronics, household items, clothing, and even your weekly groceries shopping, and will also let you load coupons to your digitized loyalty cards so that you can save instantly at checkout.

Dubbed the largest online deal-sharing community with about 12 million users, Slickdeals is a popular app designed to spread the word on the best deals found on products, services, travel, and more.

Every online or retail deal discussed on forums is voted on by the community, and the hottest ones move up to the Popular Deals section (such as 40 percent off a 75-inch 4K TV). The best of the Popular Deals is then screened by the company’s Deal Editors, to see if the deal is good enough to graduate to the coveted Frontpage of the app or website.

If you want to price-watch an item, you can sign up for “deal alerts,” and be notified if such a bargain is posted. In fact, a new Slickdeals browser extension – available for Chrome, Edge and Firefox – gives you early access to Slickdeals best-of-web deals.

Slickdeals also offers coupons, promo codes, weekly ads, and freebies.

It’s one thing to save money while shopping smartly, but what about apps that can earn you money?

Rakuten (formerly eBates) pays members cash back every time you shop online through more than 750 participating retailers.

The percentage you get back varies from retailer to retailer, but Rakuten says you can get up to 30 percent cash back.

Here’s how it works: sign up for a free account and launch the app or website whenever you want to start shopping. Now you can tap on the logo of a supported store to search for products or type in a keyword in the search bar at the top, and once you buy the item at the store you’ll start earning cash that can be sent to you via cheque or deposited into a PayPal account.

Currently, new members get a $5 welcome bonus.

With about 17 million members, PayPal Honey is another “sweet” way to save money on purchases.

This popular browser extension tool searches the internet to bring you the best prices, including coupon codes across more than 30,000 websites, says Honey.

To get going, click to add Honey to your favorite web browser – be it Chrome, Safari, Edge, Firefox, or Opera – and shop online like you normally would. Honey will sense where and what you’re shopping for and let you know if it finds the best price elsewhere. Or if there are promo codes available, it will apply them to your cart, as well.

While many like shopping at a store (or store’s website or app), don’t forget about online marketplace apps, too, as you may find a great deal over Black Friday or Cyber Monday.

Contrary to popular belief, not all goods on eBay are “previously enjoyed” – most are brand new, in fact, says the company – and if you don’t want to bid for something in an auction, most items can be purchased outright.

The app is also easy to use and lets you chat with the seller right from within the app. Just make sure you factor in shipping time if you’d like it under the tree this holiday season (no one wants a holiday gift in January).

Local classifieds apps – like Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Nextdoor – are also a good way to get a local deal (and not wait or pay for shipping). Be sure to meet the seller in a public place (and maybe bring a friend along) and inspect the items before you hand over the cash to ensure it’s as advertised.

– Marc Saltzman is the host of the Tech It Out podcast and the author of the book, Apple Vision Pro For Dummies (Wiley).