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Black Friday: What to Buy and What to Avoid

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Photo: Rob Stothard/Getty Images

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There's going to be a massive amount of items that are discounted this Black Friday (You can find all the sales happening here). Net-a-Porter alone marked down over 6,000 items yesterday, so unless you have a game plan headed into this shopping bonanza, you might end up empty handed, or worse, without the best deal. However, by tracking data like hourly search, sales, and product uploads from over 11,000 retailers, shopping site Lyst has compiled research that will provide you with a plan of attack come Black Friday.

The data essentially puts together a helpful list of Dos and Don'ts for your Black Friday shopping.

Do: Target items like dresses, tops, and jackets, these are the items most likely to go on sale and have larger amount taken off.

Really Do: Sift through the bulk of items to find the pair of boots you can wear all winter. Data shows that while boots aren't the most likely items to be included in the sale section, they see the biggest discount (a majority of boots are at least 50% off) when they do.

Do: Shop right away. This one is a little obvious, but there's a surge of shoppers when the clock strikes midnight (think EST). So, if you have your eyes on something, be sure to hit the web early.

Don't: Waste your time on skirts and jeans. While many bottom styles will be available to you this Friday, they are typically discounted less (an average of 30% off) than the aforementioned items.

Really Don't: Don't bother looking for purses. Not only are they the least likely items to go on sale, they see the smallest reductions when they do.

For those of you that hate words and love pretty pictures, may we direct you to this infographic?

lyst