In the US, Thanksgiving is followed by the ever-popular Black Friday.

Traditionally, the day would be filled with scenes of chaos as shoppers entered stores to get the most out of some of the biggest retail discounts known to man.

It didn’t take long for Cyber Monday to follow, when e-commerce retailers copped on and attracted attention with their own collection of epic deals.

However, things have changed recently. The two have merged, so much so that Wendy Knowler suggests “the buying bonanza has morphed into Black Week”.

Writing for Times LIVE, Knowler pointed out a few tips and tricks for getting the most out of your international online shopping this week.

Ready? Check it:

If you’re going global, use Wirecutter

Owned by the New York Times, Wirecutter collects Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals from retailers around the web. Take a look here.

Keen to shop at Amazon?

[A]dd items to a wish-list or your shopping cart, but don’t buy anything yet so you can see how much the prices change between now and Cyber Monday, November 27. This helps reveal exactly how big a discount that sale price really is.

Look at the price, not the “saving”

Claims of, say, “60% off” refer to the price the retailer first sold that item for, not its most recent price. So its Black Friday price could be just 10% or 15% less than its September or October price, for example.

Research your products, not just their prices

UK consumer organisation Which? reports that almost one in five Black Friday shoppers last year admitted to not reading reviews of the products they bought beforehand.

Do your research first.

Register for an overseas postbox

Many products listed on overseas sites don’t ship to South Africa, so you’re going to need an overseas postbox to dupe the delivery guy into thinking you live there.

Using the cap-sensitive code in red below, 2OV readers get a 15% discount shipping voucher from Postbox Courier:

CODE: PBC-15%BFand2OV-Nov17

Register on their site – here – and you will receive a delivery address for their New York depot. Active from today until midnight on December 4, the discount only applies to those items shipped from the US, which is ideal for the likes of Amazon.

Remember the extra costs:

Shipping, customs and VAT, and, if your purchase is to be posted rather than couriered, a clearance fee charged by the SA Post Office (R24 or R48 depending on the size of the parcel).

Some sites include shipping and customs, others only shipping, and none includes clearance fees.

Sounds like a headache, which is why Postbox Courier will handle that all for you.

Be extra aware to avoid fraud:

Dodgy URLs contained in emails e-mail complete with legitimate retailer logos and fonts could be a scam:

“Always type a retailer’s address into your browser to avoid being redirected to a fake site. And be on the lookout for the all-important https:// (as opposed to https://). The “s” stands for secure – so that one little letter is crucial to your online safety.”

That’s type, don’t click.

Ask, “Can I return this item?”

Check out a company’s returns policies before you buy – it is not legally obliged to take back a product if it is not defective. If they do, they have total discretion over terms and conditions. But if something you’ve bought on a Black Friday promotion turns out to be faulty, you have full Consumer Protection Act returns rights – you get to return it, at the company’s cost, for your choice of a refund, replacement or repair.

Now that you have that all under control, shall we return to the international postbox? It really is the most exciting thing about this whole article.

You see, Postbox Courier is reliable, quick, and easy to use:

To get involved, you just need to follow these simple steps:

• Sign Up
  Register free of charge with Postbox Courier via their website. They will assign you with a Personal Postbox at each of our worldwide depots. Look out for the confirmation email which provides a link to activate your account.
• Sign In
  Once you have activated your account, you will be able to login to view your unique Postbox addresses, by clicking the “View your Personal Postbox addresses” banner. Your addresses are permanent, so you can save them and start sending items to your Postbox!
• Notify us of incoming items
  Each time you send something to Postbox Courier, please notify them via the Parcel Pre-Alert (in your Parcel Manager).
• Manage your orders
  You can ship single items or multiple pieces combined into a single shipment. If you do wish to consolidate orders from different suppliers (in the same origin country), you will be able to do so in your Parcel Manager. Just notify them of each shipment that is en-route to your Postbox, and then use the ‘Group’ button to let them know which items you wish to combine.
• Pay for shipping
  Once they receive the items that correspond with your booking they’ll let you know via email and invite you to login to your Parcel Manager and make payment, upon which they will courier your items to your door within South Africa immediately.

Use the code PBC-15%BFand2OV-Nov17 for anything shipping from the US, and you will get a 15% discount off the shipping price.

Here are a few things to note:

*On request for payment the voucher can then be inserted and any balance in the charges will then need to be made by the customer in order to affect delivery.
**Please note that this discount voucher is towards the shipping charges only which are calculated at time of despatch from our depot, and not for any purchases of items to vendors. It also does not cover any local customs duties that may be incurred from the importation of the item.
*** Contact their customer services at customersupport@postbox-courier.com to determine whether duties will be applicable before making any purchases to avoid any surprises once the goods arrive in the country.

Got it? Great. Have fun!