Black Friday, one of the bigger sales days of the year is here! Its an excellent time to get a good bargain on that thing or service that you have been eyeing out. It is also a great time to get a hold of Christmas gifts seeing as it is just around the corner. However, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday craze has for the most part only really been enjoyed by consumers in the U.S. as they could go to brick and mortar stores offering crazy bargains and fight it out with other consumers to get their hands on items on offer.

In recent years, stores have set up shop online and are offering most if not all of their Black Friday deals online. A number of these stores did not offer international shipping but in the more recent past, more and more of them have opened up their doors to the world and are now shipping internationally. There are a few that are still restricted to shoppers in the U.S. but there is a very easy work around on how to get what they have on offer to you without much of a hassle (see end of post for details).

There are already a multitude of Black Friday offers going online in the lead up to the day. With so many things to chose from, it is easy to get overwhelmed and end up in a situation where you buy way to much or do the complete opposite and not being able to decide what offers to take advantage of and not buying anything at all. How I have gotten around this problem in the past is planning! There are a handful of items that I am looking to get my hands on and to that end, I’ve done a bit of research and created a ‘Black Friday Shopping List’ in Evernote with links to the products and the dates on which the offers go live.

Here is a list of what have been the more popular items (and stores) on Black Friday in the recent past and on offer now:

Department stores/Malls

Here is a short list of department stores where you can get your hands on a variety of items. Walmart has for a number of years been one of the top go to places for Black Friday. Walmart does not ship internationally but you can make purchases on their site. They do have special instructions for when using an international credit card (click here for details) for items that you are shipping to a U.S. address (see below on how to get a U.S. address)

• Amazon.com
• Walmart.com

Clothing & Accessories

Clothing (with mens shirts and baby clothing being the more popular items) and accessories came out high on a list of favourites amongst Black Friday. Most of the sites listed in this category ship international except for Jewelry.com. To add to that, they do not accept foreign credit card but, you can get around that issue with the shipping provider further down in the post. Here is a selection of stores where you can look around for a deal:

• Nordstrom
• Forever 21
• Carter’s (babies & kids clothing)
• Jewelry.com (Up to 94% off!)

Computer & Electronics

Computers, electronics and related accessories are always a favourite. If you are looking to get a new electronic toy, good places to look include:

• NewEgg.com
• Cellular Outfitter

Toys

Toys! Kids love toys and there is no time better than the present to get a hold of some. From personal experience, this year has been big on themes such a ‘Frozen’. You are bound to find something to brighten up a kid’s life with something from the following stores:

• Disney Store
• Toys ‘R’ us

Beauty/Skin Care

Beauty and skin care products are items that most if not all of us turn to on a daily basis for personal upkeep. A number of these personal care items are high use and need to be bought regularly and if you are like me, when they are on sale, stocking up on a little extra at a lower cost is always a good idea. Take a look at:

• Drugstore/Beauty.com
• Sephora
• L’OCCITANE

How to ship your purchases from the U.S. to you

As you go about doing your shopping you will notice that some retailers already have the option to ship internationally. In some cases, they may offer free shipping and in others, it comes at a cost. You will also come across some that don’t offer international shipping but don’t fret, thats were MyUS.com comes in.

MyUS offers a service where they set you up with a U.S. shipping address that you can use to get receive your items and from there they ship your purchases to you. This is an excellent service for retailers that only ship within the U.S.. It is also a viable option even with those that ship internationally especially in a case where you have made multiple purchase from across the web. A few dollars here and there on international shipping from multiple retailers could add up to hefty bill. MyUS takes the worry out of that as you can just ship your items to your U.S. address where they upon receiving all your orders, consolidate them into one package that you make one reasonable payment on to get shipped to you where you are in the world.

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FREE Membership: SHOP the USA and SHIP Worldwide with MyUS! (Make sure to sign up today – Offer ends 30 November 2015) (you also get an extra 15% off shipping costs)

In the case retailers that don’t let allow purchase with foreign credit/debit cards, or you run into other forms of trouble when trying to make a purchase, MyUS can help out with their ‘Personal shopper’ service. What essentially happens with this service is that you give them the details of whatever it is that you can’t buy, they make the purchase for you and you submit the payment for the item to them, simple!

So there you have it. Just because majority of the Black Friday sales are taking place in the U.S. it doesn’t mean that international shoppers are excluded from getting in on the action.

Happy Shopping!