The Hlídač shopů (Shop monitor) tool has been tracking retail prices for seven years now, and we've had laws about honest discount reporting for the past two years. This has really cleaned up how major Czech e-shops advertise their sales - most of the big stores we track now play by the rules. But there are still some bad actors out there. Some e-shops try to look like they're following the new rules while actually bending them, and others just completely ignore them.

Looking at this year's Black Friday data, we'll show you how some Czech e-shops either can't figure out honest discount reporting or just don't want to. Plus, we'll check out how these new foreign marketplaces are totally ignoring European pricing rules.

First, let's get into our standard Black Friday stats from Hlídač shopů:

The e-shops that earned three stars are fully compliant with the new law and show genuine discounts. This includes the usual suspects - Alza.cz, Benu.cz, Datart.cz, KnihyDobrovsky.cz - plus a newcomer, Lekarna.cz. Most sales averaged around 20%, which is in line with previous years. KnihyDobrovsky.cz's unusual 3% average discount is due to them running Black Friday in two separate waves.

E-shops with fewer stars showed various issues with the new rules, which we'll break down below. We'll also look at other e-shops on our radar that couldn't make it into our overview table because we can't track their entire inventory.

Ongoing issues with Czech online e-shops

Some Czech e-shops are still trying various marketing tricks to lure customers with unrealistic discounts. Take Pilulka.cz as an example. On a single product page, we counted five different types of "discounts": a black crossed-out price, a pink crossed-out price, an in-store price, an "app" price, a Pilulka price, a super price, and finally, a green "Sale" label that doesn't even show any discount amount.

It's not surprising then that we found Black Friday "deals" advertising 9% discounts on products that actually cost 17% more than before Black Friday. Here's one example with a laundry detergent:

TetaDrogerie.cz took the opposite approach to Black Friday this year. They completely stopped showing discount amounts on sale items, even though regulations require displaying discounts for all items on sale. Take this air freshener in their Black Friday category - all you see is "Sale valid until: December 3, 2024" with no information about the actual deal. The reason might be that this product's price was increased by 30% at the start of Black Friday - its first price increase in three years.

Kaufland.cz represents another unique case. While they completely ignored the new rules last year, this year, they're showing the required minimum pre-sale price - but still not following regulations correctly. Let's look at a metal shelf rack with an automatic 15% Black Week discount. At first glance, the store shows a 15% discount calculated from the crossed-out price (actually, there are two crossed-out prices). However, looking at the listed minimum price for the past 30 days, we can see the product costs the same as before the sale. According to regulations, discounts must be calculated from this minimum price, which means the actual discount should be zero.

AAAauto.cz provided an interesting case this Black Friday. While they calculated discounts correctly throughout the year, when Black Friday started, they switched crossed-out prices back to original selling prices from when cars were first listed. The new rules do account for gradual price reductions, allowing sellers to reference the original price before the first discount. However, this case of reverting to original prices specifically for Black Friday is unusual. Take this BMW - it showed a 3% discount before Black Friday, then jumped to 27% when Black Friday started, with no change in the actual selling price.

At Notino.cz, we spotted a discrepancy between their advertised discounts and actual website prices. An advertisement for mascara on iDNES.cz claimed a 31% discount, but clicking through to the e-shop showed only a 5% discount.

New foreign players have set us back a few years

The arrival of foreign marketplaces has become a major topic in Czech e-commerce, taking billions in revenue from our market. They offer huge selections on cluttered websites and show little interest in following European rules, focusing more on blocking price monitoring.

Our analysis of the biggest new marketplaces in our market shows disappointing results. None display required minimum pre-sale prices, almost everything is marked as "on sale," and discount amounts change frequently without affecting actual selling prices. From our perspective, this takes us back 7 years to when Shop Monitor first launched.

Here's an example from Temu.cz - a women's jumpsuit we tracked throughout November. It started at CZK 229 with a "25% off" from a "latest price" of CZK 309. Two days later, the price stayed at CZK 229, but suddenly showed "50% off" from a new "latest price" of CZK 465. The next day, the price increased to CZK 279 with only an MSRP of CZK 674 shown. On November 26, it entered Black Friday at CZK CZK 275, keeping the CZK 674 MSRP, with no minimum pre-sale price shown - only a "limited-time offer." Under current regulations, they should have shown a negative discount for Black Friday.

Another new player in our market is Turkish Trendyol.com, owned mainly by China's Alibaba Group. Trendyol doesn't bother with new rules or Black Friday standards. This pajama set cost four times more during Black Friday than it did two weeks before the sale. Looking at this product's pricing throughout November reveals several issues:

• The product price increased while showing a 55% discount without displaying the minimum pre-sale price.
• They increased the crossed-out price (and raised the product price again) when adding it to Black Friday deals labeled as "mega discount".
• The crossed-out price changed when adjusting the sale price while keeping the same discount percentage.
• They doubled the price (actually quadrupled compared to pre-Black Friday) while still marking it as a Black Friday deal.

It's worth noting the pre-Black Friday message stating, "Only 1 piece left." These marketing tactics are interesting overall. For example, this product was supposedly purchased by 16,000 people in the last three days, yet only 2,000 pieces were sold.

We found a perfect example of Black Friday abuse on Aliexpress.com. During Black Friday, you could buy this shoe rack for CZK 262 with an advertised 74% discount. The store claimed you would save CZK 757. However, two weeks before Black Friday, you could get the exact same shoe rack on the same website for less than half the price - specifically CZK 109 with an advertised 89% discount.

What we'll focus on next

The biggest current challenge comes from new foreign marketplaces selling in the local market without following domestic laws. This issue resonates across the European Union, as evidenced by our project with the European Commission, where we're helping monitor compliance with rules derived from European directives.

For Czech e-shops, we're currently examining the widespread use of blanket discount coupons throughout the year. While most e-shops now show minimum pre-sale prices when these coupons are used, they haven't started including these coupon prices when calculating minimum prices for future sales.

The Hlídač shopů non-profit project is operated by Apify, TopMonks, Keboola, and hckr.studio. You can find Black Friday analyses from previous years here: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, and 2017. For an interesting look at how trends have evolved over time using our data, check out Datavize's data analysis.