The best time to buy: a month-by-month shopping calendar

The best time to buy depends on two things: the major retail events (the January and late-June sales in France, the French Days, Black Friday in late November) and the product's life cycle, since prices often fall once a successor arrives. Periods of peak demand, such as air conditioners during a heatwave or popular gifts just before Christmas, are rarely good times. The calendar below gives you the year's landmarks; the price history of the product you want then tells you whether the moment is genuinely right.

This guide is a starting point: where we have one, each section links to our detailed guide for that category. Dates and events are those of the French market.

When is the best time to buy for less?

There is no magic month that works for every product. Three mechanisms explain most price drops:

• Sales events: they concentrate offers into a few days or weeks, with discounts that are sometimes real, sometimes cosmetic.
• Range refreshes: when a new model comes out, the old one is cleared. That is often where the best value lies.
• Seasonal demand: a product usually costs more when everyone wants it at the same time, and less out of season.

The smart habit is to combine all three for each purchase, rather than waiting for an event on principle.

The month-by-month buying calendar

This table sums up the usual patterns in France. Treat it as qualitative guidance: a specific product can drop outside these windows, or fail to drop during them.

Month	Key events	Often worth it for
January	Winter sales (January 6 to February 2, 2027)	Appliances, last year's TVs, fashion, bedding
February	End of the sales, quiet period	Final markdowns; a good month to note reference prices
March	New TV ranges start arriving	Outgoing-generation TVs
April	Spring French Days (usually late April or early May)	Tech, small appliances; air conditioners and fans before the heat
May	French Days continue in some years, May bank holidays	Garden and outdoor gear, e-bikes and scooters early in the season
June	Summer sales start (June 23, 2027); Amazon Prime Day in 2026	Appliances, fashion; avoid a panic air-conditioner purchase
July	Summer sales end (July 20, 2027)	Last summer markdowns; end-of-season summer gear
August	Back to school	School supplies, laptops (back-to-school deals, but high demand)
September	Autumn French Days (September 7-14 in 2026); new iPhones usually unveiled	Previous-generation smartphones, laptops
October	Amazon Prime Big Deal Days (October in recent years)	Noting prices before Black Friday; tech
November	Singles Day (November 11), Black Friday (November 27, 2026), Cyber Monday (November 30, 2026)	Tech, consoles, appliances, toys
December	Christmas: peak demand	Poor timing for in-demand gifts; plan your sales list

The big sales events of 2026-2027

Here are the known dates or usual windows of the events that shape the year, as of this update:

• Black Friday: Friday November 27, 2026, followed by Cyber Monday on November 30. Method and pitfalls in our Black Friday 2026 guide.
• Winter sales 2027: Wednesday January 6 to Tuesday February 2, 2027, except in four north-eastern départements and overseas. See the winter sales 2027 guide.
• French Days: two editions a year, spring and autumn. The autumn 2026 edition ran September 7 to 14; 2027 dates have not been announced. Details in our French Days guide.
• Summer sales 2027: Wednesday June 23 to Tuesday July 20, 2027, under the official calculation rule and unless changed.
• Prime Day: for Prime members only, it ran June 23 to 26, 2026 in France. The timing can change from year to year.

Worth remembering: only the soldes are a state-regulated sales period in France. The other events are commercial operations where each retailer sets its own offers.

The life-cycle rule: buy when the replacement arrives

For tech and some appliances, the launch calendar often matters more than the promotions calendar. When a new generation arrives, retailers want to clear the previous one, whose specs are frequently very similar.

Examples of product cycles

• Apple smartphones: new iPhones are usually unveiled in September, making previous models more attractive. See when to buy an iPhone.
• TVs: new ranges generally arrive in spring, pushing last year's models out. See when to buy a TV.
• Laptops: processor refreshes and back-to-school season create regular windows. See when to buy a laptop.

Before buying an end-of-line model, compare spec sheets: if the new version brings only a minor change, the old one is often the better deal.

When to buy by product category

Home appliances

Large appliances mostly follow the sales and Black Friday, with extra care for devices whose demand spikes in summer. Our guide on when to buy home appliances covers each family of devices.

Seasonal products

Simple rule: buy before the season or at its end, never at the peak. Choose an air conditioner in spring rather than on the first day of a heatwave, when stock runs out: see when to buy an air conditioner. The same logic applies to heaters in winter or garden equipment.

Gifts and toys

The weeks before Christmas concentrate demand, so the most sought-after products rarely drop then. Noting prices from October and buying on Black Friday if the price is right saves you the December scramble.

Why the calendar is not enough

A "good month" does not guarantee a good price for your product. The same traps come back every year:

• a price raised well before an event, then "discounted" during it;
• a struck-through price that refers to a recommended retail price rather than the price actually charged;
• a displayed discount that is still higher than the price seen a few weeks earlier, or at another retailer.

In France, since May 28, 2022, the struck-through price must be the lowest price the seller charged in the 30 days before the reduction (article L112-1-1 of the Consumer Code, transposing the EU Omnibus directive). That is progress, but the floor says nothing about earlier months. Our guide to spotting a fake discount lists the checks to run.

How to build your own buying calendar

1. List the purchases you expect this year, even distant ones: a TV to replace, back to school, a birthday present.
2. Match each one to its likely window using the table above and the product's life cycle.
3. Start tracking the price several weeks before that window, so you know its usual price.
4. Set a realistic target price based on what you have observed.
5. Buy as soon as the target is reached, even outside an event; otherwise wait for the next window.

Doing this by hand for several products over months takes discipline, and drops lasting only a few days slip by easily. That is the part a price tracker automates.

Put it into practice: never miss the right moment

UniverTrack turns this calendar into concrete alerts, product by product:

1. Paste the link of each planned product (Amazon, Cdiscount or another online store): the price is checked regularly and a dated history builds up, with past history available for Amazon.
2. Set your target price and let the "good time to buy" indicator show whether today's price is attractive compared with that history.
3. Get a price drop alert by email and buy then, whether it is during the sales, Black Friday or an ordinary Tuesday.

For a few big purchases planned over the year, the Découverte plan (up to 10 products) is enough. If you track many products across events and want to catch fake discounts, Malin is the better fit. All plans are on the pricing page and start with a 14-day free trial, no commitment.