VANCOUVER -- Both brick-and-mortar stores and online merchants are working hard to keep you safe while you shop this Black Friday, but what can you do to protect yourself? Physical distancing and masks are crucial, but you also need to look out for pitfalls online.

Retailers have been preparing for this weekend for a long time and many even stretched their Black Friday sales out over the whole month, hoping to avoid “shipaggedon” – the huge onslaught of packages that will be entering the already overwhelmed postal system. 

“This will be the biggest holiday shopping season online ever,” says Eric Morris, head of retail for Google Canada. “We believe this holiday season that e-commerce will be double, at least. Probably greater for most retailers.”

Canada Post prepared by putting more delivery trucks and postal workers on the road, but there are still many people who plan to shop in person. 

Stores have hired security guards, as they do on most major shopping days. But some things are different this year. 

It’s been a tough go for Bern Tierney and his store, Parade Organics, which has two locations in Vancouver. 

“It’s been a very, very difficult year in so many ways,” he says. “Regular shop retail sales dropped off dramatically. Now, we’d be lucky to have one or two people come in every day.”

But he says online sales, which the company has set up through Shopify, have helped. 

“The shops would not have survived without that. Our store in Gastown we’re really running as a dispatch, and not as a shop anymore. It’s really been our saviour.” 

According to Google Canada, 70 per cent of holiday shoppers are at least browsing online. But when you’re looking at new stores you may never have visited before, you need to make sure the sites are legit. You don’t want to be tricked by fake websites or unfamiliar merchants. 

Watch out for lookalike websites, and make sure they're secure. It should say "https" before the web address, or have a padlock icon in Google Chrome. You should also research the site before you make any purchases. If the deal looks too good to be true on hard-to-get items, it probably is. Make sure to use traceable payment methods, like credit cards, and watch out for suspicious emails or shipment tracking notifications - they could be phishing emails. 

If you plan to shop in person, it’s important to follow distancing rules and try to avoid those who are ignoring them. Greg Wilson will the Retail Council of Canada says some stores he’s heard from have had significant disruptions. 

“There remain some difficulties at store entrances with customers who balk at wearing masks,” he says, adding it can also be tough to keep up with changing public health orders. 

“It does take consumers a few days to be aware of new rules that come out,” he says. “It impacts retailers significantly.”

But at Pacific Centre, consumers are venturing out, according to the mall’s general manager. 

“You kind of want to touch and feel the product, versus ordering online,” Lillian Trummonds says. 

Pacific Centre has hand sanitizer available, signs up asking patrons to wear masks, occupancy limits and other crowd control measures in place. And Trummonds recommends hitting the mall during off-peak hours to give yourself more space. 

“We’re hopeful for a good holiday season,” she says.