Move over, Black Friday. Big discounts are coming in January — here's why.

January could be the merriest time of the year for shoppers this holiday season. The reason: The same supply-chain snarls that led to product shortages and fewer Black Friday discounts this year are expected to result in major savings on a range of items.

"This is the age-old problem of inventory liquidation that's going to make itself known in the form of heroic discounting," said Mark Cohen, director of retail studies at Columbia Business School. "I think that's already started and will pick up in the final days of December when it becomes untenable to ship things. In the face of somewhat of a chill because of Omicron, retailers are starting to dump goods."

Fewer products on store shelves this year meant fewer Black Friday discounts. In November, for example, only 8% of electronics products were discounted, compared with roughly 13% the previous year, according to Karthik Bettadapura, CEO of DataWeave, a retail data and pricing analytics firm. Just 3% of furniture products were discounted around Black Friday, versus 26% in 2019.