Creating a Profitable Black Friday Sales Offer

November 11th 2023

Whether you are a fan of Black Friday shopping or not, billions of dollars in sales are transacted on the Friday after Thanksgiving each year. In 2022, between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, $20.4 billion was spent. 

Part of the reason for the huge spike is that some buyers hold off on purchases until Black Friday in the hopes of getting a great deal. An estimated 47% of people buy something on Black Friday that they had wanted “for a while” and end up purchasing at a discount, according to Tidio.

Although retail sales are the biggest beneficiaries of all that spending, with clothing, jewelry, and beauty products being the big winners in recent years, companies in all industries should take advantage of the opportunity to offer a special deal to their customers and prospects. 

In fact, customers may be waiting, hoping for an offer they can’t refuse from you.

Designing a Tempting Black Friday Offer

Retailers have trained consumers to expect deep discounts, freebies, or special promotions on Black Friday. Use that anticipation and excitement to offer a special deal to your customers and prospects, who may very well have been waiting for you to give them a reason to buy from you.

However, don’t get so caught up in the season that you mark your products or services down too much. You still want every sale to be profitable.

Some ways to package or repackage what you sell include:

Free Gift with Purchase

Cosmetic brands have been using this technique for decades with great success. Take a cue from them by promising a free gift with each purchase over a certain dollar amount on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That gift should be generic enough to be useful to nearly every customer, complementary to what you sell, and valuable enough to make them want to spend enough to get it.

For example, if you sell jewelry, you could throw in a jewelry cleaning solution. If you sell content, such as a certain number of articles and blog posts, you could throw in a free 90-day content calendar for every client who commits to a six-month package. Or if you run a restaurant, you could give away a free dessert with every gift card purchase. Think about what your clients would most appreciate and find a way to give them a variation that won’t cost you a lot of time or money.

Bundle Several Products Together

Another approach to providing an unbeatable deal to your target market is to bundle several items together—they can be products or services—and then discount the total retail price.

For example, if you run a beauty salon, you could offer a day of beauty that includes a haircut, color, facial, and manicure and pedicure at a price that is less than what all five services typically cost when purchased separately. If you’re a florist, you could sell a year of flowers, where the recipient receives a new bouquet of your choice on the first of every month, priced at less than what 12 arrangements would cost. Or if you’re a personal trainer, you could offer a package deal of a set number of workouts, plus a yoga mat and massage for less than what the bundle costs every other day of the year. 

Be creative! What combinations do your customers frequently buy together? Use that as your guide to bundling.

Limited Edition Product

Another option is to create something unique that will only be sold on Black Friday. 

Although not a Black Friday offer, Fisher-Price creates a limited edition Little People toy collection of Buffalo Bills football players each fall, with a portion of the profits going to a Buffalo charity. You could do something similar. A clothing retailer could make a special edition top or scarf, for example. An interior designer could sell a special edition holiday pillow or tablescape. A bakery could sell a limited edition cookie or cake. When you sell out of the item, it won’t be available again.

Charity Collaboration

You could also partner with a charity and announce that a portion of sales for the day will be donated to that organization. You could choose to donate a portion of all your sales that day or designate a specific product or service and have a portion of the sales for those items be donated.

For example, if you run a car wash, you could have 25% of all sales of monthly passes donated to your charity of choice. If you’re a gift shop, you could have sales of a particular brand set aside for the charity. Likewise for an art or craft supply shop—you could have a percentage of sales of a particular product category or brand donated.

The advantage of partnering is that the charity can support you by encouraging its donors to make a purchase from you on Black Friday. Even if you donate a portion of sales, if the charity can send you additional business, the increased volume could help replace those dollars.

Massive Discount

Of course, Black Friday is known for the steep discounts major retailers announce. Those big savings are what many shoppers are looking for, however, you don’t necessarily have to offer huge savings all day long.

Some retailers have hourly deals, where the earliest shoppers save the most. NTY Clothing Exchange Pittsford, for example, typically offers 40% off nearly everything in the consignment store for the first hour that it is open on Black Friday. However, every hour after, the percent discount declines by 10%. So, during the second hour shoppers only get a 30% discount, and the third hour it drops to 20%. That’s another way to push customers to shop early.

But don’t feel pressure to slash prices if you can’t afford it. If your margins are thin, consider hosting a special event on Black Friday instead, such as a demonstration, free class, or even just free refreshments. Make your business a Black Friday destination and you may not need to design a major sales promotion.