Hiding your Black Friday specials up until the last minute might seem like a good idea to get all the full price sales you can, but you may actually be hurting your performance.
Whether you sell Toilet Paper or Power Tools, Black Friday is all about psychology, and the opportunity for every industry to expand their customer base & increase brand loyalty is enormous.
If you’re in the consumables industry, then by holding back on your deals, you’re most likely limiting your sales to existing active customers.
Customers who would have bought from you eventually anyway, will now just wait for the discount, and while some people will stock up on Black Friday for the future (which will boost sales over the Black Friday period) that’s short-lived and just means getting a lower return on what you would have sold anyway.
Product Types & Purchasing Decisions
Very often, consumables come with an element of brand loyalty, which can really throw a spanner in the works. Consumers have their brand or their supplier, they’re loyal, and it’s not always the easiest job to sway them.
You want them to take a chance and try your product. They need convincing, and you probably need more than a day or two to do that.
The majority of people who will think to buy consumables from you on Black Friday, or check if you have a sale, are your existing loyal customers.
When it comes to infrequent, or once-off purchases, such as televisions or vacuum cleaners, people have usually been researching these big items for at least a month beforehand, and you’ll often see sales start to take a dip from around October.
People expect a Black Friday sale, and they’ll wait to see who has one on the product they want.
This willingness to wait increases in proportion to how expensive the item is, and how much of a “nice-to-have” it is. Often these products are the ones that have limited stock, so there is urgency to purchase, and your risk of losing a sale to a competitor is very high.
Get Their Attention Early
Back Friday can be a great way to expand your customer base, if done correctly.
On Black Friday, when things are chaotic and people are trying to decide where to buy from, before everything runs out, switching brands, or choosing a product other than one they’ve researched and decided on, is not likely to happen.
People want deals on the products they know, currently use and have already decided on first. Saving on their essentials is a big one, and so are discounts on bigger, luxury items they have needed or wanted for a long time.
People decide ahead of time which companies they want to look at on Black Friday, and form an idea in their mind of where they will spend their Black Friday budget.
Winning At Black Friday
The true Black Friday victory is to be the site someone visits first, with a full wallet and an eagerness to spend.
You want to be on the “sites I’m going to check out on the morning of Black Friday” list, and you need to get on that list, at least on a consideration level, earlier than the day before. This list is generally finalised in someone’s mind by the beginning of the week of Black Friday.
In addition,competition is FIERCE in those days leading up, many people won’t see your post or ads the day before because the market is just too flooded (which also drives up marketing costs) OR they are so sick of Black Friday noise.
Only your existing loyal customers will stop and be excited, and also are more likely to see your ad from an algorithm perspective.
People will assume you are going to do Black Friday deals, so regardless of whether you promote this earlier or not, they will hold out just in case. Even if you start your deals earlier than Black Friday, you will still get people who will wait because they are suspicious that you will drop your prices further on the actual day.
If you’re going to drop your prices, then make that price reduction profitable!
Sell to the people you would have otherwise missed, not those who would’ve bought from you anyway (at full price), and create opportunities for your future marketing strategies as well.
Use Black Friday to grow, not just to boost sales for a day. Make an impression early, and be at the forefront of potential customers minds on the morning of Black Friday.
Chat to your account manager about building a customised strategy that works for both you, and for your target audience.