7 Ideas to Make the Most of Black Friday for Your Business

Love it or hate it, Black Friday is a shopping phenomenon that attracts the attention of customers every year and with this year’s event being mere weeks away, you may be wondering if joining in will be the right move for your business.

We’ve come up with top tips to help your business make the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday!

#1 Start preparations now

Shoppers and customers come to the event with the expectations of bargains and deals.

You may think it is a case of slashing your prices for the day but you could do so much more. Black Friday for many brands is about clearing the stockroom but get it right, and you could create a lot more interest in your brand.

#2 Be selective

We’ve all seen the videos of crowds of shoppers flying in through doors to grab a bargain TV off the shelf but if you notice, big brands won’t have massive bargains across their entire range – they will choose a handful of products to showcase. Be selective with the products you decide to offer on the day.

#3 Make a weekend of it

Black Friday is the start of what could be a long weekend of sales and promotions for your brand. Cyber Monday is the day that many businesses offer online sales and deals and takes place on the Monday after Black Friday. Why not take advantage of this and offer a different deal on every day on the long weekend of sales?

#4 Move older stock

If you have various products hanging around in the stockroom that you want to get rid of, Black Friday could be the day you finally see it out the door! As well as a bargain price, why not spend some time repackaging items so that they look better and a more attractive find for the buyer?

#5 Website wide discount code

Some big retailers offer huge discounts across their range but many small businesses find this too big a step to take. However, many buyers are willing to support local, small businesses and so your website wide offer of 10% or 15% off items will be appreciated.

However, do your accounting before you make this offer to make sure that you are still making enough of a profit margin on items.

#6 Make more of your best sellers

In any business, there are products that fly off the shelves and others that take a little more energy to sell. Follow the advice Lord Sugar gives on The Apprentice when you discover what sells, buy more of it and keep selling it! If customers come to you for certain products, why not offer a discount off your most popular products? Great for both in-store and online.

#7 Try upselling

Is there anyone who has not eaten in a fast food chain? If you have, you will be familiar with the question ‘would you like fries with that?’ You could buy the burger on its own but for a few pence extra, you could also add fries to your order.

This is upselling, a strategy that works for many well-known brands. Cross-selling is a similar idea. Once the customer has bought the high-value item, such as the expensive perfume, upsell at the till by offering hand cream bearing the same scent or when a customer buys shoes, you offer shoe polish or protector as an add-on.

And if you have a Black Friday deal on the main item, the thought of buying a few more products from you comes easily to the consumer.

Do you take part in Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Or do you assume it is just for the big brands?