– The author advises against traditional Black Friday and Cyber Monday strategies such as massive discounts, limited edition packaging, and new product launches.
– They recommend instead focusing on partner bundles with complementary products to attract new customers.
– The author suggests using multi-use coupon codes that stay open for a period of time, which can lead to better profit margins and more repeat customers.Switch to multi-use coupon codes that stay open for a period of time to increase profit margins, attract repeat customers, and avoid pricing issues.Alex McEachern’s post got me thinking about BFCM and all the old advice I keep seeing from posts over the last few days:
– massive discount
– bundle with discount
– limited edition packaging
– new product launch
– wait until Black Friday for a massive sale
Romans Ivanovs and I also had a similar conversation. I’ve done them all. I’m not doing any of them again. The only thing I recommend is a partner bundle with another company. Complementary products where one buys them from the other and bundles them together to unlock new customers for the other one.
Why are all those methods above bad? Revenue is pumped, profits approach negative, and repeat customers are very low because they are price anchored to some incredible deal that isn’t available, so they wait and really evaluate the value of the good. (Hint: you can actually test most of these things throughout the year for people that haven’t purchased in times when most people do without waiting for a sitewide sale where existing customers are the majority that take advantage.) If you’re only selling DTC, this might work out OK with the margins, but if you’re also in retail and marketplaces, you can kill your profits long term if you’re not careful.
Real Life Example: Someone buys a lot of your products on a super sale, then waits for you to raise your prices again, then undersells you on River Company. River Company, who buys from you direct, gets mad and lowers your prices to match and sends you the difference. Big Electronics store sees your price on River Company and matches, then bills you for the difference. All while you on your own website can’t match and lose out on revenue. One sale period that netted you less profit, including losing money on some of your retail outlets, now impacts your profit margins for months on end. Your only choice is to buy back the stock that you sold out at the price of the market. This is the short-sighted nature of the business. Play the long game, margins are too tight these days to play the short game.
So what am I on to now? I’m bullish on a switch to multi-use coupon codes that just stay open for a period of time. Better profit margins, more repeat customers, no need to deal with MAP pricing issues, no need to navigate random sellers, no need to worry about discounting past that amount through other channels. And the flexibility of offering an even bigger discount directly still. It’s a complete win for everyone.To me BFCM is now an entire month and we are already chasing people with sales, you might as well just have a “pay what you want” option on your website with a minimum amount recommended. (might actually try this at some point)I love a good anti-black Friday promo aimed at a long term relationship aims at multiple purchases from the start.This is the direction we’re headed this year we’ll let you know how it goes.#marketing #ecommerce #BFCM #customerjourneyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jivanco