Black Friday, Cyber Monday....Opinions?

[Justin]

Interested to know what folk think about the Black Friday sales? I sell through Etsy and they push it hard every year. I see more and more companies refusing to participate and other companies having 'non black Friday' sales! Lol.

One company I know sell expensive recycled items, great quality but very expensive. They posted on Facebook that they disagree with such sales as products should be priced 'fairly' in the first place. A valid point I thought but easy to say when your products retail for such a high price and are in great demand!

I'm on the fence right now. Obviously I see the benefits of sales and I do reduce products regularly but do we need to jump on this bandwagon yet again?

Always reminds me when I a teenager working for H. Samuel selling crap (Yes, if the MD can say it I can repeat it!) The shops were on sale 12 months of the year, we were constantly changing the banners, Xmas Sale, New Years Sale, Valentines.....you get the idea. I'm sorry to say it worked though.

I can't help but think it's a chance for companies to get rid of slow moving stock, not necessarily a bad thing. Just heard on the radio that most items in black Friday sales are no cheaper anyway, I guess you have to be careful.

[JMugs]

I work on the format of "If I was to reduce it now I am saying I was overcharging before"....so I don't do sales.

[GoonerGary]

I spent a while looking through Amazon, they have a half price Samsung SSD, but when you compare it to Kingston and Crucial, it's the same price with minimal performance difference in real life. Deleted from my basket.

Lego set, £15 cheaper than Argos...who cares? Just saved £100 not buying anything.

[Justin]

I can understand that yes. Playing devils advocate though, can you not have a genuine sale and give customers a good deal? 2 for 1, 10% off everything...you just lose some of your profit?

I think this is a lot of companies thinking from what I read, products need to be fairly priced in the first place.

[pw66]

Speaking with my retailers hat on... I found that it has destroyed the Christmas season for the small and independant retailer.

Christmas sales used to build steadily from the day after Guy Fawkes up until Christmas Eve. The last Saturday up until Xmas Eve were a real feeding frenzy.

Now since Walmart/Amazon introduced Black Friday the (non food) money has mostly been spent by early December and the rest of the month is just a plod. The biggest insult is that Walmart ( Asda) who were one of the culprits of bringing BF to the UK have given up on it.

The timing is dreadfull. The big retailers with the biggest marketing budget use BF to suck everyones bank and credit cards dry at the end of November, and Cyber Mopnday is timed to do the same to the December pay packet.

British retail being what it is - driven by accountants and city investors looking at sales figures not profit - the whole thing has taken on a life of its own and extended into a two week death march to the detriment of the rest of the Xmas season.

It is simplistic to assume that prices are any better. As with all other promotions the headline grabing discounts are simply put onto the pile of TV's etc that have been made down to a price and bought in just to be discounted. The rest of the stock is only reduced to a level that the retailer can sustain.

[Justin]

Just saved £100 not buying anything.

Love it! Can't fault you there.

[socialgiraffe]

If you were inclined to do some sort of sale then BF would be a great one to do in this industry as it is close to Christmas.

However, if you do a sale, then just do one a year and make it clear that you only do the one sale. Don't be like DFS which, as we know, permanently has a sale.

If you pushed it right it could be a good thing for your business if it is D2C


Personally I can not stand BF and the crap associated with it, but that is a personal opinion, if I were D2C it might be the one I would consider jumping on the bandwagon for. It would be the ONLY one for a year and I would use it to test new products that I had not sold before.

[webtrekker]

'Unbeatable Black Friday Sale! Get a TOTALLY FREE, sub-standard, chipped, speckled, dented, or mis-printed mug with every order! Don't miss out on this unique opportunity!'

(That's one way to get rid of all your scrap!).

[Justin]

...and they'd still complain that it wasn't shipped quickly enough!

[socialgiraffe]

...and they'd still complain that it wasn't shipped quickly enough!

Speaking of which.... Those prints arrived thanks. I will not complain about the fact that they took two days to get here which is an outrageous time to wait for a favour, next time please have them delivered two days before I ask for them....