Black Friday Discounts Brought Me Orders but No Profit

Axel.Gaudin

Black Friday is in a month and I have to decide this week if I do it or not because setting up the coupons and the Mailchimp emails takes me a few evenings.

Last year I did 25% off on everything. Orders went up a lot, the shop looked busy. I was happy during two days. Then I did the numbers with the Stripe and PayPal fees, the shipping, the extra packaging and there was almost nothing left !

Also most of those customers never came back, they just wanted the deal.

So this year Im thinking, if I do it, maybe only on a few products or a small free gift instead of a discount. Or I skip it and just send a normal email to my list, thats an option too.

Who's joining in this year and how are you doing it so it's still worth it ?

Thanks

joshuastewart3423

I am going to join too, but I am keeping it small. One weekend with one single discount. Nothing longer than that! For the emails I am drafting three of them with an AI chat, with last year's emails as the example and then I rewrite them by hand. I'll see afterwards if it worked.

If it works out and I'm happy with it, I'll definitely do it again next year. If not then maybe I just stop doing it.

rustypebble

I'm skipping it again this year: my margin simply cannot take another discount at the moment... Plus my customers buy in December anyway, so I don't see the point of giving it away in November.

Have you checked whether your December sales dropped last year after the Black Friday rush, or did they stay the same? :p

joshuastewart3423

Fair point. I do a free gift with orders above a certain amount instead of a discount as well. And it costs me a lot less than 25% off. You still get to join in with all the Black Friday noise, just without giving your margin away.

Axel.Gaudin

Love the free gift idea as well. I will do a free smaller gift with a minimum order value without any discount and check the results vs previous year.