What We Learned From BFCM

We wrapped up the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales this week, and I wanted to share some lessons we learned.

We tried a few different ideas this year, and here’s what worked (and what didn’t).

Our First Idea: Early Black Friday Gifts

We started early on November 8th to spread out orders and avoid getting swamped on one or two big days. Here was our offer:

• Spend $30 → Get a $10 gift card

• Spend $50 → Get a $20 gift card

• Spend $80 → Get a $40 gift card

The goal was to let people use the gift cards later or give them as Christmas gifts. Existing customers (people who’ve bought from us before) loved this! But we ran into some problems:

1. Tech Glitches: The app we used gave customers too many gift cards by mistake. For example, someone spending $80 got $10, $20, AND $40 gift cards instead of just $40. This confused a lot of people, and we had to fix things by hand, which took forever.

2. New Customers Didn’t Care: People who hadn’t shopped with us before weren’t excited about saving money later. They wanted savings right now.

Because of this, we stopped the offer after about two weeks and tried something else.

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Our Second Idea: Simple Discounts

For Black Friday week, we made it super simple: 30% off everything. No codes, no rules, just lower prices. This worked really well:

1. New Customers Loved It: People who were shopping with us for the first time liked the clear, instant discount.

2. Bigger Orders: Our regular customers bought even more than usual, and the larger order sizes balanced out the discounts.

3. No Tech Problems: Without complicated apps or rules, everything ran smoothly.

What We Learned

1. People Want Savings NOW: Discounts that show up right away are way better than gift cards or deals for later.

2. Keep It Simple: The easier it is for customers to understand the deal, the better they’ll feel about shopping.

3. Existing Customers Love Deals Too: Our regulars were happy to save money on things they planned to buy anyway.

A Cool Surprise

Our best sales day wasn’t Black Friday or Cyber Monday—it was the Sunday in between! We had great email open rates that day, and it turned into our biggest sales day ever.

For Christmas, we’re testing discount codes, but honestly, slashing prices might be the way to go from now on.

I hope you found this helpful for your own sales ideas! If you’ve tried anything similar, I’d love to hear how it went.

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