Black Friday: Scam or Steal?

Black Friday has become synonymous with incredible deals and shopping frenzy. It marks the beginning of the holiday shopping season, where retailers offer massive discounts to attract customers and boost sales. As a marketer (and a critical consumer), it’s essential to be on the look out for common ways that businesses get consumers to spend more money.

Early Access and Exclusive Deals

Creating a sense of exclusivity also works in driving anticipation and urgency among consumers. Offering early access to Black Friday deals for loyal customers or providing exclusive discounts through email or loyalty programs can incentivize purchases and foster customer loyalty. It also incentivizes shoppers who may be dormant for most of the year but are willing to shell out during the holidays, ensuring that your business is getting their money first.

Inflating anchor prices to trick customers (a common yet very illegal practice)

As consumers, this is one of the major things to look out for. Oftentimes, retailers will inflate the ‘original price’ written on the tag and make the sale price the actual price (maybe even a little higher sometimes), to make the customers feel as though they are saving money even when they are not! This type of deceptive pricing is difficult to avoid because consumers are not tracking prices of every item closely but nowadays, there are all sorts of extensions on Google that can help with this. A personal tactic that I use is keeping an eye on big-ticket items that I am looking at for the season and putting a tracker on those so I can tell when they have really dropped and can buy them at the best possible time. For smaller items, I try to reason my way through it by asking questions such as “If it wasn’t on sale, would I still buy it for 30 dollars?” (in regards to an item that has an original price of 40 dollars). You can read more about this issue in this Washington Post article.

Omnichannel Experience

Providing a seamless omnichannel experience is key to capturing customers' attention during Black Friday. This means integrating your online and offline channels, allowing customers to browse and purchase products seamlessly across multiple touchpoints. Offering options like click-and-collect and in-store pickups can enhance convenience and customer satisfaction. Online shopping is more prominent than ever so it is key for companies to incorporate that into their sales strategy.