The invitation always arrives looking like a gift. A friendly email from the category team, a slot in the Black Friday event, a banner, a badge, a promise of traffic. Black Friday falls on 27 November this year, so those emails are landing now, and most sellers reply yes before they reach the second paragraph.
Search the question and you get deal pages written for shoppers, or an Amazon promotions checklist written for somebody else. Nobody answers it from the seller’s chair. So here is the version I use. It is three questions, not a percentage.
First, is the deal actually cheaper than your own website? Marketplace prices drift upwards over a year, a fee here, a delivery surcharge there, and the “40% off” badge gets stuck on a number nobody has checked against your own shop. Shoppers check. They open a new tab, find your site and discover your everyday price beats the retailer’s headline deal. Congratulations, you have paid for a banner advertising your own website as the bargain. And in the UK the was-price has to be a price you genuinely charged, not a number inflated in October so the discount looks heroic in November.
Second, can your stock survive success? This is the one that bites. The event works, the hero line sells out on Saturday morning, and the listing drops out of the event at the exact moment traffic peaks. The placement you fought for does not wait for your restock. It goes to the competitor sitting underneath you, who now enjoys your Black Friday.
Third, what price do you go back to on the Tuesday after Cyber Monday? A deal price does not end when the event does. Shoppers remember it, price trackers remember it, and your account manager certainly remembers it, because it becomes the opening line of every promo conversation next year.
Here is what that looks like in practice. Check the deal against your own shelf. Cap the event quantity so the line is still standing on Monday. Write down the after-price before you agree the during-price.
A Black Friday slot is not free traffic. It is a price tag you agree to live with long after the banner comes down.
If this is the exact wall you are staring at, tell me what you are seeing: mail@sandeepkv.com, or message me on LinkedIn.