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Black Friday Sucks Now and It's Our Fault
Once a consumer favorite, Black Friday has blurred into endless online sales, leaving many buyers (and marketers) longing for its former magic.
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For many, Black Friday used to be a day filled with excitement, early mornings, and great deals at stores.
But now, shoppers say it's lost its magic — and it’s probably our fault.
Take 67-year-old Max Frazier, quoted in a great thinkpiece this morning in the New York Times. He and his wife used to spend Thanksgiving evening flipping through newspaper ads to find the best deals on toys for their grandchildren. They'd wake up super early and stand in line outside stores at 4:30 a.m., eagerly discussing their shopping plan. Now, Max says he hasn't shopped on Black Friday in at least five years.
I guess we are a little nostalgic for the fun we used to have on Black Friday because that doesn’t exist anymore.
When The New York Times asked readers about their Black Friday plans, more than 75 people responded. Most said they weren't planning to shop that day, partly because of the sales which now start early and continue into the new year.
Liz Jarvis used to love Black Friday… When stores opened, the staff would hand out coupons or prizes and make the day feel special — and yes, fun.
But something began to shift. Stores started opening earlier and shoppers began arriving bleary-eyed in the middle of the night.
“I remember a year when my husband and I got in line at Best Buy at 3 a.m. It was freezing. We took turns, with one of us holding our place in line, stamping our feet against the cold, while the other thawed out in the car until it was time to switch places. All because we needed a new TV.”
When stores moved their sales to midnight and, eventually, online, announcing them right after Halloween, Ms. Jarvis, 61, said it stopped feeling fun. These days, she and her husband have found the deals less enticing.
Marketers ruin everything.
This is, of course, all our fault. We discovered that a “surprise” day-before sale worked well, so we extended it back a few more days. Then, we invented "Black Friday Week.”
And with the online ad market so competitive (along with its benefits of knowing what the cost of each sale was), it’s no surprise the day has evolved into the loud and increasingly underwhelming day (week? month?) it has.
Fixing the day
For one, we need to make the day — literally, today: the Friday — an exciting day again. The one day customers look forward to. By watering it down and extending it by days and weeks, it loses the feeling of magic and delight.
This doesn’t mean we have to stay silent. By all means hype up the day in email marketing and on your site — you could even hint at what the offer will be. But leave the special day for the special day.
Fixing the offer
The other thing I’ve noticed is that the deals themselves have become less exciting.
I was playing around with an AI song generator yesterday and it was hyping its 40% off for Black Friday deal.
I thought 40% off is a pretty good deal, so I went for it. It was only when I was on the credit card screen when I noticed the deal was actually 40% off for the first month only. Then the full price after that.
That means if I were to sign up for a year, my actual discount would be less than 3.5%. That’s not a deal, and it certainly wouldn’t excite me as a potential buyer.
The bottom line
The famed advertising pioneer David Oglivie once said:
"You can't bore people into buying your product."
In the pursuit of sales, we’ve taken what was once a fun day for consumers, and turned it into an email box full of offers and web banners promoting less-than-exciting offers.
We’ve made it boring. Loud, but boring.
We also have the ability to change this. So next year, consider what would be surprising to your potential customers. How do you stand out amidst the sea of sales? What will you do differently on Black Friday?
You have 364 days to figure it out.
The timer starts now.
What year did the term "Black Friday" first become associated with post-Thanksgiving shopping? |
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Today’s Other News
TikTok’s Seller Discounts Are Gone
TikTok's holiday shopping push is back for a second year, but the super-cheap deals from last time are history. TikTok Shop has cut back on funding deep discounts for merchants, and has tripled its sales fee to 6%, so sellers are covering more of the costs. Live shopping, though, is a bigger deal, with creators hosting long streams from new studios in places like Los Angeles. more
Google Drops “Sitelinks” Search Box
Google has removed the Sitelinks search box from its search results, a week later than planned. This was a small search box within a web site’s SERP listing.
Initially set to disappear on November 21, the feature finally stopped working on November 27. Google says it just wasn’t being used much. The change doesn't affect website rankings or other sitelinks. Users who want to search within specific sites can now use the site's own search box or use a manual "site:" command. more
🎯 Might be a good time to make sure your site’s internal search delivers fast, relevant results. (Some web platforms are terrible at search. Don’t overlook this.)(
Canada Files Complaint Against Google’s Ad Practices
Canada's competition authority has accused Google of abusing its dominance in online advertising to create a monopoly. The agency filed a complaint asking a court to force Google to sell two of its main ad technology services and pay a fine of up to 3% of its global revenue. The case mirrors a similar antitrust lawsuit in the United States. Google denies the allegations, stating that the charges ignore intense competition in the ad tech market. more
🎯 Not a lot for marketers to do here, other than wait the lawsuits out. Though generally speaking, instability of any kind in this space makes ad pricing more volatile than usual.
Brands Plan Major Martech Upgrades
More than a third of marketing executives say they’re prepared to abandon their current martech next year. And despite the buzz around AI, only 21% say implementing marketing AI is a top objective. Martech budgets are growing (despite economic uncertainty) with nearly 65% of those polled expected increases of 5% to 20%. The big challenges: measurement, attribution, and siloed data, which hinder personalized customer experiences. read the study • more
🎯 Some companies put their marketing tech stack on annual reviews, like employees. Is your stack still doing a good job? Is it getting results? If not, it might be time to fire it.
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