Black Friday Trends
5 takeaways from the craziness that is Black Friday
Introduction
Black Friday is finally here and the deals are flying fast and furious. There were a few key trends that really stood out to me over the past couple days and I wanted to share them with you all.
Top 5 Trends
Amazon Prioritizing Amazon
This isn’t surprising but should be noted. The Black Friday hero image on Amazon’s gateway page is calling out their up to 60% sale on devices that work with Alexa sale. Totally get it — my house is fully Alexa enabled, they are awesome and certainly drive additional transactions for Amazon, but how does a seller get in that type of placement? No double Amazon will hype how much the seller community drove in terms of sales and transactions, but they are paying for that prime PPC real estate (more on that below) and have none of the asymmetric advantage that Amazon gives their owned brands.
If that was the only instance of self dealing that would be one thing, but there has been a major increase in the number of PPC placements that are reserved for “Featured from our Brands”. In the example below, the #1 PPC placement is being reserved for an Amazon Elements Vitamin C listing. This example isn’t limited to consumables as I have seen this happen within a host of Amazon basic categories. Not getting the click volume you had expected? this might be why.
Prime Exclusive Discounts
I’m sure a lot of you reading this were disappointed to find that you were not selected for a Deal of the Day or that your 7 Day or Lightning Deal fell out of the Turkey 5 window. If that is the case, I hope that you are running a Prime Exclusive Discount. I have found countless examples where PEDs were the promotion of last resort for sellers, and the good news is that they seem to be driving strong sales.
The example below shows a search for ‘outdoor lights’ — one while I am logged out and one where I am logged in to my prime account. In the example on the left, there is no discount and the price is $34.99 for the outdoor lighting set. The example to the right shows the Black Friday Deal badge and a $27.99 price point. This execution will trigger a much stronger response from potential customers and should drive conversion in a big way.
Not all Categories are Taking Off During Turkey 5
Not all categories are created equally and peak during different times of the year. One of the brands that I’m involved with sells a consumable listing and their strongest month of the year is March. They had moderately aggressive projections for the Turkey 5 time period and are trending behind their targets, but that is OK. Search volume (used as a proxy for demand) has fallen off pretty significantly and because of that the amount of customer we are able to serve is capped.
We could push harder into secondary keywords and lower efficiency terms, but why throw good money after bad? The goal is to maximize profit, not top-line sales and because of that we are going to stick with the plan, focus on our high efficiency keywords and keep grinding out all of the orders we can.
Off Amazon Ads are driving Amazon Sales
I think everyone knows that the cost of advertising on Amazon has gone through the roof and Black Friday only exacerbates that problem. To combat that, I have seen numerous brands use their owned channels to promote their amazon offers.
I was expecting a certain amount of email pushing Amazon offers, but what surprised me was the amount of SMS and messenger sends that I received for all types of promotions (lightning deal, coupon, Deal of the Day). These are typically the highest ROI channels so I would imagine this trend accelerate over the next 12 months.
Brands are Doing More Than Discounting
When it comes to Black Friday, everyone’s first through is on how big of a discount a brand offering, but that is not the only way provide value to a customer. I love what Melin is doing by promoting a new and limited time release for their BF offer. No discount or margin erosion, just something new and exciting for customers to obsess over.
The other brand that is doing this well is Allbirds, a DTC native shoe brand focused on sustainable production. They too went with a limited release promotion and I would bet dollars to donuts that they *quickly* sell through their current inventory.
Bonus: Use Black Friday to Drive Future Purchases
Rather than having a single focus on Black Friday, I have noticed an increasing number of brands look to leverage the Turkey 5 shopping window to drive sales now *and* in the future. By giving gift cards with specific dollar threshold promotions, you are able to drive customers to spend more than they otherwise would AND drive a second transaction at a later date. Apple is probably the most well known example of this practice, but I have notice a few other brands include KION coffee start this practice. Very smart way to think long-term around your promotional planning.
Conclusion
We are almost 40% through Turkey 5 so if you are having your best sales volume ever — keep your foot on the gas and capturing that demand. If you are starting slower than you wanted, try to increase your email sends or test some SMS campaigns to try and move the needle. Good luck and happy selling!
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