Ignoring Black Friday sales is no longer an option for retailers. So now they’re getting tactical

Jo Turner and Sarah Scott-Hunter, co-founders of premium activewear label LNDR, are holding a Black Friday sale this year: 30 per cent off everything for 30 days.

There’s nothing exceptional about that as most Australian retailers will be flogging deals of their own during the mega-sales phenomenon that is getting longer, delivering deeper discounts and picking up momentum as more businesses jump on board.

Jo Turner, managing director of LNDR, has changed her approach to Black Friday over the years.Credit: Paul Harris

But it’s a decision the LNDR founders have considered carefully, and it’s an about-turn on the views they once held. “We used to do campaigns about how we didn’t do Black Friday,” Turner told this masthead.

That was 2020. The following year, they did “Navy Friday” with the small amount of stock they had and sold out straight away. Potential customers might mull a decision for 18 months before committing to buy from LNDR, which at $125.30 for a pair of leggings sits at the pricier end of activewear.

“The reality for us is these notorious discount periods like Black Friday are key for us to converting all those people that have been considering [a purchase] for a while,” said Turner, daughter of Flight Centre founder Graham “Skroo” Turner.

“We have then over the last couple of years decided that this is a necessary part of our growth and how we get more people into our products.”

Business owners and retail operators are overhauling sales strategies and old mindsets as they observe a swell of customers shifting much of their Christmas shopping to earlier and earlier in November. Savvy shoppers, forced by the rising cost of living to budget more carefully, are holding back their discretionary and gift purchases and drawing up wish-lists in anticipation for the wave of discounts they know is coming.

In the four days between Black Friday (the last Friday of every November) and Cyber Monday, Australians are expected to spend a record high of $6.7 billion, a 5.5 per cent uptick on the year before. The extended shopping bonanza, which is now said to be bigger than Boxing Day, began in the US in the 1970s following Thanksgiving celebrations. It was dubbed Black Friday as a way to bring ailing retailers “into the black”. Since tech giant Apple brought the sales period to Australia in 2013, it has been growing year-on-year.

Shoppers walk past a Black Friday sign at David Jones, Melbourne, in 2023: Black Friday is getting bigger every year.Credit: Elke Meitzel

But the discount frenzy, which some economists have said cannot go on forever, comes as retailers’ profit margins are being stretched thin while contending with higher operating costs for energy, fuel, labour, raw materials and more. Meanwhile, shoppers are buying less, trading down, turning to ultra-cheap Chinese retailers such as Temu and Shein, and taking up good deals.

Businesses have had to be more deliberate and tactical with their mark-down strategy to entice Australians to part with their money, according to Carla Penn-Kahn, chief executive of the ecommerce insights platform Profit Peak.

“Retailers are increasingly focused on product-specific discounts rather than applying broad discounts across their entire range,” she said.

“One of the key strategies emerging is the use of varying discount levels depending on factors like product sell-through rates [amount of inventory sold in a specific period], stock availability and popularity.

“This is a smart move as it avoids deep discounting on best-selling products, which could lead to [shortages] and leave retailers with less desirable inventory.”

At the top end of town, major retailers are eager to convey that they provide value for money, and are sticking to traditional markdown methods. Department store David Jones is offering a suite of deals that differ across categories and brands that vary in depth and timing; JB Hi-Fi began its “blitz” on November 21. Its Perks program members are given early access to online deals. “Black Friday is now the leading retail sales event,” said JB Hi-Fi managing director Cameron Trainor.

Promotions are starting weeks in advance, says Penn-Kahn, in an attempt to capture consumer dollars as early as possible before sales fatigue sets in. Amazon Australia kicked off Black Friday sales on November 19. Data crunched by Shippit shows the biggest day of sales during the Black Friday period is actually six days before Black Friday itself (which falls on November 29 this year).

“By being more discerning with discounting, retailers can protect their margins and ensure they’re not left with stock that’s harder to shift,” Penn-Kahn said.

‘No bullshit’: One size does not fit all

LNDR co-founder and head of sales Sarah Scott-Hunter.Credit:

Retailers are marching to their own beat. While some are staggering price cuts, LNDR’s site-wide approach pushes back against discounts with conditions and caveats.

“A lot of brands we see especially in Australia [do] ‘final sale’, or five different sales through November … and kind of create that crazy sense of frenzied urgency all the time,” Turner said.

The duo is keen to turn down the noise. “We just try and work around that kind of trickery,” she said.

“There’s no final sale,” Scott-Hunter added. “We just really wanted to stay true to our core value, which is no bullshit. We want them to buy slowly.”

To preserve margins and meet consumer expectations, some retailers are doing things differently. Julie Mathers, founder of baby clothing brand Snuggle Hunny, began preparing for Black Friday a year ago after reviewing some excess stock.

Not participating isn’t really an option. “Customers get hyped up about it,” she said. “We get asked multiple times a day, ‘Are you doing Black Friday?’

“We’ve created a little range particularly for it. This exclusive collection is also made from excess fabric that would just otherwise go into landfill.”

Snuggle Hunny founder and chief executive Julie Mathers has been preparing for Black Friday since last year.Credit:

Perfectly good products with minor faults that would typically have been thrown out, like prints that are slightly blurry or produced at too large a scale, will be sold exclusively during Black Friday at a discount as “Snuggle Specials”. From November 26 to Cyber Monday, on December 2, Snuggle Hunny will hold a sitewide sale of up to 70 per cent off.

Mathers sees it as a triple win: factories get paid, customers are getting a great deal and fewer items end up in landfill.

The numbers certainly stack up, if recent history is anything to go by. In September, to celebrate the ninth anniversary of the business, Mathers knocked 40 per cent off prices on her whole site for an hour.

“In that 59 minutes, our sales were about 55 times what they would be in any given day. We did over half a million dollars,” she said. “People in Perth were getting up at 4am for this.”

The mother of two expects sales to shoot up tenfold during the Black Friday period. “It shows the power of community. When you’ve got a good product, a good offer, I think if you get your strategy right, this is what you can do – in this economy.”

In Byron Bay, where LNDR is based, Turner and Scott-Hunter are expecting a fourfold increase in usual sales, but they suspect the actual figure will be higher.

“Of course, we don’t like discounting our products because we put so much into them, and we want people to see the value in buying them full price,” Turner said. “But at the same time, the thought of getting so many new customers into the products makes it worthwhile.

“Our Black Friday campaign this year is actually we hate Black Friday. Or we love to hate it.”

The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.