Which promotion drove the most sales during Black Friday 2018?

Teespring promotions should play a vital role in your sales strategy over the next few weeks. Last year, users who offered promotions from Black Friday through Cyber Monday 2018 saw their conversion rates double over this four day period. But not all promotions are created equal. Continue reading to learn which promotion type came out on top during the 2018 holiday season. 

 

What worked best in 2018 for Teespring users?

Users don’t only offer discounts during Black Friday and Cyber Monday—in 2018 promo code usage increased from November 11th all the way through December 25th. Offering a promo code can increase your conversion rates (the number of people converting or buying once they visit your listings page) by up to 60%.  Last year, the conversion rates on listings offering a discount literally doubled from Black Friday through Cyber Monday.

Keep in mind there are three different types of promotions you can create with Teespring—free shipping, a specific discount amount like $2, or a discount percent so like 10% off.  Note the free shipping promo can only be applied to US shipping only, so if you’ve got international buyers it’s best to offer a different promo type instead. 

During the 2018 Black Friday + Cyber Monday weekend the discount percent promo was the most widely used and drove the highest number of sales. Why? Because it’s the most versatile promotion available. 

Keep in mind discounts are deducted from your profit margin, if you don’t have enough profit margin the buyer cannot redeem the discount. For example, if a buyer adds a sticker to their shopping cart, a $3 discount might not work if your profit margin on the sticker is too low. Therefore it’s best to offer a percent discount (like 15% off) if you want buyers to add lots of different items to their cart.

 

Global shopping trends: Black Friday and Cyber Monday  

Black Friday (November 29, 2019) takes place the day after Thanksgiving. On this day businesses mark down prices to increase sales and kick off the holiday shopping season. In the last decade search volumes for this shopping event have sky-rocketed, with online searches for “Black Friday” increasing by 80% over the last two years according to Google. 

Traditionally an American event, the Black Friday craze has crossed the pond and is now a significant shopping event in Europe as well. In the UK for example, the total sales generated by Black Friday has been increasing significantly each year. Last year the total spend on online retail sites on Black Friday 2018 was £1.49 billion, which is a +7.19% increase on the £1.39bn spent on Black Friday 2017.

Cyber Monday (December 2, 2019)  has quickly grown to be the biggest shopping day in the U.S.–even more so than Black Friday. In 2018 Cyber Monday sales increased by 19.88% compared to 2017, with Americans spending an average of $355.47 per person between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. Similar to Black Friday, this is a trend that continues to grow globally as consumers look to capitalize on online deals.

 

Start preparing your promotions now

You can create promo codes ahead of time and set their active status to ‘off’ until it’s time to run your sale. This way you can prepare promotional assets ahead of time and even give shoppers a heads up about an impending sale. While the status is ‘off’ you can prevent people from using your discount code until you’re ready.

We typically see Teespring sellers offer sales leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. An early bird sale is a special pre-sale that offers different types of discounts. This can be a limited time discount or price drop on specific items. The key here is to NOT offer the same discounts that you plan to offer during Cyber weekend. 

For now, you can edit your products pricing by contacting [email protected] to adjust the price or if you’re in the edit listing beta, you can edit this yourself. Note we plan to give all users the ability to edit their product pricing very soon, so watch this space!