Black Friday Round-up

Yes, I know I'm about a fortnight late is publishing this, but oh well...


- Young Adult Money: How to Find the Best Cyber Money Deals, Rachel Foxwell
- Young Adult Money: Best Black Friday Deals of 2016, Chonce Maddux

- Passion for Savings: Heather has an excellent roundup of Black Friday deals


And, a blast from the past, by Tyler Sickmeyer:

Marketing Strategies For Black Friday And Small Business Saturday
As Thanksgiving approaches, two other big days are on the minds of business owners and brand managers everywhere: the traditional behemoth that is Black Friday and American Express’s younger and growing venture known as Small Business Saturday.

These two shopping days, combined with Cyber Monday, make the post-Thanksgiving weekend one of the most important of the year for many retailers. It’s important for a business to have its collective act together well in advance of the holiday weekend. Here are some things to keep in mind as you prepare your business for the weekend:

Engage Your Customers In Advance: Don’t wait until the week of and expect a newspaper ad to carry you through the weekend, unless you’re Walmart or Macy’s. Engage your customers via email and social media a week in advance so that they can make arrangements to come by.

Pick Your Battles: It may be wise to cede Black Friday to the big box stores and focus on Small Business Saturday, especially if you’re not offering spectacular deals. Black Friday is typically reserved for the purported lowest prices of the year, while Small Business Saturday carries a more emotional call to action and deals don’t necessarily carry the day.

Accommodate Your Customers: For restaurants, this means opening early Friday as shoppers could be ready for “lunch” as early as 9am after beginning to shop at 4am and often standing in line long before that. For others, it may mean letting your deals run past the customary noon deadline so that customers don’t have to choose between your pet store’s specials and Best Buy’s door-buster sales.

Staff Accordingly: Make sure that you have enough staff to cover the rush; the last thing a business can afford is to make a lasting negative impression by being ill-prepared for the crowds. It’s far better to be over-staffed and overwhelm customers with great service at a time when service is scarce than to alienate them from returning.

Note: This article by Tyler Sickmeyer is borrowed from the Fidelitas Development blog. As with all material here, the embedded hyperlinks were added by me, and didn't appear in the original piece.