Black Friday marketing: which offers (really) work best?

A 30% discount across an entire catalogue can be extremely effective at attracting attention. It can also significantly reduce margins on products customers would have purchased at full price.

When developing a Black Friday marketing strategy, the first decision should therefore focus on the commercial objective behind the promotion.

Do we want to acquire new customers, increase average order value, sell complementary products or clear excess stock? Each objective may require a different offer.

In its guide to Black Friday promotions for 2026, Shopify outlines several possibilities, from bundles and tiered discounts to gifts with purchase and exclusive promotions.

The choice should be based on profit margins, customer behaviour and the characteristics of the product catalogue.

An ecommerce business selling products frequently purchased together has different opportunities from a premium brand or a retailer whose customers make infrequent purchases.

The aim is to create a promotion that makes purchasing attractive while remaining commercially sustainable.

Percentage or fixed discounts: which should you choose?

The most straightforward promotional mechanics remain percentage discounts and fixed-amount reductions.

A 20% discount is easy to recognise and communicates a saving proportional to the product's price. A £20 discount, meanwhile, makes the absolute saving immediately clear.

On a £100 product, both deliver the same financial result, but customers may perceive them differently.

The choice also depends on product positioning and average selling price.

For lower-priced items, a percentage discount may feel more immediately understandable. For expensive purchases, expressing the saving in pounds can make the benefit more tangible.

What matters most is clarity around the final price: customers should immediately understand what they will pay and under which conditions.

For catalogue-wide promotions, it is also important to consider the impact of applying the same discount to products with very different margins.

A reduction that works for one category may become unprofitable for another.

Black Friday bundles: increasing average order value

Bundles allow retailers to combine several products into one offer, often at a lower price than buying the items separately.

Consider a beauty ecommerce store: a cleanser, moisturiser and serum could be offered as a complete skincare routine.

Alternatively, an electronics retailer might bundle a device with its most useful accessories.

The benefit for customers is clear: a more complete purchase, with complementary products and a saving on the overall price.

For the merchant, bundling can help increase Average Order Value (AOV) while encouraging customers to purchase related products.

In its BFCM 2026 strategies, Shopify highlights Crown Affair's use of promotional bundles instead of applying blanket discounts across its catalogue.

The interesting aspect is how the offer focuses on a specific combination of products with a clear commercial proposition.

However, retailers still need to ensure that bundled products are genuinely relevant to customers and that the combined price leaves sufficient margin.

A bundle works when its overall value is immediately apparent, without forcing customers to buy products they do not really need.

Tiered discounts: how can they increase AOV?

Another option is to increase the financial incentive as the order value rises.

For example, a promotion could offer:

• 10% off orders over £80;
• 15% off orders over £120;
• 20% off orders over £160.

This structure can encourage customers to add more products to reach a higher discount threshold.

It is particularly relevant for catalogues containing complementary products or items that are naturally purchased together.

However, the financial impact of moving customers between tiers needs careful consideration.

Someone already planning to spend £150 might add a low-value item to unlock 20% off their entire order. In some cases, the additional discount can absorb the margin generated by the higher basket value.

The strategy therefore requires retailers to model the economics of each threshold, using historical order data and the distribution of AOV.

Communication should remain simple too: conditions, eligible products and whether different offers can be combined should be immediately understandable.

Free delivery and spending thresholds: when are they worth it?

Free delivery is one of the most common incentives used to encourage purchases.

During Black Friday, it can also motivate customers to add products to their baskets.

Imagine an ecommerce business with an AOV of £65 and a free delivery threshold of £79.

A customer with £70 in their basket might be encouraged to add a complementary product to avoid paying delivery charges.

As Shopify explains in its shipping strategy guidance, spending thresholds can help increase order value, provided the delivery cost remains sustainable for the retailer.

The threshold should therefore be close enough to customers' usual purchasing behaviour to feel achievable.

Logistics costs must also be considered: free delivery for the customer still represents an expense for the business.

If a promotion already includes substantial discounts, adding free delivery without reviewing margins can reduce profitability even further.

Gifts with purchase, early access and exclusive offers

Black Friday also creates opportunities to use incentives beyond direct discounts.

A gift with purchase, for example, can increase an order's perceived value by including a complimentary product.

For a skincare brand, this could be a travel-sized product. For a fashion retailer, it might be an accessory related to the item purchased.

The cost of the gift should be assessed against the expected improvement in conversions or order value.

Another approach is early access, allowing loyal customers or loyalty programme members to shop promotional offers before everyone else.

This can be useful for rewarding existing customers and spreading demand across several days.

Time-limited offers can also work well, particularly for selected products.

However, any claims about limited availability must reflect genuine commercial conditions. Misleading countdown timers, artificial scarcity and unclear promotional promises can damage trust in the brand.

The strongest promotion offers a credible, understandable benefit that fits the identity of the ecommerce business.

How much can you discount without losing profitability?

Increasing conversions is only useful when the financial result remains sustainable.

Every offer should therefore be assessed against product costs, logistics, advertising acquisition costs and the remaining contribution margin.

Consider a simplified example.

An order generates £100 in revenue excluding VAT. The products cost £50, fulfilment costs £10 and acquiring the customer costs another £15.

Before any discount, the business retains a £25 contribution margin, excluding additional expenses.

Apply a 20% discount and, assuming all other costs remain unchanged, that margin falls to just £5.

The promotion might still make commercial sense, particularly if the business is acquiring a customer with a strong likelihood of purchasing again. However, that expectation should be supported by evidence.

To evaluate the offer properly, it is useful to distinguish between revenue, AOV, margin per order and customer acquisition cost.

A bundle that increases basket value by 25% may prove more attractive than a catalogue-wide discount that increases order volume while leaving very little profit.

The central question is: how much additional value does the promotion generate after accounting for the cost of its incentives?

Black Friday pricing and discounts: transparency matters

An effective offer also needs to be communicated accurately.

In the UK, promotional pricing is subject to consumer protection requirements and advertising standards designed to prevent misleading savings claims.

In its Black Friday guidance published in October 2026, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) reminds advertisers that discounts such as "50% off" or "Save £100" must be genuine and supported by reliable evidence.

The CAP guidance on promotional savings claims also explains that reference prices should reflect a genuine, established usual selling price.

For example, a retailer advertising a product as "Was £100, now £60" should be able to substantiate that £100 was a genuine usual selling price.

The ASA considers factors such as pricing history, how recently and for how long the higher price applied, and actual sales data.

Unlike the specific 30-day reference-price rule applicable to many price reduction announcements in the EU, the UK framework generally evaluates the credibility and evidence supporting the price comparison.

This becomes particularly relevant when planning consecutive promotions across November, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Retailers should therefore verify reference prices, advertised discount percentages, promotional conditions and the products covered by each offer before launching campaigns.

Claims such as "Up to 60% off" also need to represent the actual range of savings available, rather than highlighting a maximum discount that applies to only a handful of products.

Clear promotional conditions contribute to customer confidence.

When the final price and the terms of an offer are easy to understand, customers have fewer reasons to hesitate during the purchasing journey.

How can you measure which Black Friday strategies really work?

When the results start coming in, revenue is usually the first metric everyone checks.

However, assessing promotional effectiveness requires looking at conversion rate, AOV, number of orders, profit margins and new customers acquired together.

An offer with a higher conversion rate might generate less profit than a promotion producing fewer orders but more profitable baskets.

It is also useful to distinguish between new and existing customers.

If an ecommerce business provides significant discounts to customers who would have purchased anyway, some of those financial incentives may have been granted without generating additional sales.

Where possible, testing with comparable groups can help establish whether a promotion creates an incremental increase in purchases.

Historical comparisons remain useful, although seasonality, changes in traffic and different levels of advertising investment must also be considered.

We previously explored wider Peak Season preparation in our guide on how to prepare your ecommerce business for Black Friday 2026.

Here, the priority is to connect results directly to the promotional mechanic being used.

Black Friday marketing: a checklist for building effective offers

Before launching promotions, I would focus on these areas:

• Commercial objective: decide whether the priority is acquisition, AOV, stock clearance or profitability.
• Type of offer: choose between direct discounts, bundles, spending thresholds and exclusive incentives.
• Financial sustainability: calculate the remaining contribution margin and the actual cost of the promotion.
• Communication: verify reference prices, conditions, duration and consistency across promotional messages.
• Measurement: prepare KPIs and comparisons to evaluate conversions, order value and profitability.

The most useful Black Friday strategies are built around real customer behaviour and commercial objectives.

Bundles, tiered discounts and spending thresholds offer different ways to increase perceived value and influence purchasing decisions during Peak Season.

The right choice depends on the catalogue, margins and the relationship with existing customers.

For ecommerce businesses, the objective is to create an offer that generates greater commercial value while keeping promotional costs sustainable.