Black Friday and Cyber Monday: the pricing plan to grow sales

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are two peak sales days for many companies. When I sit down to design prices for these dates I don't think of something as basic as "put everything at 50% and that's it". I think of sales and profitability drivers such as what moves the average ticket, what triggers conversion, what protects the margin and what cleans up inventory without decapitalizing the company. That approach reminded me of a simple idea from an article I had written a while back, "The quality of your model depends on the quality of your drivers." If we understand these drivers well, price ceases to be an act of faith and becomes a tool that we can control for our benefit.

To put these dates in context, Black Friday will be on Friday, November 28, 2025 and Cyber Monday on Monday, December 1, 2025. These are two key dates, but what really makes the difference is how we connect them with the weeks before and after. The industry is no longer playing for just two days, many businesses shoot offers from mid-November or even earlier, so arriving with the price tuned to "D-day" is already late, you have to know how to anticipate and take advantage of the inertia of the following days to sell as much as you can.

1. Before touching prices, I indicate the frame I use

First, we have to align objectives between Sales and Finance. It doesn't do me any good to "sell more" if the contribution margin per order falls (which equals revenue minus product cost, shipping, and commissions). Nor does it help me to maximize the margin if it leads me to be left with an expensive stock in the warehouse. That is why I define, by category or even by SKU, a floor price, the minimum at which I can sell without breaking the expected margin at the order level. Then I leave in writing the rules of the game, how much maximum discount I allow per category, how coupons operate when they "overlap" with loyalty programs or payment methods, and how my channels (own website and marketplaces) treat according to their commission structure.

>> What is pricing and how does it differ from Revenue Management? <<

2. How I design the pricing to move the needle

I start with a simple question: what role does each product play? The products known as "heroes" bring me traffic and confidence; the "companions" raise the ticket and the "laggards" need rotation. So I don't give them all the same price treatment.

With that photo in mind, my base is usually a tiered discount by cart size. It's not just applying a "20% on everything": it's 20% for everyone and 25% if the order exceeds $150 and 30% from $300. Why? Because this increases the average ticket (AOV) and that without giving away more margin than necessary. In simple language: I invite the customer to put one more unit, not to pay less for the same basket.

The second step is made up of bundles. Instead of digging into the generic percentage, I package complementary items. I'll give you an example with clear numbers: if product A is worth $60 (costs $30) and B is worth $40 (costs $18), I can sell them in a kit for $79. Even if you pay $6 in shipping and 3% in commissions, the kit's margin is around 28.6% (about $22.63). If instead a general 25% were applied and the customer bought both separately, it would end up around 25% (about $18.75). The bundle raises the ticket and leaves more money for each order.

It's not all about immediate margin: sometimes I use a hook product to win the sale and monetize with the "attach" or add-on product – I explain it this way: attach rate is the percentage of orders that add profitable add-ons. Imagine a console at $279 whose cost and expenses leave me −$9.4 per unit (cost $270, shipping $10, commissions 3%). If 40% of those orders add a controller at $59 (≈ +$31.2 margin) and 60% add a digital game at $49 (≈ +$35.5), the average order more than compensates for the hook and ends up with a positive profit. The condition for it to work is obvious: to have the stock of accessories and the correct display on the page and in the box.

Versioning —having three versions of a solution: Good, Better, and Excellent—works especially well at this time of year. My goal is for the majority to choose the "Best", not the cheapest, which exists only to be discarded and make the "Best" seem of greater value. If the "Good" is at $49, the "Best" at $69, and the Excellent at $119, on the expected day of sales I mark the Best at $59 and leave the "Excellent" unchanged. The perception of value does the rest and the sales mix turns to the product with the best relative margin.

Lightning offers allow me to conserve margin and gain urgency. I prefer to open windows for 4 to 8 hours with 15–18% in elastic categories – basic fashion, for example – as an alternative to having 25% all day. It is incredible how a short strip with controlled stock generates peaks without eroding the average so much. For this strategy to be possible, software is needed that can make price changes automatically according to pre-established rules. Otherwise, this strategy would be unfeasible. Does your software have that flexibility?

In categories of high replenishment, I'm not afraid to apply the 3×2 —the famous "take 3 and pay 2" (in English you'll see it as BOGO when it's 2×1)—. If the prices are similar, the effective discount is close to 33%, but only when the customer actually takes the third one. In hygiene, pantry or accessories it works very well... if I exclude SKUs that could run out of stock early.

Other strategies

Another resource I use to maintain the price without losing conversion is financing or Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). Sometimes keeping a 15% discount and offering 6 interest-free installments converts the same as 25 % without installments. From Finance, the exercise is simple: compare the cost of financing with the cost of a higher percentage of discount; Financing often wins.

The gift card with bonus is a jewel for cash flow. I offer, for example, $100 in gift card. Some of these cards are not used 100% or bring future sales with better margins. And I have the cash today, when I need it most.

When I know the competition will be moving strong, I activate a price match guarantee. With fences, of course: same SKU, same country and channel, 7-day period and exclusion of settlements. That defuses the need to go deeper across the list and reduces the temptation to "compare and drop." Here too, it is necessary to have software that allows this flexibility in changing prices and to have a well-defined policy that covers possible scenarios.

It also segments the price by customer and by channel. I'm not talking about discriminating without transparency, I'm talking about rewarding those who suit me. A simple example: −15% for new ones (with a limit of −20%), −10% for recurring ones plus a detail (for example, free shipping), and on my own website I offer a moderate coupon that compensates the marketplace commission. Just remember to comply with your country's rules regarding these discount conditions.

I don't give up a little dynamic pricing, but with rules that anyone understands. If a category accumulates a lot of stock and little interest, I raise the discount by 5 points. If a SKU flies with high click-through and conversion rates, I lower the discount by 5 points and protect the margin. On shirts with 90 days of coverage I can go from −20% to −28%; on the top seller t-shirt I reduce from −20% to -15% so as not to leave money on the table. The classic game of supply and demand.

Finally, there's the classic, but ever-present psychological game: For example: "Was $129 / Today $89" works better than just saying it's "−31%" off. Of course, as long as the "before" is real and legal, otherwise credibility is lost since it is customary to inflate prices in October to lower them in November. And prices at .90 or .95 continue to help; not by magic, but because they simplify the perception of value.

3. The dashboard I look at during the campaign

To keep track of these pricing campaigns, it is necessary every day to look at certain KPIs of interest to the Sales and Finance departments. Some examples of these KPIs are: Traffic, conversion, and average ticket to understand volume. Contribution margin per order and margin per category for the health of the business. Attach rate to know if the hook is working. Out of stock items and returns so as not to promise what I can't deliver. Percentage of orders with coupon and average cash discount to check that my rules still stand. And finally, a daily cash register so you don't lose sight of the essentials.

The operative rule is simple, if I lower the discount by 5 points and the conversion does not fall, I stay with that change without thinking much about it. On the other hand, if conversion goes up, but margin per order drops too much, I compensate with bundles, cart thresholds, or financing. In other words, it is to take the daily pulse of the campaign and make adjustments according to the reading of its evolution.

4. Execution schedule

Here's an example of how you could apply these techniques in your business. In practice, you can start two weeks earlier with messages communicating future promotions and at the same time you can pre-sell for the most loyal customer base with moderate discounts. Then, you activate a 14-day price protection . The condition is that, if it drops more on Black Friday, you pay back the difference, which curbs the temptation to wait, gives confidence to the customer and brings you sales ahead of you that would otherwise be lost.

During the week leading up to Black Friday, alternate packages and some 3×2 promotions on basics, but keep the "hero" items almost unchanged or with −10%/−15% and interest-free installments. Just on Friday, November 28, he brings out sitewide discounts of −20% or −25% with staggered cart thresholds (greater discount from a certain amount, for example: −25% ≥ $150, −30% ≥ $300) and adds 2 or 3 lightning offers by time slot with measured stock. On the weekend, keep your base and rotate the packages so as not to tire people out and somehow create that sense of urgency.

On Cyber Monday, on December 1, the volume of accessories and digital devices increases by applying the "buy more, save more" and use gift cards with bonuses. The following week, you can close with a moderate "last chance" message and free shipping from a higher threshold, and reserve 3×2 to move lags, which despite all the promotions there are always some products left unsold.

5. How much discount does my margin "hold"? My mental calculator

I like to have a quick reference to make this assessment. As an example we could say that the Public Sale Price is $100, the cost $45, shipping $6, with commissions of 3%. Without a discount, the margin per order is $46.0. At a discount of −20% ($80 price), the margin falls to $26.6. To tie, conversion would need to grow around 73%. At -30% ($70 price), the margin drops even to $16.9 and the uplift I need is already close to 172%. It is important to know this to know how far to stop with the discounts and evaluate if I can reach the necessary volume so as not to sacrifice margin. It is not selling for the sake of selling, but doing so by maximizing profits.

6. I close with what I want you to take away

The famous Black Friday and Cyber Monday are not a race to see who lowers the price the most. Instead, they are an orchestra where each technique is an instrument that includes: staggered base discount to push ticket, packages to improve margin, hooks with attached products to capture demand and financing so as not to give away margin points that I don't need to give away. To this orchestra we also add versioning to direct the mix, lightning offers to create urgency without having to apply discounts all day, segmentation to reward those who suit me and a bit of dynamic pricing to move prices according to stock and demand. All this, supported by a shared dashboard between the Commercial and Finance departments and by a compliance framework that protects us when we communicate markdowns that are in accordance with the laws of your market.

If you execute it like this, these dates stop being two chaotic days and will become a predictable machine of results. And this year, with Black Friday on November 28 and Cyber Monday on December 1, it's time to do even better. Best of luck! And if you need a hand, at ICX we can help you maximize your profits.