The Truth About Black Friday: A Small Business Perspective
There's three things that you can pretty much depend on every November:
- Darker nights
- Drizzly, damp days
- And an inbox full of emails from every business you've ever interacted with, full of Black Friday FOMO.
But I just wanted to take a moment to share with you the realities of what Black Friday weekend means for a small business like Paperback Down, because every single year we question whether we should even bother with it.
Here's a glimpse into our thought process:
Time
You might imagine that running a small bookish business mostly involves a lot of reading. And we're probably guilty of adding to that delusion with our social media posts - all 'take a little time out for you today' and 'relax, read and enjoy'.
The reality is very different and delivering a Black Friday offer takes a phenomenal amount of time and planning - deciding what to offer, implementing changes to the back end of our website to make it work, creating copy, images and social media posts, ordering stock (more on that in a moment!), prepping packaging in advance.
And all for 4-5 days. Then you get to change it all back again.
So Much Noise
And then, after all that work, it's the sweet, sweet sound of crickets on your checkout pages.
The big day comes and we're drowned out in the constant 'buy, buy, buy' noise everywhere - in your inbox, on your TV, in your socials. We just don't have the advertising budget to compete with that and nor do most other small businesses.
Are We Even Good Enough Anyway?
I saw a post online the other day joking about businesses that only offer 10-15% discounts on Black Friday and it just made a little part of me want to crawl up into a ball and hide.
Because here's the thing - small businesses simply can't afford the 50% off or 75% off offers that big name brands offer. Most of us don't have the buying power to bring in raw materials or wholesale goods at a margin that even remotely supports that kind of discounting.
We just can't compete. I can guarantee that every small business owner has at some point thought - if I can't come up with an offer that's good enough to compete, why even bother?
The Risk Factor
But let's assume a small business might still decide to go ahead with a small Black Friday offer anyway...
Now they have to decide how much stock they need which is pretty much a take your best guess scenario.
Too little and you risk running out early and disappointing customers.
Too much and you'll be sitting staring at it for the next 6 months, while it ties up your cash flow. We're quite happy to admit that we've made mistakes in both directions!
Can We Cope?
Say we do get lucky and something manages to break through the noise and reach our audience...can we deal with the rush?
There's just the two of us here and it'll be full-on to get orders packed and shipped quickly so we're always worried if customers will understand that it's going to take a little longer than normal to get orders out the door.
Big-box stores have trained everyone to expect lightning-fast shipping, but that pace is tough for us small businesses to match.
Many makers and online shop owners are juggling their business alongside kids or family commitments, health challenges, or even a day job. They're drawn to this business model for the flexibility it offers, but that flexibility gets seriously stretched this time of year when everyone wants instant gratification.
Does It Align With Our Values?
At Paperback Down, we always find ourselves wondering just how to reconcile the relentless commercialism of this time of year with our ethos of wanting to be a company that brings joy and relaxation to your life. Any time I send a 'Buy this thing now before you can't' type email, I cringe.
I still send it - because I want this business to succeed and that kind of marketing does unfortunately statistically work. But I cringe. I much prefer the emails where I tell you I walked around all day with my trousers on back to front (true story, did happen, did send the email).
FOMO Wins
So there you have it. That's our insight into the mindset of most small business owners right now.
But here's the thing, we'll be running a Black Friday event this year anyway. Because even though there's a bunch of reasons not to, we're also a little scared of being forgotten if we don't - that old adage out of sight, out of mind is true for a reason.
So if you do order from us, or from any other small business, over a busy period, we'd love it if you could be patient with us and understanding of our limitations. We're doing the best we can and we're all so very grateful for your support, both during the festive season and all year round.
