Singles Day, Black Friday or neither? Discount days for a small webshop
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by Verpakkingdeals.nl
6 min reading time
Participating in Singles Day or Black Friday is a choice, not an obligation. Four questions that guide the decision, the rules around "from-for" pricing, and what a campaign costs you in terms of boxes, tape, and filling.
In mid-November, almost every small webshop gets the same itch: everyone else is doing something, so we might as well too. A banner appears on the homepage, ten percent off everything, and three weeks later it turns out you've shipped the same number of packages as usual—just with less margin and more work. Discount days are not a law of nature. They are a choice, and it's better to make that choice in September than in the week itself.
This autumn, the dates are as follows: Singles Day falls on Wednesday, November 11th, Black Friday on Friday, November 27th, and Cyber Monday on Monday, November 30th. After that, it shifts to Sinterklaas Eve on Saturday, December 5th. That's a three-week block where your inventory, packaging, and customer service are all under pressure simultaneously.
To participate or not: four questions that decide
Before you come up with a percentage, honestly answer these four questions.
What is your margin per order? With an average margin of 30%, a 20% discount costs you two-thirds of your profit. With a 60% margin, you can afford it. If you don't know, that's your first homework.
Can you physically handle the peak? Three times as many orders in one day means three times as many boxes, tape, and hands. If you pack by yourself after work, even a doubling is a lot.
Do you sell gift items or consumer goods? Gift assortments benefit from this period. Consumables that people would order anyway mainly bring forward sales that you'll miss in January.
Do you want new customers or more sales from existing ones? This requires different actions. A discount code via your newsletter costs much less than a site-wide sale.
If you come up with "no," that's a perfectly fine answer. Doing nothing and simply being available is also a proposition in these weeks, especially if your competitors sell out.
Singles Day or Black Friday? They don't do the same thing
The two days attract different behavior. Singles Day is narrower and earlier; it's a good time to move lower-priced inventory and to test how your system reacts to busy periods. Black Friday is broader, more intense, and closer to Sinterklaas and Christmas shopping, so people actually buy gifts then instead of just browsing.
Singles Day (Wed Nov 11)
Black Friday (Fri Nov 27)
Purchase motive
For themselves, impulse
Gifts, larger purchases
Competition
Less busy
Very busy, lots of advertising
Suitable for
Small items, bundles, clearance items
Gift assortment, higher price points
Risk
Little reach without own list
You disappear among the big names
For most small shops, one of the two is enough. Two promotions back-to-back mean planning inventory twice and two peaks in packing, while your customers are already waiting for the third one the second time around.
"From-for" pricing: first the rules, then the banner
Those who work with strikethrough prices in the Netherlands are subject to rules. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) acts against so-called fake discounts and has published a page on displaying prices and a guideline on price display. In short, the price you compare with must be traceable to what you actually asked for the product in a preceding period—a price you inflate just before the promotion does not count.
We are not lawyers, so check the current text with the ACM yourself before adjusting your prices. Practically, it mainly means one thing: record what your prices were. A simple export file of your price list per month is enough to later demonstrate what you have done. If you also work with a physical counter or stall, it's useful to label your promotional prices separately, for example with the Price Gun with 5500 Price Stickers and 3 Ink Rolls (€24.95) and loose Price Stickers in 6 colors, 500 pieces (€2.95), so you know exactly what needs to be reverted after the promotion.
What a promotion costs in packaging
The discount isn't your only cost item. Every extra order costs a box, tape, void fill, and time. Calculate that in advance, because that amount comes on top of your discounted margin.
September: Decide if you participate and with which part of your assortment. Record your current prices.
Early October: Order packaging. Count on at least one and a half times your normal consumption for November.
Mid-October: Tidy up your packing station and put everything in designated places. Test one order from start to finish.
Early November: Prepare your promotion in your shop, but don't publish yet. Write your customer service responses in advance.
Week of November 11th and 27th: Schedule your packing blocks in your agenda, not your evenings.
December: Evaluate. How many extra orders, how many extra costs, how many new customers who returned?
Most shops skip that last step, while that's where the answer to whether you'll participate again next year lies.
Stock up yourself
Want to get your inventory in order before it gets busy? Check out Packing & Shipping for the complete range, Letterbox Packaging for everything that needs to go through the letterbox, Tape for rolls and dispensers, and Bulk Packaging for Webshops for larger quantities. If you're unsure about how much you need, or want to know if a bundle is more favorable for your volume, email your quantities to info@verpakkingdeals.nl and we'll help you calculate.
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