Since we’re coming up on that special time of the year (BFCM), I think it makes sense to talk about last year. 

I just ran an in-person training this past weekend on Black Friday prep (I’m talking HUNDREDS of powerpoint slides of straight $$$) and putting the whole thing together had me really marinate on what happened last year.

Last BFCM, we didn’t have the inventory at BREZ to do anything big, which meant we didn't get to participate in a massive push or a big spend, and our revenue numbers were honestly pretty normal. 

And that was the correct decision for that brand. 

In the years before we had the stock and the budget, so the plan was to spend as much as humanly possible and I'm not dunking on anybody still running that, cause I was that guy, and that was the go-to for years. 

But we're getting away from it now, and the funny part is we kind of got forced into it by the inventory last year..

But this year I'm choosing it on purpose. 

Cause it's not a matter of massive TikTok days or Meta days or even Google days. You don't want to oversell a product that ruins the cadence these customers were going to buy it at anyway, and you don't want to pull a bunch of revenue forward, or delay it by talking about some deep crazy discount coming..UNLESS that's actually your strategy.

So per brand, you should plan toward the correct amount of product consumption so you can start the sale correctly, spend into the sale correctly, transition into the 10 or 12 days of gifting, and come into Jan, Feb, and March correctly.  

And what's REALLY nerve-wracking for some of these brands is that they wait for this one 4-week window to slam and push as much spend as they can…

And YES, that can work. For some. 

But for a lot of brands out there, you’re doing it to what, show major numbers on on your BFCM reporting? 

Should you even participate in BFCM the same way that you THINK you should? 

What margin profile do you want coming out of the window?

What does January need to look like??

Do you even NEED to be running a heavy promo push this BFCM??? 

Use those answers to draft a genuinely well thought out plan. The majority of you are going to settle on something a little different than you thought. 

And one more thing. Commerce Roundtable is September 21-22 in San Diego, little under a month out now. As of right now I got 12 brand new speakers who have never touched one of our stages and they’re bringing a mountain of value. 

Everybody in the ecosystem will be here

Last year we did 615 people, this year we’re pushing for 750. One of my biggest events yet. 

If you want in on the action, grab your spot: https://commerceroundtable.com/ 

See you next week.

- Shack