Increase sales AND average order value with three critical Black Friday promotion types.

Goals: what do I need to get out of BF/CM?

1. Increase Sales. Capture additional sales to close out the year strong. But simply discounting products can backfire. Customers may wait until Black Friday to make a purchase. They are likely to purchase the same products but enjoy a steep discount.
2. Maintain or Increase Average Order Value. How can we increase sales and the Average Order Value? The promotions below accomplish this goal.

The promotions

Buy X Get Y (or Discounted)

Everyone loves something for free. Buy 1 Get 1 Free is the most common route. But have you considered a better route? Buy 2 Get 1 Free will increase your Average Order Value. This is psychologically better than Buy 1 Get 1 Half Off because your customers get a free product. Of course, this only works if someone wants three of your products—but if it’s that good, that should be a no-brainer.

Adobe Commerce

• Create a new Cart Price rule.
• Select applicable websites and customer groups (likely all websites and customer groups).
• Leave the No Coupon option selected.
• In the Action tab, the Apply should be: Buy X get Y Free (discount amount is Y).
• For Buy 2 Get 1 Free, the Discount Amount: 1 and the Discount Qty Step (Buy X): 2.
• The Conditions tab (or the lower section of the Actions tab) gives us control over what is affected. Either one works for this case.
• Click Schedule New Update to enable this promotion at midnight of Black Friday.

Notes

• BXGY promotions do not automatically add the Free products (discount amount) to the cart. You will need to construct messaging for this using Static Blocks.
• BXGY promotions only apply to one product at a time. The "Get Y Free" has to be the same product as "Buy X".
• Aheadworks Add Free Product solves both of these issues.

Shopify

• Navigate to Discounts.
• Create a new discount that is Automatically applied.
• "Customer buys": Select the Quantity (Buy X) and the product or collection that will start the discount rule.
• "Customer gets": Select the Quantity (Get Y) and what will be given for free.
• "Active dates": Choose when the promotion will start.

Notes

• Customers must add the free product to their cart—this doesn't happen automatically.

BigCommerce

• Navigate to Marketing > Promotions.
• Create a new promotion in the Automatic tab (with the Standard editor).
• Set the starting (and ending) schedule.
• Create a new rule: If the customer Buys Products reaching a Quantity of 3 (Buy X) products, including products (select which ones), then reward a gift in their cart, once per cart, and include (Get Y) product. Note: the customer can't choose which free product they wish to get.
• Alternatively, you can allow the customer to select which products they want free, but manually added. Follow this sentence in "Then reward.": "Discount on products (unlimited times) percart. By a percentage of 100% from Each products' price. Applied on Up to 1. Of the Least expensive products in the cart. Including products that satisfy the condition of products: individual/category, etc."

Doorbuster
This is a variation on the X% off, but you’re motivating them to buy quickly. The first 100 orders get a 50% discount. You are now limiting your losses but getting massive traffic to your website. This is ideal for a loss leader which is heavily merchandised to increase awareness of your other offerings.

Adobe Commerce

• Create a new Cart Price Rule.
• Use a Coupon code (Coupon: Specific Coupon).
• Name the coupon code.
• Set the "Uses per Coupon" to be your desired number.

Shopify

• Create a new Discount.
• Select the "Discount code" method.
• Enter a desired number in "Maximum discount uses > Limit number of times this discount can be used in total."

BigCommerce

• Create a new Promotion.
• Navigate to the Usage limits section and select "Limit for total usage of promotion across all channels."

Mix and Match Bundles

If you buy these two products together, you get an X% discount. This also increases your AOV because we ship more products without discounting the second. This could be a Pick 2 of Any or predefined product sets (easier to accomplish).

Adobe Commerce

• Create a new Cart Price Rule with two conditions (one for each product in the "bundle"): If total quantity equals or greater than 1 for a subselection of items in cart matching ALL of these conditions.
• Set the Actions > Discount Amount to be your percent discount.

Notes

• The described configuration allows for unlimited in either product in the bundle. This means the customer can get a lop-sided discount. The other option is to lock the total quantity to be equal to 1. This isn't ideal, but will prevent problematic discounts.
• The most secure option is to create a Bundle Product and include available products within the bundle.

Shopify

• You can create a Bundle with the aptly-named Bundle app. Then, set the new, discounted price (or use a Discount to visibly reduce the price).

Notes

• With the default Shopify Discount engine, you cannot enforce two specific products, both individually in the cart. We recommend a tool like Revy Discounts.

BigCommerce

• Create a new product. Ideally, name it as a "Bundle".
• Set the price to be $0. It's unfortunate, but is what it is.
• Create multiple Modifier options. The type should be Pick List. Assign one or multiple products per option. Each product is manually listed, so this could be time consuming.
• Create a new Promotion rule to apply a discount.

Notes

• There is no app to create a Mix and Match system. The above is the closest possible.

BONUS: X% off

But marketing may insist that you have to offer 50% off. And so be it. This will reduce the Average Order Value.

Adobe Commerce

• Create a new Cart Price Rule.
• In Actions, leave the Action as "Percent of product price discount".
• Then, set the Discount Amount to be your desired amount.
• Note the "Discard subsequent rules" selection as this can affect the total discount combination picture.

Shopify

• Create a new Discount.
• Set the Discount value to be a Percentage with the desired value.

BigCommerce

• Create a new Promotion.
• Set the Start Date to be the correct time.
• Create a new Rule.
• Follow this pattern. "If the customer No conditions, then reward Discount on products, by a percentage (10%) from Each product's price. Applied on All Products. Including products [your selection]."

Updating website content after Thanksgiving dinner—automatically

Adobe Commerce

• Navigate to the applicable Static Block(s) or Page(s).
• Click "Schedule New Update".
• Appropriately name the update. Set the Start Date. Note: for subsequent edits to be published at the same time, select the "Assign to Existing Update" button to assign to the first created update.
• Make your content changes in Page Builder.

Shopify

• This is not a native capability. We recommend the "Theme Scheduler Pro" app.
• Duplicate your current theme (remember, all page changes are associated with a theme) and add content.
• Remember to restore the old theme when the sale is finished.

BigCommerce

• We recommend the "Page Scheduler" app. This is an inexpensive app to swap out pages.
• Unfortunately, the best route is to create a new page (and there is no way to copy Page Builder templates). The Page Scheduler app swaps out these pages.