• Jon Knott, Head of Customer Insight at Dojo


• 19.11.2020 10:15 am
Black Friday

With lockdown 2.0 continuing, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are set to be virtual this year. This could be devastating for small, independent businesses competing against international retailers. 

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become two of the biggest events in the retail calendar. However, smaller businesses can’t always keep up with the larger online retailers who can offer shoppers a wealth of deals on their bulk stock. Now more than ever, it’s vital smaller and independent businesses maximise their online presence and create smart deals to compete.

#1 Rewarding loyalty

Reward loyalty. Give your returning customers or those signed up to your mailing list an exclusive money off code. Making sure your current customers feel valued is the first step in retaining their custom when competing with the big corps. 

#2 Generating early awareness  

Being an independent is a great USP in itself, especially with the seeming shift in behaviour of shoppers away from bigger retailers to supporting their local businesses. Start by building anticipation, use your business social media channels to give hints about upcoming offers. If you have a website, utilise it. You can create banners on your homepage, changing the messaging as the sales near to add pace and tease customers.

#3 Creating irresistible deals

Another tip is to bundle your products together - do you have bestsellers you can offer as an exclusive deal for Black Friday? This creates a sense of value-added. You also bring back a past bestseller that was discontinued just for Black Friday. Be sure to raise awareness on your social channels.

About Jon

Jon has over ten years’ experience in consumer research and delivering data-led thought leadership. He is a seasoned conference speaker in the hospitality sector, including at the Takeaway Expo, and is known for being an active data advocate in the fintech space. Jon has previously worked with some of the biggest retailers and brands globally and now leads the research team as Head of Insight at Paymentsense, Europe’s biggest merchant services provider. He is responsible for identifying and understanding industry & consumer trends. 

About Dojo

Dojo is part of Paymentsense – a payments provider specialising in helping independent businesses take payments, effortlessly. Based in the UK, and with offices in London, Bristol, Hull, Belfast and Dublin, they currently enable over 50,000 businesses to process more than £12 bn worth of card transactions annually.