Alastair Petrie explains what charity retailers can get out of Black Friday

Today is Black Friday and retailers across the UK are lowering their prices and induce a frenzy of spending. In 2015, UK shoppers spent a record-breaking £1bn during the 24-hour period, so it’s easy to see why stores want to get involved.

However despite the increasing popularity of the American import, Black Friday still seems to be largely associated with the major high-street and online stores, which can easily afford to cut their prices on large amounts of stock whilst remaining confident that they will bring in a profit, and easily re-stock once everything’s gone.

But is there any way Black Friday can apply to charity retailers, when the income they receive is essential to funding their organisation?

Charity retailers must take care to protect their overall margins by keeping their promotions restrained and planning any reductions carefully

Alastair Petrie

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for how charity retailers should participate in Black Friday. The real value is that it provides retailers with an increased level of engagement, allowing them the perfect opportunity to plan promotions and lure in customers who otherwise might have walked on by – however these promotions should be based on an evaluation of how their stores, and other stores in their location, operate. This includes analysing which products are popular, what the average spend is and how their stock is displayed.

At the most simple level, any charity retailer whose typical stock includes more valuable items, such as branded merchandise, furniture or collectables, can look to make reductions on these premium products – pulling customer through the door and hopefully providing them with a fantastic bargain that makes them want to return in the future.

This is still not without its risks though. Charity retailers must take care to protect their overall margins by keeping their promotions restrained and planning any reductions carefully. Taking advantage of existing excitement and raised awareness is brilliant for free exposure, but only pays off if that exposure doesn’t then turn out to be a huge expense.

Additionally, it is important that charity retailers are able to handle such increased volumes of sales. One way charity retailers can prepare for this by installing more tills in their stores, in order to process multiple transactions simultaneously and ensure a steady flow of customers – a move that clients of BMc Azurri have been undertaking in the past few years.

A major advantage for charity retailers is the increased focus on philanthropy that has developed around the event. Some large business such as Pieminister and Fat Face have begun running charity campaigns during Black Friday, and with charity retailers already in the right market and the giving spirit strong across the board, it’s the perfect time of year to create some noise, bring in new customers and set up repeat sales and an increased profile throughout the following year. Charities can even take advantage of high-street retailers’ philanthropy by teaming up together to offer joint promotions.

Charity retailers can also issue further promotions during Black Friday to encourage extra visits in the run up to Christmas – for example, offering discount cards or vouchers to customers that spend over a certain amount creates even greater buzz lasting much longer than just one day.

In summary yes, Black Friday is of use to charity retailers, but they must be smart about how they make use of it. Rather than just copying the campaigns of major high-street players, charity retailers should adapt them to their own needs and merits, carefully planning promotions and encouraging new shoppers into their stores, so they can properly take advantage of such a large opportunity rather than letting the big shops take all the sales.

Alastair Petrie is general manager of BMc Azurri, a company specialising in the provision of Gift Aid systems and IT services for the charity sector.