Black Friday’s persuasive designs

We’re all familiar with the images of shoppers being crushed in the frenzy to grab heavily discounted items during Black Friday sales. But what is it that causes those scenes in the first place? Why do otherwise mostly civilized people resort to fist fights over cheap toys and TVs?

Retailers work hard building persuasive designs to get you in the spending mood and to make you want to buy their goods. It’s all about creating anxiety that you may miss out on a deal, even if the deal isn’t something you need. Nearly 52% of people have purchased something on sale they later regretted. But Black Friday is a chance for retailers to create a buying environment that is hard to pass up. 

Creating the frenzy

Stores have created the expectation that the best deals of the year will be found over the Black Friday weekend. Most Black Friday marketing takes the form of social proof – demonstrating “amazing savings” and “one off events” that get people into the mindset to expect bargains.

Black Friday is all about building pressure to spend, rather than offering particularly good savings

Many stores preview their Black Friday sales, so customers can plan and build anticipation of the wonderful savings. Some stores’ flyers even “leak” early in an attempt to make customers feel like they’ve been privy to forbidden information.

In fact, Black Friday is all about building pressure to spend, rather than offering particularly good savings. Stores aren’t charities. They still need to make a profit. The Wall Street Journal found most items are offered below Black Friday price points at different times of the year. Toys are typically cheaper in the second week of December. Look for a new car in April. TVs are cheaper in February, just before the SuperBowl. Jewelry bargains are best just after Valentine’s Day.

Many brands make around 30% of their annual sales during the months of November and December. The National Retail Federation estimates $720 Billion will be spent on Black Friday and other pre-Christmas shopping this year.

Convincing us to spend

Let’s look at some of the persuasive design patterns that stores use particularly well during Black Friday frenzy. You can find a deeper explanation of these patterns in my book, Evil By Design, or in my persuasive design courses on LinkedIn Learning (links at the end).

Provide fewer options: less items, less procrastination

Target sells over 100 TV models. Their Black Friday flyer shows just 19. By showing just enough products that we feel like we are making a choice, they know that we’re lazy enough to believe that these are the best deals rather than checking around for ourselves.

Except the TVs they’ve chosen for us are most likely a combination of older models they want to clear out, and “derivatives” – the industry name for items made just for one retailer and just for Black Friday that have very similar model numbers to another, higher-specced model but not all the bells and whistles.

Manufacture desirability: scarce products have a higher perceived value

Black Friday makes us feel that there’s a scarcity issue because it’s a limited time event. Even the fliers for Black Friday are “leaked” to make them feel scarce and exclusive. Then there are limited-availability items like Door Buster deals, and limited time Lightning Sales. All of this comes together to make otherwise very normal products feel highly desirable.

Ownership before purchase: familiarity produces positive feelings

Black Friday marketing focuses on a few key products, often with pictures that help you to see those products as a lifestyle improvement. For instance the kid who’s excited by their new toy, or the family admiring their big new TV.

The repetitive nature of the marketing and the co-ordination between manufacturers and retailers means that we’ve become very familiar with these products by the time we go shopping. That familiarity makes us feel more positive towards the product and thus more likely to buy it.

Provide reasons why people should buy

Fear of missing out is a combination of scarcity (limited stock, limited time offers) and social proof (the appearance that everybody wants this thing). You can increase the likelihood that people will buy a product by helping them justify it to themselves and to others. Bargains are a great justification. You hunted and gathered and came back with a big valuable prize.

Make something free, and rationality will disappear

One of the easiest ways to create desire is to offer something “free”. Cheap isn’t good enough. It has to be free. Free shipping, free gift cards, or buy one get one free. But BOGO offers – especially in cosmetics – still often leave the retailer ahead of the customer because of the massive initial mark-ups.

Own the anchor: define the value and you control the terms

People rely on the difference between “Was” and “Now” pricing to tell them whether products are a bargain or not. Stores control the “Was” price, so they can easily manipulate your concept of the discount you are getting.

This “Was” price is the anchor against which you compare the sale price. But is it the MSRP? The price offered in just one store? A completely made up price? Macy’s and JC Penney were sued for completely making up these comparison anchor prices. 

Don’t just buy, win! Tap in to fear of losing out by making a competition

Winning a competition is more appealing than other forms of bargains. Claims such as “limited availability” or “67% claimed already” lightning deals make buyers feel like they need skill to spot the deal, and then pressure them to quickly act before they can analyze the true value of the deal. The game element removes rational thought.

Note that lightning deals are framed in terms of items gone, not items remaining. This is more likely to invoke loss aversion.

Encourage breakage: cards and coupons have no cost until redeemed

"Breakage" is the industry term for unredeemed gift cards and store credits.

Most people either don’t use the gift cards they’re given, only use a partial sum from them, or spend 30-40% more than the value of the card when they redeem it. What’s not to like about gift cards from a retailer’s perspective? Especially cards whose value declines over time due to “administrative fees” imposed by the retailer.

The same applies to offers of money off your next purchase, or loyalty discounts. These bring people back who might otherwise just be using the store because it has the best deal. And if they don’t come back, it’s fine because the discount didn’t get used. 

How to avoid these techniques

Black Friday is a marketing construct. There are some real bargains to be found, but something’s only a bargain if you needed it anyway and Black Friday gave you the opportunity to buy it for less than you otherwise would have.

I’m not saying you should stay away from Black Friday. I’m just suggesting that you should be aware of the massive, concerted effort to persuade you to spend. There are some easy techniques that you can use to counter this persuasion.

• Items are often cheaper at other times: don’t participate in the hysteria.
• Know the MSRP and latest retail price: discounts are only valuable if they’re real
• Buy what you need, not what you want: an item reduced from $60 to $30 still wastes $30 if you didn’t need it.
• Scarcity is manufactured. Items will be back in stock next week.
• Tell yourself that bargain hunting is not a good measure of self-worth: bragging rights aren’t that important.

Marketing may eat itself

The danger to retailers is that by continuing to hype Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and other shopping sales days, they are training people to only buy things when they are on sale. The NRF reports that 85% of consumers say they’ve backed out of purchasing an item because it wasn’t on sale. If shoppers come to expect bargains as the new normal, this could hurt stores' longer term prospects. When everything is a bargain, nothing is a bargain any more. 

When everything is a bargain, nothing is a bargain any more

There is already a small backlash to this sale frenzy. In fact, it’s become a marketing technique in its own right. REI (an outdoor retailer) tells us clearly that they'll be closing their stores on Black Friday, instead encouraging people to #optoutside. You'll notice though that their web site will still be open for business!

Learn more about persuasive design

If you enjoyed this article, you'll find more persuasive design patterns in my book, Evil by Design, and in my LinkedIn Learning courses. I unlocked a couple of chapters for you here. If you don't already have access to LinkedIn Learning personally, through your work, or through your school, you can get a 30 day free trial and check out my full courses.

Learn more about Breakage from Persuasive UX: Influencing behavior patterns

There's more on Social Proof in Persuasive UX: Creating Credibility

and some detail on scarcity from Persuasive UX: Harnessing Illogical Reactions