When Quad Lock started 13 years ago, mega sales days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday were something of a novelty in Australia. We’d watch news footage of Americans rushing to get into stores and laugh. For us, Boxing Day was the big game in town.

Fast forward to today and the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are now almost unparalleled in Australia - indeed, more people profess to prefer them to the traditional Boxing Day sales.

But as an ecommerce business with a global focus, we have always been more focused on this mega sales weekend rather than Boxing Day. Black Friday and Cyber Monday has always been our tentpole sale of the year - and now it seems as if everyone else is also well and truly on board.

The consumer behaviour around Black Friday used to be that it was a time for treating yourself or, if you were organised, buying presents for Christmas. Now, in a cost of living crisis, it’s clear that more and more Australian consumers are putting off buying things in the lead up to these sales events in the hopes of a better deal and a significant discount.

That means there’s a significant amount of pressure on brands to rise to the task and maximise on the highest demand they’ll likely see in a year. For e-commerce businesses in particular, these sales periods represent a significant share of annual revenue and a crucial opportunity to make an impact in a crowded market.

But, where once a simple discount sale would have performed well by itself to get your brand attention, it doesn’t quite cut it anymore. At Quad Lock, we’ve witnessed this shift firsthand and have evolved our strategies to not only keep up with the times but stay ahead of the curve.

As we look toward another holiday season, I’d like to share some key lessons from our experience and outline what businesses should be thinking about, both this year and every year.

Building interest early

While Black Friday may officially fall on the last Friday of November, a lot of the opportunity actually starts far in advance. This can work well to ensure your brand has the chance to build a full omnichannel experience over the sales period, as well as driving demand over a longer period of time.

For us as a brand, September is a good time to start rolling out activity. This works particularly well for us because it lines up with the launch of new products or devices like iPhone cases.

One tactic that has worked particularly well for us is offering VIP sales to our loyal customers at the start of the Black Friday period.

The VIP sale builds excitement and anticipation among our most engaged customers. They know they’re getting first dibs on products before any risk of stock shortages, and helps to capture demand before the rush. It also helps us work around any potential shipping delays that may come due to increased demand or pressures on global supply chains during this busy time.

For us, it’s a win-win: we drive early demand and foster customer loyalty, while setting ourselves up for success for the rest of the mega sales period.

Look to past data to forecast success

One of the most important aspects of preparing for Black Friday is using past data to forecast demand and adjust inventory. Being granular with your previous year’s data means you can be more strategic about the timing of your sale and the execution of your ad spend over the entire period, as well as locating opportunities to tweak and experiment with new tools.

Looking at historical sales data also helps us to order stock more effectively and ensure that we can meet customer demand without overstocking. Coupling this with tailored product bundles - an approach we’ve honed in recent years - has proven especially successful.

Our bundles allow customers to save more than with the standard discount, and we use these as a way to not only increase average order value (AOV) but also introduce our latest product ranges.

We keep these bundles exclusive to Black Friday, reinforcing the message that this is the best time of year to get the best deals. This strategy of “once-a-year” sales has helped us train our customers to expect and act during this crucial period, maximising both excitement and conversion.

Balancing tried and true with new

When it comes to mega sales days, most companies will likely have a formula they execute every year that generally works well for them.

But while consistency is key - which for us means maintaining our 30 per cent discount across our entire product range for Black Friday - we also recognise the importance of investing in new solutions to stay competitive.

In 2023, we took this up a notch and leaned heavily into Meta’s Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns (ASC), which is a tool that leverages machine learning to reach valuable audiences with greater efficiency. ASC formed the bulk of our new customer acquisition-focused campaigns, and we found they scaled well during the Black Friday sale.

These automated campaigns also allowed us to maintain stable CPMs, CPCs and conversion volumes.

Creative is another area that needs refreshing every year, and we’ve had a lot of success in using creators as part of this revamp. Last year, we had several creators film Black Friday specific content, where they shared testimonials and stories about why they love their Quad Lock gear.

This content really resonated with audiences during a sale, when the urgency to make a purchase is heightened, and proved incredibly effective when it came to new customer acquisition.

We leaned into Meta's Partnership Ads in order to make these collaborations even more powerful, and our heavy usage of ASC also gave us the flexibility to run more of this creative, as we could put dozens more creative ideas in an ASC than a manual conversion campaign.

Our experimentation with these tools paid off. For the month of November last year, we had double digit growth across both revenue and orders, proving the value of switching up your strategy.

Don’t limit yourself to your local market

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are global events - which means your audience over this period can span far beyond Australian borders. There’s massive demand in regions such as the US and UK, so Black Friday is a perfect time to test the waters and float your brand in a new market.

The key for companies looking to succeed overseas during Black Friday and Cyber Monday is understanding local consumer behaviour and tailoring offers to meet those specific needs. Shipping logistics, inventory management, and regional marketing campaigns all play a vital role in ensuring that international customers can access deals just as easily as domestic shoppers.

Brands should also understand the different costs of advertising in new markets - we’ve found that the US is relatively more expensive to advertise in, which means our strategy changes significantly to be much more tailored and targeted.

Maximise your first-party data

One of the most valuable lessons we’ve learned over the years is the importance of capturing and enriching first-party data in the lead-up to mega sales events.

Last year, we ramped up our efforts to increase our event marketing quality (EMQ) scores and grow our audience segments. This had a direct impact on our re-engagement and retargeting campaigns, especially on platforms like Meta, where having a robust, data-driven audience can make all the difference. By building out our first-party data, we were able to craft more effective, personalised offers.

Segmentation is critical during these periods - targeting the right customer with the right message, such as whether they’re a cyclist or motorbike enthusiast, can drastically increase conversion rates. This attention to personalisation has become a cornerstone of our strategy.

Black Friday and other mega sales days are about more than just discounts. They’re about meeting customer expectations, building excitement, and delivering value - whether that’s through a tailored product bundle, an exclusive VIP sale, or a well-timed personalised offer.

By planning early, learning from the past, and leveraging both new and tested tactics, we can ensure that every year, this sales phenomenon grows stronger - not just for us, but for the entire retail industry, at a time when growth is harder to come by than ever.