Limited Supply — Episode S13E10 Summary How to Maximize Your Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales
Host: Nik Sharma
Date: September 10, 2025

Overview

In this tactical, behind-the-scenes episode, Nik Sharma delivers an in-depth guide to maximizing Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sales for DTC (Direct-To-Consumer) brands. Drawing from a 15-page internal playbook, Nik covers promotional strategy, site optimization, and actionable tactics to boost revenue while deftly avoiding the common pitfalls that plague ecommerce brands each BFCM. The episode is laser-focused on practical steps, sharing strategies honed over years of brand-building, and aims to leave listeners with at least one game-changing insight for their own campaigns.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Promotional Strategy (07:43-33:04)

Mapping Out Offers Across BFCM

• Don’t treat Black Friday as a single day: plan distinct offers for Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday, and even Cyber Week.
• “The promotion strategy is kind of your overarching strategy as it relates to all the days and all the promos.” (08:39)
• Avoid overlapping or competitive offers across days to prevent customer frustration and post-purchase complaints/refund requests.

Offer Types & Tactics

• Strong discounts (20–50% off) are common, with steeper deals offered for higher AOV (Average Order Value) purchases.
• Bundle deals, “buy more, save more,” BOGOs, and sitewide percentage discounts are all effective.
• Reference to Jones Road success with exclusive gifts (mini Miracle Balms) in lieu of discounts.
• Brands like Jolie historically avoid discounts but experimented with a free gift or an exclusive BFCM discount after Prime Day results.

Subscriber & Loyalty Customer Treatment

• Proactively address how subscription customers access promos so they don’t churn or complain.
  Example: “Email your subscribers and say, ‘Hey, just so you’re aware, this is the Black Friday offer we’re running. If you want to participate, click here and we’ll apply it to your next subscription order.’” (17:50)
• Maintain subscriber/LTV value by incentivizing loyalty upgrades post-promo, e.g., extended discounts for subscribing.

Hidden & Targeted Offers

• Create secret or segmented deals for high-intent users who subscribed but have yet to convert.
  “You can... send it by email and SMS to these guys and try to get them to convert on something different.” (28:59)

Protecting Brand Value

• Don’t set up offers that cannibalize subscriptions or devalue brand loyalty.
• Blend promotions with retention tactics, such as seamless subscriber migration or exclusive post-purchase journeys.

Notable Quotes

“You want revenue, you should make it loud and proud.”
— Nik Sharma (40:27)

“Make sure that as you're doing this, you're also doing something to build the brand and... keep people around.”
— Nik Sharma (20:13)

2. Website Preparation & Optimization (33:05-58:16)

Homepage and Communication

• Homepage banners, popups, and announcement bars must aggressively communicate BFCM deals.
  “Make it very obvious. Make the text big, bold, you know, call out Black Friday sale... and include a huge CTA button.” (40:21)
• Don’t shy away from promotional aesthetics during this period; “holiday-ify” the site.

Speed and Mobile Optimization

• Use tools like Nostra to improve site speed, especially for mobile and slow network users (“The grandma test”: old phone, slow connection).
• Remove unused scripts and plugins.
• Ensure all holiday/offer elements (banners, popups) are perfectly responsive.
  “Think about the mobile above the fold and what’s below versus what’s below the fold.” (45:14)

Discount Code Logistics

• Test discount codes thoroughly, set up all exclusions/inclusions in advance, and embed codes into URLs for seamless customer checkout.
• “You don’t want them to leave because they forgot the code. So just try to make things as easy as possible. That’s why we call that one right there Sharma Logistics.” (50:59)

Email Capture Optimization

• Black Friday-specific popups should highlight the main offer to double or triple opt-in rates.
• Segment BFCM-acquired emails for tailored onboarding and storytelling—don’t treat heavy discounters the same as everyday buyers.
• “Your Black Friday email popup should actually focus on the Black Friday offer.” (53:14)

Micro-UX Tactics & Urgency

• Add overlays, stock indicators, countdown timers, and urgency drivers (“Only 14 left in stock,” “holiday bestseller” tags).
• Use ChatGPT, Replit, or even Shopify app templates for quick customizations if needed.

Social Proof & Post-purchase Surveys

• Feature reviews relevant to value seekers and first-timers.
• Adjust post-purchase surveys to ask specifically about their BFCM motivation, and what would keep them returning after the sale.

Legal Disclaimers & Terms

• Prominently display sale terms and conditions on promo pages and at checkout to limit complaints, chargebacks, and confusion.
• “Shockingly, most brands do not do this unless they’re owned by Unilever or something is disclaimers and like terms and conditions for the sales.” (57:17)
• These legal notes should not be buried; make transparency proactive.

Notable Quotes

“If you look at the Jolie website on your phone, you’ll notice... it loads instantly, right? And so that’s basically what you want is for everything to load super instantly.”
— Nik Sharma (43:37)

“The biggest nugget... is actually the terms and conditions of the sales. That tends to avoid a lot of chargebacks / customer service issues post-sale.”
— Nik Sharma (01:01:52)

Memorable Moments

• Nik explicitly criticizes brands that downplay holiday offers for fear of appearing too promotional, advocating instead for high-visibility campaigns during BFCM (40:27).
• Practicality over theory: “You know me, I only like to share things that are tactical, practical and actually work.” (31:12)
• The “Sharma Logistics” approach: anticipate and solve problems before the customer even recognizes them, such as auto-applying discount codes via URLs (50:59).

Important Timestamps

| Segment | Time | |-----------------------------------|--------------| | Intro & Purpose | 00:00–07:42 | | Promotional Strategy Deep-Dive | 07:43–33:04 | | Website Preparation | 33:05–58:16 | | QOL & Legal Disclaimers | 57:17–58:16 | | Key Takeaway & Outro | 58:17–end |

Conclusion & Resources

Nik wraps up by teasing next week’s episode, which will dive into BFCM-specific email, SMS, paid media, organic social, affiliates, and customer service. He also offers his full BFCM playbook via his site for those wanting the long-form resource (nik.co/bfcm).

Final Takeaway

Nik’s #1 overlooked tip: Make your BFCM offers and disclaimers ultra-clear and legally solid on-site to prevent downstream customer service nightmares and chargebacks.

For more details, visit nik.co/bfcm or reach out directly to Nik.