BFCM 2026 Strategy Australia: How to Compete Without Discounting Away Your Profit

Written by Abbie Evans, Founder and Principal, Arqet Consulting

Abbie brings more than 25 years of experience across ecommerce, retail leadership, finance, merchandise, operations and building her own online retail business.

Direct Answer

A profitable BFCM 2026 strategy for Australian ecommerce businesses should start with the commercial objective rather than the size of the discount. Bundles, gifts with purchase, spend thresholds, VIP early access and targeted promotions can increase customer value without relying solely on blanket discounting. Margin, AOV, inventory, acquisition cost and retention should all shape the offer.

Black Friday creates an uncomfortable question for many independent ecommerce businesses: How do you compete when somebody else is prepared to discount more?

The obvious answer is often to increase the percentage. 20% becomes 25%. 25% becomes 30%. Then another retailer announces 40%.

But competing primarily on percentage discount can become a difficult game for an independent retailer to win — particularly against large marketplaces and international competitors operating with very different economics.

There is another way to approach Black Friday: Start with the commercial objective, not the discount.

Black Friday is too important to treat as a last-minute promotion

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are firmly established in the Australian ecommerce calendar.

Australia Post reports that 73% of Australian shoppers wait for sales events before buying and 81% shop around for the best deal. Black Friday online sales reached $8 billion in 2025, up 9.3% on the previous year.

For 2026, Black Friday falls on 27 November, followed by Cyber Monday on 30 November.

That makes September and October planning months — not waiting months.

How to Build a Profitable Black Friday Ecommerce Strategy

A Black Friday promotion can serve very different commercial purposes: acquire new customers, increase average order value, clear seasonal inventory, move slow-selling products, reward existing customers, reactivate lapsed customers, grow your email/SMS database, generate cash, introduce customers to a new category or encourage a second purchase.

Those objectives shouldn't automatically produce the same offer. A blanket sitewide discount is simple. It isn't always strategic.

1. Use bundles to create value

A bundle can give customers a compelling reason to purchase without applying the same discount to every product.

Good Black Friday bundles might combine complementary products, bestsellers with slower-moving inventory, starter products, replenishment items or exclusive combinations.

Check the margin of the whole bundle. Don't create a $150 basket that contributes less than the $110 basket it replaced.

2. Consider a gift with purchase

A gift can create a strong customer proposition without reducing the selling price of every product in the basket.

The economics can be particularly attractive where the gift has high perceived customer value, relatively low product cost, low fulfilment complexity and a logical connection to the purchase.

The important number is not the retail value printed beside the gift. It is what the promotion actually costs the business.

3. Use spend thresholds carefully

Spend-and-save offers can help move customers towards a larger basket, but thresholds should be built around actual customer behaviour.

Review your normal basket distribution and model the margin before launch.

A threshold that increases revenue while giving away most of the additional contribution isn't doing much commercial work.

4. Give your database something valuable

Your existing audience should be part of your Black Friday strategy before the public sale begins.

VIP or subscriber early access can reward existing customers, encourage email/SMS signup, create urgency, stagger demand and give loyal customers first access to limited inventory.

It also gives the customer a reason to join your owned audience before the event.

5. Don't discount every product simply because it is Black Friday

Your range probably doesn't need one promotional rule.

Consider which products already sell strongly, which have sufficient margin, what needs to be cleared, where inventory is overstocked, which products could anchor a bundle, what should remain full price and which categories you want new customers to discover.

Merchandising and promotional strategy should work together.

6. Think carefully before trying to compete with marketplaces on price

Large international marketplaces have changed customer price expectations. That doesn't mean every Australian ecommerce business should try to match them.

Independent retailers can compete on specialist range, product expertise, trust, service, convenience, local fulfilment, curated products, useful content, loyalty, customer experience and brand.

Price matters, but price isn't the only reason customers buy.

7. Prepare the operational side of the promotion

A successful Black Friday campaign can expose operational weaknesses very quickly.

Before increasing demand, review inventory, website journey, product information, shipping, fulfilment capacity, customer service, returns and tracking.

More traffic magnifies what already exists. If the customer journey is confusing before Black Friday, adding more visitors doesn't remove the friction.

8. Plan for the customer after Black Friday

A large influx of first-time customers can look excellent in a November sales report. But what happens next?

Consider the post-purchase journey before the promotion launches: welcome/lifecycle communication, post-purchase education, complementary product recommendations, replenishment reminders, review requests, segmentation, second-purchase incentives where commercially appropriate and win-back programmes.

Don't treat the transaction as the end of the campaign.

Measure more than Black Friday revenue

When the event is over, don't stop at “Sales were up 42%.”

Review revenue, gross margin, contribution, AOV, units per transaction, discount rate, shipping subsidy, customer acquisition cost, new versus returning customers, email/SMS database growth, inventory movement, returns, fulfilment cost and second-purchase rate.

That tells you whether Black Friday created commercially valuable growth.

BFCM 2026 Strategy Australia: You Don’t Need to Be the Cheapest

There will almost always be another retailer prepared to offer a bigger percentage discount.

A stronger Black Friday strategy asks: What behaviour are we trying to generate? What offer is most likely to generate it? Do the economics still work?

That might result in a discount. But it might also result in a bundle, gift, threshold, exclusive, early-access offer or targeted promotion.

The objective isn't to avoid discounting at all costs. It is to make sure the promotion serves the business — rather than the business serving the promotion.

Planning for peak trade?

Arqet helps ecommerce businesses look beyond individual marketing channels to the commercial system underneath them — including margin, merchandising, customer behaviour, conversion, retention and operations.

Before adding more traffic or a bigger discount, understand what the additional sales are actually worth.

Related Insight: Why Sales Growth Does Not Always Create Ecommerce Profit

Related Insight: How to Increase AOV Without Giving Away Your Margin

Next step: Explore the Arqet Ecommerce Growth Audit or request a strategy call.