Are Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales right for independent retailers? That’s the question being asked in shops of all shapes, sizes and sectors, on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 2025, 77% of independent retailers in the UK sat out Black Friday (up from 69% the year before). And with good reason: the sale season asks you to discount heavily to compete with huge chains and online marketplaces – something that independents running on tight margins simply can’t afford to do.
In the US, surveys have shown that while just 15% of Americans do most of their holiday shopping on the big sales dates, 45% still shop Black Friday, and 39% shop Cyber Monday. Customers still want deals, but how much do you have to give away to win their business?
Independent retailers don’t need to compete on price alone
If slashing prices across your best-selling lines or offering a blanket discount for the weekend feels like it’ll do more harm than good, there are other plays to consider.
Instead of sacrificing margin where you can least afford it, lots of small local shops offer customers a reason to buy that has nothing to do with price.
Bundles, add-ons and upsells are a great way to add extra value, without having to compromise margins on high-value items. Got leftover stock from an accessories order you made in the summer? Promoting a free gift with qualifying items can help full-price stock shift, and clear space in the back room all at once.
Sale season is a good time to reward customer loyalty too. Rather than slash prices, independent shops with loyalty programs can offer extra points across Black Friday and Cyber Monday, or use the time to promote additional services to returning customers.
For example, some bike shops have taken to using the weekend to promote service packages such as tune-ups and winter maintenance. It’s work that customers often put off (and therefore need a little nudge on), but which keeps mechanics busy over the slow months, boosting business when you need it most.
What 2025 told us about independent retail across Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Reflecting on our own customer data for last year, we saw sales processed through Cloud POS boosted over the weekend. In a bumper year for our retailers, sales increased by 16% year-on-year, indicating our customers enjoyed the strongest Black Friday on record.
This is further proof that independents can compete during the chaos of peak trading season, even when bigger players are pushing bigger discounts.
Instead, this growth relied on accurate forecasts, margin calculations and stock visibility over the weekend – along with a payment system that could handle and record a greater-than-usual volume of sales. When every sale counts, it also matters that availability online is reflected in store, and vice versa.
Making sure your retail system is up to the job is something you need to think about over the summer, not at the start of November. It takes time to get a new solution in place, but time spent planning now will pay off later in the year.
Closer to the time, there are a few things we always recommend customers do on their websites to help them catch the eyes of local shoppers, who’d rather spend at an independent than save more elsewhere.
Four simple ways to set your website up for peak sale season
- Repurpose pages you already have. You may have URLs like /sale that can be used to house Black Friday offers or repurposed for more specific sale categories (e.g. /accessories/sale, or /sale/15-off).
- Move the stock you want gone to the top of the page. Got inventory to clear before new season stock lands? Put it at the top of your landing pages so it’s in front of the customer first.
- Get your best offers on the homepage. You’ve got a better chance of getting bargain-hunting shoppers to stick around if you snag their attention right as they enter your site.
- Group stock into collections. If your web setup allows, group on-sale items together into sale season collections. It’s a quick way to promote your offers without having to do a full-on Black Friday website takeover.
Winter sales are won in the summer
If you delay the planning until October, you won’t leave yourself time to make any meaningful changes before the sales start. Reflect on last year’s numbers and decide what you want to achieve heading into Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026. If 2025 didn’t go as well as you’d hoped, now’s the time to decide how you want your independent shop to show up this year.
Do you have access to the data you need to see which stock can be discounted, and by how much? Is your POS system capable of handling a busy trading weekend? Does your website allow you to promote items, keep track of what’s selling, and capture buyers before they’re drawn to bigger deals elsewhere?
If you’re ready to talk about how to tackle sale season in independent retail, we’re here and happy to help.
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FAQs
Should independent retailers do Black Friday deals?
Not necessarily in the way the big chains do. You’ll usually do better offering value that doesn’t eat your margin: service packages, loyalty perks, or clearing specific stock, rather than a sitewide discount.
How early should I start planning for Black Friday and Cyber Monday?
If it’s summer when you’re reading this, start now. Reviewing last year’s data and getting your stock, POS, and site systems in order over the summer means you’re making decisions ahead of the pressure, not during it.
What can I do besides discounting to compete during Black Friday?
Promote other services, spotlight the stock you want to move, and use loyalty perks to bring customers back, rather than matching big-box pricing you can’t sustain.
