Australia is asking what Black Friday really costs a brand

Every November the same assumption shows up. Big stores cut prices, so the little shop down the street has to cut too, or get left out.

That assumption is starting to crack. In Australia, a growing group of small brands is skipping the Black Friday markdown on purpose, and treating the decision as marketing in its own right.

What the numbers say

Claire Goldsworthy, a sustainable fashion expert who built a large Australian online store for ethical brands, made the case this month in Inside Small Business. She never ran a sale of any kind in that business. Her argument is simple: if you spend all year asking people to value your full price, then knock off 20, 30 or 40 percent in November, you teach them the full price was never real. Run the sale at the same time every year and they learn to wait for it.

She points to brands that turned the opt out into a campaign:

• Slappas Thongs swapped its 2025 Black Friday sale for a price rise campaign. Since giving up markdowns, it reports a higher average order value, lower expenses and a significant lift in yearly profit.
• Mia Fratino has closed its online store over Black Friday weekend every year since 2021.
• Citizen Wolf has run a “Black Fridye” alternative since 2018, nudging customers to make their clothes last longer.

Here is the honest other side. Markdowns do move product. AppLovin, an ad platform, studied its 2025 holiday campaigns, as reported by Marketing Dive. Promotional ads earned 64.2% of the week one revenue it tracked, though they were only 41.8% of the creative uploaded. But their return on spend was only a little better than plain product ads. What clearly helped was fresh creative. Advertisers who added new ads almost every week saw 23% higher median return than those who refreshed once or twice, and ads made in November beat ads more than 60 days old.

So the sale is not magic. New, relevant messages matter as much as the price cut.

A sale buys you one weekend. A reason to buy at full price buys you next year too.

What it means here

Picture a boutique in Georgetown, a gift shop in Taylor, a coffee roaster in Round Rock, or a print and apparel shop in Hutto. Most of them will feel the pull to mark everything down the week of Thanksgiving, because the big stores in Austin will.

You cannot beat a national chain on price. You can out-story one. Local shoppers already choose you for the person behind the counter, the gift that is a little different, the fact that you know their name.

The Australian brands that opted out did not just stay quiet. They said something. A price rise with a reason. A closed store with a message. A repair push instead of a buying push. That is a position customers can repeat to a friend.

You do not have to quit sales forever to borrow the idea. You just have to decide what your November is teaching people.

Your first move this month

1. Look at last year’s holiday sales. Write down how much came from full price items versus marked down items, and which customers came back in January.
2. Pick one alternative to a store wide markdown. A gift with purchase, a limited holiday product, a local bundle, or early access for your regulars.
3. Write the reason in one sentence and say it everywhere: the sign in the window, your social posts, the receipt, the bag.
4. Plan fresh posts for every week of November instead of one ad you run all month.

None of this needs an agency. It needs a decision made before the crowd makes it for you.

Want it done for you?

Fingerprint Ideas helps Central Texas businesses turn a holiday idea into the pieces customers actually see: window signs and in store print, branded gift items and packaging, a weekly run of fresh social posts, and a website page that explains the offer. If you want November to build your brand instead of shrinking your margin, start a project with them here.