What to do with COVID Black Friday?

 

It’s that time of year again, temperatures are dipping and thanksgiving is coming soon. In years past, many retailers would be preparing to be opening their doors for Black Friday – arguably the greatest shopping day of the year and the unofficial kick-off of the holiday shopping season. But this year will undoubtedly be different, meaning every property in every market needs to create a unique strategy specific to their state/local restrictions due to COVID.

 

With less than 30 days to plan and execute a Black Friday strategy, do you think your business is positioned to take advantage of the shopping frenzy? If you operate a private golf club, resort or HOA/POA community you may not think Black Friday can have much of an impact on your business – but it absolutely can be impactful if you have a prepared approach and the right communication strategy.

 

In recent years, the surge in online shopping has made it easier for any business to take advantage of Black Friday. In fact, the online retail experience in 2020 has been unprecedented. Nationally, we have seen more online retail transactions than we have ever seen before, and this trend will continue through the Black Friday shopping holiday. Yet, despite our experience this year with COVID, there are still those who remain unprepared for online sales. The national statistics in 2020 prove that you don’t need to operate your business at a shopping mall or high traffic area to generate Black Friday sales anymore – which is great news for clubs, resorts and HOA/POA communities. Furthermore, in this COVID affected year, our surveys suggest that consumers are desiring to do their shopping with businesses that are familiar, that are trustworthy, and brands that they enjoy a preexisting relationship with to make sure they feel their online shopping dollars are giving them good value while supporting businesses they feel connected to in their personal lives.

Even if your operation doesn’t have a large retail component, you can still take advantage of Black Friday. Companies in the Tourism and Hospitality industries such as airlines and hotels have been taking advantage of the shopping craze for years because consumers are willing to purchase “experiences” on Black Friday. The “Experience Gift” is increasingly an attractive purchase because of our national affluence, translating into less expensive gift giving and more experiential gift giving. Researchers at San Francisco State University showed people “enjoy greater well-being" from life experiences and consider them to be a better use of money. Researchers also found that overall happiness with material and experiential purchases is approximately equal at the time of receipt, but the overall satisfaction with material things bought goes down over time, whereas satisfaction with the experiences they had actually increased – so take advantage and sell your amazing experience this Black Friday!

 

 What experiences can you sell?

 

  • Gift Cards
  • Membership Renewals
  • Membership/Loyalty Cards
  • Trial Memberships
  • Rounds Packages- Traditional Foursomes


  • 3-5 Round Packages
  • Reciprocal Packages with another Club in your area
  • Electric Cart Rental Packages
  • Stay and Play Packages (if you have lodging)
  • On Course Instructional Play Packages

Utilize your technology partner’s ecommerce module and CRM & marketing software to generate sales for your business this Black Friday. By automatically linking sales to the customer account, you can make hundreds of sales without any administrative back office work to worry about! Interested in learning more about how Total e Integrated can help you generate greater sales over the holiday season? - Connect with me at [email protected]