Black Friday marketing ideas for 2027: how to join in without slashing your prices

Most Black Friday marketing ideas start and finish with a red sticker, which is exactly why a local business can stand out by doing something else. Black Friday lands on Friday 26/11/2027 and Cyber Monday on 29/11/2027, and the pressure to mark everything down arrives right on cue.

This guide is for the Queensland or NSW owner who'd rather keep their prices and still get noticed. Paint turns up near the end, but every idea stands on its own.

What Black Friday looks like in Australia now

The latest primary forecast comes from the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan, released on 07/11/2025. (The ARA and the National Retail Association have since merged into the Australian Retail Council.) It tipped a record $6.8 billion AUD in spending from Black Friday to Cyber Monday, up 4 per cent on the year before, with around 6 million Australians expected to shop and average planned spend of $804 per person. The 2026 forecast hadn't been published when we checked in October 2026.

Women made up 3.5 million of those expected shoppers, almost evenly split between buying Christmas gifts (17 per cent) and buying for themselves (16 per cent). The top motivations were low prices (42 per cent), great deals (38 per cent) and saving on Christmas presents (25 per cent).

The ABS Monthly Household Spending Indicator for November 2025, released on 12/01/2026, put November's rise in household spending at 1.0 per cent, with goods growth driven by Black Friday sales. Queensland rose 1.0 per cent and NSW 0.8 per cent.

So the shoppers are out. Whether a price cut is the way to catch them is another matter, and even the ARA's chief executive, Chris Rodwell, said in that release: "it's not just about price."

Should your business play Black Friday at all?

Not every business belongs in the scrum. Answer five questions first.

1. Do your customers already shop it? A homewares store will feel the traffic. A bookkeeper won't.
2. Can your margin survive a cut? If 20 per cent off wipes out most of your profit, it's a price war you lose even when you win.
3. Have you got something to add? A bundle, a gift or early access lets you make noise without touching the price tag.
4. Can you staff it? One tired person on the counter means cranky reviews.
5. Is your product a Christmas present? Then Black Friday is really the opening night of Christmas, and the names you collect may outlast the takings.

Go loud, with the extra as the headline

You're giftable and your regulars expect to hear from you. Campaign properly, but lead with what shoppers get on top, not what you've knocked off.

Play it quietly for your own list

Skip the public splash and give subscribers early access or a bonus that week. It thanks the people who already like you, and your public prices never budge.

Sit it out, on purpose

Booked out anyway, or built on fair prices all year? Say so with a wink: "No Black Friday here. Same honest prices and free gift wrapping, every single day." Opting out loudly is still marketing.

Why adding value beats slashing prices

A price cut is easy to put on a sign, and it's the most expensive lever you can pull. Here's a clearly hypothetical example.

Picture a gift shop selling a $100 hamper that costs $60 to put together, so each one makes $40. Take 25 per cent off and it sells for $75 and makes $15, which means selling nearly three hampers to earn what one used to. Keep the $100 price and tuck in an $8 candle instead, and every hamper still makes $32.

• Markdowns teach customers to wait. Run 30 per cent off every November and you've told your best customers never to pay full price in October.
• Added value is hard to compare. Nobody can price-match your free engraving or the staff member who remembers what she bought last year.
• You keep December at full price. Once you've cut, putting prices back feels like a price rise to shoppers, even when it isn't.

A value-add idea bank for Black Friday weekend

Bundles that do the thinking

Group three things that belong together at the sum of their parts, boxed and ribboned. A salon pairs a cut and colour with a take-home treatment. A bottle shop builds a "Christmas Day drinks sorted" box. The value is the decision the shopper no longer has to make.

A gift with purchase worth keeping

Spend over a set amount and walk out with a candle, a tote, a jar of the house jam or a mini of your bestseller. Choose a gift that introduces the product you'd love them to buy next, and order enough to last until Monday night.

Early access for your list

Open the offer to subscribers a day early, at full price with the bonus attached. Your mailing list becomes a perk worth joining.

Service businesses: sell the gift booking

A massage therapist, photographer or hairdresser can sell a Christmas gift booking with a little extra built in: twenty minutes longer, a take-home product, an extra print. Open the redemption window in January and the quiet weeks fill before December starts.

Hospitality: be the pit stop

Cafes and bars don't need cheaper flat whites to win the weekend. Mind parcels, run a set lunch for weary shoppers and team up with the boutique next door so each of you sends people to the other.

Gift cards with a bonus for later

Buy a $100 gift card, get a $20 bonus card to spend in February. That's two visits at full price, the second in a quiet month. Read the ACCC's rules on gift cards and discount vouchers first, because the card a customer buys and a bonus card you hand out may not sit under the same expiry rules.

Black Friday rules the ACCC is watching

Black Friday is on the regulator's calendar now too. On 10/11/2025 the ACCC put retailers on notice ahead of its Black Friday sweep, and on 14/04/2026 it reported that around half of the 50 retailers it reviewed made concerning claims, with several investigations under way. Use the sweep's focus areas, plus two traps from the ACCC's business guidance, as a checklist:

• Was/now and strikethrough prices. The ACCC's guidance on displaying prices says a sale price can mislead if the item wasn't sold at the higher price for a reasonable period right before the sale. There's no magic number of days, so keep dated price records.
• "Sitewide" claims with exclusions hiding in the fine print.
• "Up to 50 per cent off" when only a handful of products get near 50.
• Countdown timers and "three days only" on a sale that quietly keeps going.
• Savings measured against a recommended retail price you never charged, also flagged in that pricing guidance.
• Free gifts that never arrive. The ACCC's page on cash back offers, gifts and prizes says a promised gift must be provided as offered, within the time stated or a reasonable time, and that hiding a delivery cost for the gift is illegal.

This is general information, not legal advice, so check the ACCC's guidance or your lawyer if a claim feels borderline. The quiet bonus of value-add: the was/now trap can't catch a price that never moves.

Turn the weekend into your Christmas list

The better scoreboard is how many people you can keep talking to until Christmas Eve, so set a sign-up goal beside your sales target.

• A QR code on the receipt, bag and counter that signs shoppers up for your Christmas gift guide.
• A "who's left on your list?" card: shoppers note who they still need to buy for, and you send ideas in early December.
• December click and collect slots, booked while they're standing in front of you.

Under the ACMA's spam guidance, marketing messages need the recipient's consent first, so ask clearly and keep a record. Then follow through with our Christmas marketing ideas for 2027, which picks up where Black Friday leaves off.

Your November 2027 timing table

One catch for businesses selling into both states: NSW daylight saving starts on 03/10/2027 and Queensland's clocks stay put, so an offer that "goes live at midnight" in Sydney goes live at 11pm in Brisbane. Name the time zone every time.

Dates are checked against the Queensland public holidays, NSW public holidays, Queensland school holidays and NSW school holidays pages. For the rest of the year, see our marketing calendar 2027.

Putting your Black Friday extra in front of a full room

A Paint night is a mobile paint and sip night out: hosts, canvases, music, a live singalong and trivia while the paint dries, at venues across Queensland and NSW. Guests are mostly women from their thirties into their nineties, out with friends, sisters, mums and workmates, and the big rooms push past 100, from 151 in Springfield to 110 in Cessnock.

A few hypothetical ways a business could use one in the fortnight before Black Friday:

• A Gold Coast homewares store takes a newsletter placement in Black Friday week, offering readers early access to a gift-wrapped, full-price bundle. Here's how advertising in Paint's newsletters and social works.
• A skincare maker from the Hunter slips a sample and its own unique code into goodie bags, and the code earns a gift with purchase over the weekend. See how product sampling and goodie bags run, then map the follow-up with our guide to planning a product sampling campaign.
• A Port Macquarie bookshop wants locals to know its free Christmas wrapping is back. Start with advertising in Port Macquarie and the Mid North Coast.

Every paid placement is disclosed to guests, and sponsors collect sign-ups through their own offer.

Black Friday questions from local business owners

When is Black Friday in 2027?

Black Friday is Friday 26/11/2027, the day after US Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday follows on 29/11/2027. Many retailers stretch it across the week, so decide early how long your offer runs, then say exactly when it starts and ends. A sale that runs past its advertised end is something the ACCC has flagged.

Do I have to cut my prices to take part in Black Friday?

No. Black Friday is a moment when shoppers are paying attention, and you can use that attention without moving your price. Bundles, gifts with purchase, early access and bonus gift cards all make buying this weekend worthwhile while your margin stays put, and you skip the awkward job of putting prices back up in December.

How long must an item sell at the 'was' price before I can advertise a saving?

The ACCC doesn't set a fixed number of days. Its guidance says a sale price can mislead if the item wasn't sold at the higher price for a reasonable period right before the sale, and what's reasonable depends on the circumstances. Keep dated records of your normal prices, and check the ACCC's guidance or get legal advice if you're unsure.

Is a gift with purchase safer than a price cut?

It avoids was/now comparisons, but it has rules of its own. The ACCC says a business must provide a promised gift as offered, within the stated time or a reasonable time, and must tell customers upfront if they have to pay for the gift's delivery. Don't nudge the price up to cover it, and order enough stock that Monday's last customer gets the same gift as Friday's first.

What should I measure over Black Friday weekend?

Count more than takings. Track new email and SMS sign-ups, average spend, bundles and gift cards sold, and which channel each code came from. Then compare December spending from new subscribers with the rest of your list, because the weekend's real value often shows up a month later.

Add something to Black Friday 2027

If your Black Friday plan is about giving shoppers more rather than charging them less, a room full of women on a great night out is a natural place to show it off. Send us your extra and your towns, and we'll come back with the nights and channels that suit it. Why Paint Juicy CONNECT? Because Paint Juicy connects!

Talk to Paint Juicy CONNECT about Black Friday 2027

Want a feel for the nights your offer could sit in? Pick your state.

Keep reading

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• How to plan a product sampling campaign: nine steps from goal to follow-up
  Plan a product sampling campaign that does more than hand out freebies: goal, format, legal checks, follow-up and measurement. Grab the checklist.
• Boutique marketing ideas: event marketing for fashion boutiques and labels
  Boutique marketing ideas for a seated night out: styling moments, try-ons that actually work, Town Pass offers and how to measure them. Read the playbook.