EN
Ihor Nikolenko- What Broke: Four Reasons for the Distrust
- What the Law Says
- Discount or Value: What Actually Sells During the Season
- Five Ways to Sell in Season Without a Discount
- How to Cut Through the Noise Without Shouting
- What to Do If You've Spent Years Training Customers to Wait for Discounts
- In Short
- Frequently Asked Questions
The same thing happens every year in late November. Inboxes fill up with 'up to 70% off' emails, feeds fill up with banners, and shoppers do something they wouldn't have done ten years ago: they open a price-history tracker, compare it to last month, and close the tab. They no longer believe a discount is actually a discount. And they have good reason not to.
Black Friday started as a single day when stores genuinely cleared out inventory and came out ahead for the season. Then it became a week, then a month, then a permanent backdrop. And when a discount is always available, it stops being a discount and becomes the regular price with a red tag on it. Shoppers figured this out before sellers did.
This article covers why trust in seasonal discounts is falling, which tactics finished it off, what the law is doing about it, and most importantly, how to sell during the season when everyone else is shouting about percentages, without cutting your price and without losing the shopper who's long since learned to wait.
What Broke: Four Reasons for the Distrust
The first: a fake 'was' price. The price gets raised a few weeks before the season, just so it can be 'cut' back down to normal. Shoppers see this in price-history trackers and in saved screenshots. It only takes one exposed instance for the entire sale to read as a scam.
The second: the sale that never ends. When 'Black Friday' runs from the start of November through mid-December and flows straight into a 'New Year sale,' shoppers stop perceiving it as an event at all. There's no date to make it by anymore — just a permanent tag.
The third: noise. In a week when every brand is shouting in capital letters, none of them can be heard. An email with '-50%' sits right next to twenty identical ones. Attention gets diluted, and strong offers drown alongside the weak ones.
The fourth: trained behavior. Shoppers know a discount is coming, so they don't buy at full price beforehand. And when the season arrives, they only buy what they were already planning to buy — at the discount. The seller ends up giving away margin to people who would have paid full price anyway, without gaining any new customers. This is the most expensive of the four reasons, and the one talked about least.
What the Law Says
Regulators have noticed the same thing shoppers have. In the European Union, since the adoption of the so-called Omnibus Directive, a seller announcing a discount has to disclose the lowest price the product was sold at during a defined period before the discount. This is aimed directly at 'raise it, then cut it.' Separately, the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive lists false claims of limited availability among the banned practices.
Ukraine's consumer protection law is moving in the same direction, and ad platforms are getting stricter about false discounts in creative as well. You should check the exact wording in the current version of the law for your jurisdiction, but the trend is the same everywhere: the 'was' price has to be real, and the limit has to be genuine. What a shopper recognizes as a scam, a regulator calls a violation.
Discount or Value: What Actually Sells During the Season
A discount answers one question: 'why buy it cheaper.' But during the season, shoppers are actually asking a different one: 'why buy it here, and right now.' You can answer that without a single percentage sign. Compare the two approaches.
| Trait | A season built on discounts | A season built on value |
|---|---|---|
| What's limited | The price, for a set period | The contents of the offer, access, quantity |
| Who buys | People who were already planning to, plus discount hunters | People who specifically need this configuration right now |
| What happens to margin | Given away to everyone | Preserved; the added value costs less than a discount would |
| What happens after the season | The shopper waits for the next discount | The shopper knows the price is stable and the season offers something else |
| What happens to trust | Spent down with every '-70%' | Builds up, as long as the offer is genuine |
Seasonal value is something that only exists during this window and won't exist afterward: an expanded package, access to a private format, a gift that makes sense right now, priority in line. The price stays exactly the same, and shoppers notice that. They see that you're not playing games with the numbers — and that's exactly what makes them buy from you while everyone else is still playing them.
Five Ways to Sell in Season Without a Discount
- A bundle instead of a percentage. The core product plus something that costs you little but the customer needs: an extra module, a consultation, extended warranty, an accessory. The bundle price stays the same as the core product's price off-season, or slightly higher. The customer gets more, and you don't give away margin.
- Early access for insiders. Subscribers, community members, and past customers get the offer a few days before everyone else. This is a limit on access instead of a limit on price, and it doesn't trigger pushback — if anything, it thanks the people who are already with you.
- Locking in the price before an increase. If the price is genuinely going up in the new year — because functionality is being added, or costs are changing — the season becomes the last window at the current price. That's not a discount; it's an honest fact about the future.
- A limited quantity instead of a limited time. A set number of bundles, spots, or hours, after which the form closes. The number is real, it changes, and it actually reaches zero.
- A seasonal format. Something that only exists during this window: an intensive, a group start, a private live session, a limited edition. Once the season ends, the format disappears. There's nowhere for it to get cheaper.
All five rest on the same principle: what's limited isn't the price — it's something else. That means none of them can be exposed by a price-history tracker, and none of them leave shoppers waiting for 'the next discount' after the season, because there never was one.
How to Cut Through the Noise Without Shouting
In a week when everyone else is writing in caps, the person who writes calmly is the one who gets heard. An email without '-70%' in the subject line stands out in an inbox precisely because it doesn't look like all the others. A page that opens with what the person will get gets read to the end; a page that opens with a percentage gets closed.
In practice, that means an email subject line built on a fact instead of a percentage; a first screen built on the offer instead of a price tag; one honest deadline with a reason instead of three 'last chances'; and, after closing, an email telling people it's closed. That last part is what builds your reputation for next season: the shopper sees that you kept your word, and won't be waiting for an extension next year.
Tone deserves its own mention. Seasonal advertising has grown used to shouting. A calm statement of fact — 'through Sunday, the bundle includes the extra module; from Monday, it's back to the standard version' — sounds more premium than any exclamation point, and in my experience converts just as well. People are tired of being shouted at. Give them a fact instead.
What to Do If You've Spent Years Training Customers to Wait for Discounts
This is the hardest question. Your audience expects percentages, and the first season without them will bring fewer payments from discount hunters. That's normal — you're losing the least loyal segment and preserving margin on everyone else. But the transition should be made transparently.
Say it directly: there won't be discounts this year, and here's why — the price stays stable all year, and the season offers something else instead. Show exactly what that is. Give your insiders early access, so they feel that being with you pays off even without percentages. And hold the line for one full season, without caving to 'okay fine, -10% on the last day.' The second season will be easier: your audience will believe the rules have actually changed.
For an online store, this is also a question of how your catalog and cart are built: can customers assemble a bundle, is early access visible, does the form actually close at zero. I cover these mechanics in the 'Express Store 2.0' course, where the season sells through the structure of the offer, with no price tag involved at all. And if you need to work out, in a single conversation, exactly what should replace the discount in your specific product, there's the 60-minute consultation with a 30-day plan — just enough time to put together a seasonal offer before the end of November.
In Short
- Trust in Black Friday is falling for four reasons: fake 'was' prices, an endless sale, noise, and shoppers trained to wait for the discount.
- Regulators require a real 'was' price and ban fake claims of limited availability; what a shopper sees as a scam, the law calls a violation.
- A discount answers 'why cheaper'; the shopper is actually asking 'why here and now.' You can answer that without a single percentage.
- Five ways to sell without a discount: a bundle, early access for insiders, locking in the price before a real increase, a limited quantity, a seasonal format.
- A calm tone and a plain fact cut through the noise; a bigger percentage just adds to it.
- Make the shift from discounts to value transparent, and hold the line for one full season without caving.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this mean discounts don't work at all?
They work — as a tool for clearing out inventory, or for acquiring new customers on a first product. They stop working as an annual ritual applied to your entire lineup, because they turn into the expected price. The question isn't 'should I discount' — it's 'what exactly is this discount supposed to do, and am I giving away margin to people who would have paid full price anyway.'
How do I compete with stores offering -50%?
Not with the same weapon. A shopper for whom the percentage is the whole point will go to them regardless. Your shopper is the one who needs the right configuration, support, access, and stability. Speak to that person. A discount hunter isn't going to hear you either way.
Can I combine value with a small discount?
You can, if the discount is real and the reason is clear — a price for prepaying before the season starts, for example. But don't put the percentage in the headline; let the value be read first, with the discount as a detail in the terms. Otherwise everything collapses into a comparison of percentages, and that's a game you'll lose.
What should I put in the email subject line if not a percentage?
What the person will get, and until when. 'Bundle with the extra module, through Sunday' reads better than '-40% today only,' because it doesn't look like the twenty other emails sitting next to it, and it states a fact instead of making a promise.
