Ways to protect your margin on Black Friday
Black Friday doesn't have to mean losing money. Here's how to run a successful sale as a handmade seller without cutting into your margins.
Although it can feel like Black Friday is only for big retailers who can afford to run at a loss, the massive shopping interest it generates can also work for small handmade businesses. If you go in knowing your numbers.
That’s the part most advice leaves out. Everyone tells you what to do for Black Friday. Almost nobody tells you how to figure out how much discount you can actually afford before you commit to one.
The good news: you don’t need huge, margin-destroying discounts to participate. You just need a smarter approach than matching what Target is doing.
Last updated: April 2026.
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Know your true cost before you set a discount
Before you decide on any Black Friday offer, you need one number: what does this product actually cost you to make?
Not the listing price. Not a rough estimate. The real per-unit cost: materials, packaging, your labour, and a share of any overhead. If you don’t have that number, any discount you offer is a guess. And guessing is how makers end up busy through November and somehow worse off in December.
To calculate your true cost, add up:
- Materials: Every ingredient or component used in one unit. If you make a candle with $2.50 worth of wax, $0.80 of fragrance, and a $0.40 wick, your material cost is $3.70.
- Packaging: Boxes, tissue paper, labels, stickers. Anything that goes out the door with the product.
- Labour: Your time. Even if you’re not paying yourself yet, your time has a real value. Divide what you’d want to earn hourly by the number of units you can produce in that hour.
- Overhead: A portion of your workspace costs, tools, insurance, software subscriptions. Everything it takes to run the operation.
Once you have that total, you know your floor. A 20% discount on a $30 candle is $6 off. If your true cost is $22, you’re selling at $24 with a $2 margin. That’s not a sale; that’s nearly a giveaway.
Tools like Craftybase calculate your per-unit cost automatically from your material and labour records, so you’re not guessing when the Black Friday pressure hits.
For more on pricing from the ground up, see our guide on how to price handmade items and how to calculate profit margins.
What Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday actually are
Black Friday is the day immediately after Thanksgiving, traditionally the start of the Christmas shopping season. Retailers have capitalised on this by running prominent discount campaigns under the “Black Friday” banner.
Cyber Monday was coined by marketers in 2005 to extend the momentum online, with deals that mirror or extend Black Friday offers.
Small Business Saturday was founded by American Express in 2010, specifically to give small businesses a moment in the spotlight between Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The key here is that much of the marketing buzz and hype has already been done for you. You just need to decide how to participate. And “participate” doesn’t have to mean “slash your prices.”
Go the distance
Traffic spikes on Black Friday and stays elevated all weekend. Consider running your promotions across the whole extended weekend rather than just one day. More exposure, more chances to convert, without needing a deeper discount to drive urgency.
Timed offers work
Limited-time windows create urgency without requiring bigger discounts. Offer 15% off a specific product from 10am–2pm, then rotate to a different product in the afternoon. It keeps your social media active through the weekend and encourages quick decisions.
Bundle instead of cutting individual prices
A bundle deal protects your margin better than discounting individual items. Offering a bundle of five soaps at $10 off looks like a much better deal to the customer than taking $2 off each bar. The psychology of a “bundle discount” feels more substantial even when the numbers are similar.
The maths also work in your favour. Spread across five items, the discount hits your margin on each one less severely. And bundles often move products you’d otherwise sell more slowly.
Add value rather than cutting price
Think about adding value rather than offering discounts. Keep your prices as listed, and instead provide a free gift with every purchase over a certain value. A free tote bag with every order over $50, for example. Keep the cost of the free item low. Great options: stickers, decals, keychains, greeting cards, or fabric samples.
Customers perceive “free gift” as more generous than a modest percentage discount, even when the financial outlay is equivalent. And you’re not touching your margin on the main product at all.
Gift vouchers bring return customers
Free gift vouchers for sales over a certain value encourage repeat purchases. A smart move going into the holiday shopping season. Something like: a $15 gift certificate for orders over $100. The customer gets something valuable; you get a return visit in December.
Update your social media
Update your banners and backgrounds across your sales channels and social media to include Black Friday wording. Use the hashtags #blackfriday, #smallbusinesssaturday, and #cybermonday for broader reach. Tease your offers a few days beforehand: a “something big is coming” post before the event drives more traffic when the sale goes live.
Create a temporary sale category
On your sales channels, create a temporary product category called “Black Friday” or “Holiday Sale” and list all relevant products under it. This makes it immediately obvious that you’re participating and gives visitors an easy way to find your deals without hunting through your full catalogue.
Calculate the minimum discount you can actually afford
Here’s the practical check before you finalise any offer:
- Take your product’s true cost (materials + labour + packaging + overhead share)
- Subtract it from your planned sale price (the discounted price, not the regular one)
- That’s your margin on the discounted unit
If the result is negative, you’re losing money. If it’s a few dollars, ask whether the volume uplift is worth it. If it’s healthy, you’re in good shape.
Most makers who go into Black Friday with this check done come out the other side feeling fine. Most who skip it end up confused about why a busy November didn’t translate to more money in the bank.
A note on Etsy sales events
Etsy periodically runs promotional sales events tied to the holiday shopping period, where participating sellers get additional visibility within the platform. The terms and eligibility requirements change from year to year, so check your Etsy seller dashboard directly for the current details before setting up your sale. Any specific discount thresholds or date windows stated in older blog posts (including this one) may no longer be accurate.
What stays consistent: Etsy rewards sellers who run genuine, planned sales rather than last-minute scrambles. Getting your promotion set up a week in advance is usually better than rushing on the day.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I calculate my margin for Black Friday sales?
Subtract your true cost per unit (materials + labour + packaging + overhead) from your planned sale price. That number is your margin on the discounted sale. If it's zero or negative, the discount is too deep; you'll be selling at a loss. Tools like Craftybase calculate your per-unit cost automatically from your recipe and material records, so you know this number before committing to any offer.
Should handmade sellers do Black Friday?
Yes, but on your own terms. The traffic and buying intent is real, and you don't need deep discounts to benefit from it. Value-adds, bundles, gift vouchers, and timed offers all work without the margin damage of a straight 30% off. The mistake is copying big-box retailer tactics when your margins are much tighter. Participating smartly is better than either skipping it entirely or discounting recklessly.
How much discount should I offer as a handmade seller?
Only as much as your margin can support, which is why you need to calculate your true cost per unit first. A discount that looks modest (10–15%) can still be profitable if your margins are healthy. A 30% discount can wipe out all profit if your margins are thin. There's no universal "right" number: the right discount is the one that still leaves you with a meaningful margin after the sale. Start with your floor price, then work up from there.
What is bundle pricing for handmade sellers?
Bundle pricing groups several products together at a combined price that's slightly lower than buying each one separately. For handmade sellers, it works well because the discount is spread across multiple items, meaning each individual product takes a smaller margin hit. A bundle of five soaps at $10 off feels like a significant deal to the customer while being cheaper to fund than a per-item discount of the same total value.
How do I track COGS for my Black Friday sales?
Your cost of goods sold (COGS) for Black Friday sales is the same as it is for any other sale: total material and labour cost for the units sold. What changes during a sale period is your revenue per unit (lower), so the COGS-to-revenue ratio gets tighter. Craftybase calculates COGS automatically as orders come in from your sales channels, so you get an accurate picture of what the sale actually cost you. Useful for both margin analysis and end-of-year tax reporting. See our full guide to calculating COGS for handmade products.
Black Friday is an opportunity, not an obligation to lose money. The makers who come out ahead know their true costs going in, pick tactics that protect their margins, and resist the pressure to match discounts that only work for businesses operating at a completely different scale.
Know your floor price. Pick the right tactic for your margins. And enjoy the extra traffic without the post-sale regret.
Start a free trial of Craftybase to track your material costs and know exactly what you can afford to discount — before Black Friday arrives.
