Whenever they call a day “black”, you know something bad is going to happen. On the Friday after Thanksgiving, I wanted to vomit. Not because I ate too much, but because of the destruction done to the U.S. economy. As a purveyor of value creation, I find Black Friday repugnant. Even if you are not a retailer, there are lessons here for all of those fighting off commoditization.

U.S. retailing used to be the Pareto Principle in action, with as much as 75%-80% of profits being realized in the 4^th quarter. The holiday season has turned into a race of who can open the earliest, and sell the cheapest flat screen TV (you could have bought a 42 inch flat screen at Best Buy for $199).

Last year I was talking to a corporate Vice President who was quite happy with herself after doing all of her Christmas shopping on a single day (I believe 4 AM is still the middle of the night if you want to get technical). I asked her, “how many items did you buy”, “17” she said. “How many were on sale” I asked- “17” she replied.  The defense rests.

Retailers work on “blended margin”, the ability to attract customers with lower priced goods, only to flip them to higher margin products.  In grocery stores, staples such as milk which are very low margin are at the back of the store, and higher margin produce and deli at the front in the “traffic pattern”.  Black Friday represents the destruction of 100 years of merchandising evolution, and creates a frenzy of deep discounts (one shopper in Porter Ranch, CA used pepper spray on another over an Xbox).

Some may argue that the “strategy” is to win shoppers for future trips and control market share. That may work for the low price leader (WalMart), but it doesn’t work for other retailers and boutiques. Those are the retailers trying to train their customers to realize the value of their service, knowledge, and unique offerings, and may only have one or two shots at the buying crazed mother with three kids.

Here is the single most important and basic business principle one could ever communicate in a business blog: prices should be high when demand is high, and prices low when demand is low. The destruction of the industry is inevitable if retailers continue to discount the deepest when demand is high. The shame, the shame!

Here is a prime illustration of how deeply this perverse thinking has infiltrated the industry. Recently I was shopping at Macy’s, selected a garment and brought it to the register, clearly marked with the price I was willing to pay. The cashier pulls out a coupon and says, I can give you another 25% off.  The defense moves for an immediate verdict your honor.

Defenders will say that the competition made me do it. What competition? China, WalMart, Best Buy? The true answer is Amazon and other online retailers who have changed the game forever, and this year kicked in free shipping to make their offer more compelling (online purchases are predicted to rise another 17% this year). So the real problem is not some evil empire. We have seen the enemy and it is us.

In order to fend off deep discounting:

1. Find products that can co-exist with online purchases. How can your products compliment the deeply discounted products? An iPad offers very little margin to the retailer, but accessories such as head phones and adapters are very high margin and offer the opportunity for repeat business.
2. Reinvent your model so that you are purposeful in selling complimentary goods. If you are going to sell them a gun at cost, you had better have the staff, expertise, merchandising and inventory to sell them some bullets as well.
3. Teach your employees the profit formula. Most of your employees think you are making a ton of margin on those handguns, so you need to teach and incent based on your objective of selling more ammo (I would have picked a more pleasant example but I am feeling like a curmudgeon after all of this discounting).
4. Provide the ultimate in-store experience that rivals or beats the online experience. Perhaps customers can see, touch and feel products that are shipped to them later, or to their loved ones.
5. Select targets (product, location, etc.) that are less vulnerable to price attacks from discounters and online retailers.

Let the treasure hunters go to the competition; they are the least loyal of shoppers and you can’t make any money selling to them anyway.

With the sluggish selling season will be plenty of opportunities for deep discounts. Deep discounting marginalizes a business (unless you are the low cost leader). Retailers may need to offer products at cost, but should do so with a clear pricing strategy built on balancing market share and profit.

Featured Image Credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/gadgetdude/4139596800/