Avoid Black Friday and Shop Small Instead

This year, I have decided not to hold Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales. For me, this has been a difficult decision having had a successful weekend in the past. Well, I say successful, the orders have come in, but when I dare to look at my profit margins a week later and find out if it was worth it, I have found I have more or less given some products away for free!

I know these annual sale events are great for some items, TVs, furniture and the like, and for huge shops with even bigger profit margins, it works very well, though even that's questionable sometimes when you look at the mark downs. 

However, when it comes to small businesses, and especially craft businesses when the mark ups are very low indeed, this just doesn't make sense. I try my best to keep my products' prices as low as possible for my customers all year round in the hope of encouraging them to take up this amazing craft, or to feed their pre-existing sewing addiction. This makes it harder for me to offer such huge discounts.

As you know if you subscribe to my Newsletter, I do offer introductory discounts on kits and other products nearly every week. I also hold a couple of sales through the year and often offer free postage weekends. I would much rather offer my customers discounts throughout the year, rather than trying to compete with large organisations' ridiculous discounts over this one weekend. 

So this year, instead of offering knock down prices my business is unable to sustain, I am going to celebrate Small Business Saturday on the weekend of December 7th - 8th. I feel this event does much more for us small businesses, encourages customers to think before they buy and to support small and local shops. We do live in uncertain times at the moment, and while the big firms are doing their 'thing', I believe it will be the small independent businesses that will shine through all this mess. 

While a growing amount of people are thinking more carefully about what to spend their money on, I encourage you to also think about where your money is going... to a huge multi-national who cares very little about their customer or the quality of their product? Or to a small company who carry their passion for their business all the way through to their customer service and final product. We care what about our customers think, what they feel and appreciate every penny spent with us!

So when you think about your gift shopping this year, please help support your local shops and those small online businesses who, while they can't compete with the big corporations of this world, can instead offer you a much more genuine, friendly and caring service while being thoughtful in what they offer to their customer. 

During this weekend, I would like to offer, a much more sustainable discount of £5.00 off when you spend £35 or more on the Sewmotion website. This offer will run over the weekend of Saturday 7th until midnight on Sunday 8th December. Simply use the code SmallBizSat at checkout.

There will also be some extra offers available to my Newsletter subscribers over the weekend - so why not click below to sign up now and not miss out.

Wishing you all a happy and creative week, linking up with Midweek Makers and Needle & Thread Thursday

Small Business Saturday Offer

How on earth did December come around so quickly!?! I guess I’ve been so busy lately concentrating on Stockton Sparkles Christmas Market, that I didn’t have time to think about what came after that! But then, before you know it, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are upon you, and suddenly it’s nearly Christmas.

I have to admit, I share many crafters’ and makers’ opinions on these two American phenomenons and feel I would be demeaning my handmade crafted items by offering discounts just to follow the crowd. I spend many hours designing and making, usually one-off items, that I think are worth the money I ask, I’ve often have very tight margins anyway due to the time it takes to make them. So I don’t think offering money off on big marketing days to people who think they’re getting a bargain would really show my handmade items the love their deserve.

However, having said that I do support another American invention, Small Business Saturday, which is happening this weekend.

This event is very different from those other two in that it is held to promote small businesses like Sewmotion and to encourage people to shop with us rather than with large multi-nationals on the high street. Thanks to E-shopping this event is larger than ever and is promoted on every social media platform imaginable. Of course, there are also bricks and mortar shops all over the UK taking part, to find shops local to you visit Small Business Saturday’s great search facility on their website.

To show my appreciation to you lovely people who do shop with us small businesses, Sewmotion is offering a 10% discount on everything across all three of our outlets – sewmotion; Folksy & Etsy. 

 

This offer will run from Saturday 5^th December to Monday 7^th December (midnight). Just enter the discount code SmallBizSat10 at the checkout. I have some different items in each shop, so it’s worth looking at all three. 

If you would like to take advantage of this offer to order one of my cushions in colours of your choice, contact me here.

 

There is also still FREE UK POSTAGE by 2^nd class Royal Mail – the last postage date for this service to be safe for Christmas, is Saturday 19^th December. If you wish to pay for 1^st class postage, the last date before Christmas is Monday 21^st (as recommended by Royal Mail).

On another note, I would just like to thank everyone who braved the weather last weekend and showed their support for Stockton Sparkles – I met some lovely people, many as addicted to quilting and fabric as I am, and others on the verge… with a little help from me of course! As requested I will be working on more pre-cut quilt kits and patterns in the New Year, I can’t wait to spread some quilting love.

Looking for some quilting inspiration and fun? Why not pop over to Sew Fresh Quilt’s Let's Bee Social and say hello to some very talented people.