Australian shoppers are expected to spend $6.8 billion this Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) , according to the Australian Retailers Association.
For e-commerce founders, this represents one of the year’s biggest opportunities for growth.
But the challenge has intensified.
Temu has increased Australian ad spending by 110% (ABC News), while Shein has ramped up theirs by 160% (AdNews). Yet some local businesses are finding ways to outperform these rivals during critical sales periods.
We spoke with three brand leaders who’ve run multiple BFCM campaigns to learn what they wish they’d known before their first sale – and the mistakes they urge other founders to avoid.
Here Drew Mansur from Verandah, a house of renovation brands; Josh Mihan, owner of fragrance brand ‘Mihan Aromatics’; and Carolyn Bilzon from Frank and Arlo, a designer dog brand, share their insights.
The discount trap that kills margins
At key sales periods, Drew believes most founders go ‘too deep, too fast’.
“Unless you are getting factory-backed savings on your cost of goods, the discount is just coming straight off your margin. You need to make a lot more sales to offset a reduced margin,” he said.
“Plenty of brands would be better off discounting less to preserve margin so they don’t have such a big volume hole they need to dig themselves out of.”
Josh agrees, having made the same mistake early on.
“A mistake we have made in the past is doing a flat percentage off storewide – because this captures all products and you don’t want to discount strong performers,” he said.
Josh’s solution? Protect your winners: “Great-selling products, we don’t discount – we keep them at full price.”
This year, Josh has switched to an ‘up to a percentage off’ campaign to protect his best-selling products from unnecessary markdowns.
Competing with the giants
Temu and Shein aren’t just winning on price, they’re also winning on infrastructure.
Both retail giants have built systems that let them build and test thousands of creative variations. That constant iteration increases performance.
AI is finally giving smaller businesses access to that same creative speed. You don’t need a huge team to compete, just the right tools. That’s what levels the playing field.
The shipping crunch nobody warns you about
For Drew, the biggest mistake wasn’t about marketing – it was logistics.
“Plan and ship inventory early. There is a crunch on containers arriving just before Black Friday – don’t be in the crunch,” he said.
Carolyn also knows this pain well. For higher-priced products with high minimum order quantities, the cash flow challenge is real.
After multiple false starts with BFCM, her advice is blunt:
“You’ve got to have stock and have it planned for the moment. Unfortunately, with Black Friday, the cost of ads is higher, and the competition is fierce, but you must be in there. Ensure you have enough stock.”
Get the basics right, or don’t bother
Participating in BFCM without the right foundations will hurt your brand more than it helps.
Drew puts it plainly: “If the brand is literally brand new, you don’t want to overwhelm it with a bunch of orders that it can’t handle and give all your earliest customers a terrible experience. If your systems are already bedded in, you can give it a nudge.”
Frank&Arlo founder Carolyn Bilzon
Carolyn’s journey reinforces this. After years of struggles with poor websites and photography, she finally addressed the fundamentals. “Get the basics down first” she said.
Her BFCM checklist? “Have enough stock and make sure your website looks schmick (it needs to be trustworthy).” She’s doing creative right this year. “If you don’t have good creative, you might as well pack up and go home.”
Creative is a non-negotiable, but the challenge for most small brands is they’re stuck choosing between expensive agencies or DIY.
This is the very problem Cuttable solves. Our platform handles the heavy lifting – think coming up with ideas, editing, resizing, generating new variations – so founders can produce agency-quality creative without the agency price tag or timeline.
Simple creative wins
When ad costs spike and competition intensifies, complexity becomes your enemy.
Mihan Aromatics cofounder Josh Mihan
Josh has found success through simplification, pointing out: “You can simplify the ads – there doesn’t need to be heaps of stuff going on. Copy overlay on the ads, with on-brand photography, does well in this instance.”
His data backs this up.
“It’s a good time where static images work very well because of the clear messaging and lower cost per-click,” he said.
“Usually, from our experience, static will always be cheaper for cost per click, versus video with real motion. Copy works well, too.”
This year, Josh is “focused on scaling the ads, and using data from the last two years. We want to double the turnover of last year and we’ll be adjusting our budget based on this.”
The hidden opportunity: post-sale retargeting
The smartest BFCM operators know the sale doesn’t end when the ads stop running.
Josh’s strategy: “Really look at the traffic that visits and doesn’t convert. You can stop the sale on the front end but keep it going in the background for email marketing and convert those customers – that way you make the most of it.”
The trick is protecting brand perception while maximising conversion.
“You don’t want to advertise for too long as it doesn’t look good for the brand. But for email marketing and text messages, you can extend offers discreetly,” he suggests.
Josh now runs a staggered approach.
“This year’s upcoming campaign – a whole week before – is our VIP Day. We’ll run 24-hour VIP days to our current customer email list (customers who have purchased at least two times),” he said
“They’ll get an exclusive offer that’s different from the Black Friday messaging. Then we’ll leave a day’s grace in between, then go into actual advertising for Black Friday the day after.”
When it works, lean in hard
If you find a winning formula during BFCM, this is not the time for caution.
Cuttable cofounders Jack White, Sam Kroonenburg & Ed Ring
“If your ads are doing well – it’s the one time of year you lean in,” Josh said.
“Increase your budget and make the most of it. You don’t want to go on sale too much throughout the year, so when you do, make it count.”
From our perspective, it’s not just the size of Shein and Temu’s ad budgets that make them hard to beat, it’s the creative firepower behind those budgets.
They’ve got armies of designers, editors and animators producing ads around the clock.
Cuttable levels the playing field by putting that same capability into the hands of Aussie businesses – all in their laptop, thanks to AI.
The reality check
BFCM isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay.
Drew wouldn’t necessarily jump in with a brand-new launch.
He says, “If we were launching a brand today, would we participate in BFCM? Probably not – it depends on how fresh the launch is.”
Carolyn’s experience tells the same story. After spending, “tens of thousands on programs,” she’s learnt to be selective with partners.
The founders who win at BFCM aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets – they’re the ones who’ve learnt these lessons the hard way, protected their margins, built strong foundations, experimented with creative, and aren’t afraid to share what didn’t work.
- Sam Kroonenburg is the founder of A Cloud Guru, acquired for $2 billion in 2021; and now Cuttable, an AI creative agency for SME eCommerce brands.
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