Black Friday promotions are about selling a lot of product quickly. In 2018, retail sales on the day spiked by +292%, while sales on the following Saturday, Sunday and Monday also showed an increase of over +100% against the previous month.* With high competition and such a small window of frenzied activity, the deals need to be spot on.
Our youth community has revealed the top Black Friday deals students want. Follow our tips and we guarantee you’ll excite these customers.
1) Mobile phone contracts
While we don’t like to stereotype, it’s probably no surprise that this one made the Black Friday deals list. For a generation of digital natives, smartphones are essential. But a student’s monthly budget can only stretch so far. That’s why those looking for top-of-the-range tech will have their eyes peeled for a bargain this November. Big discounts on flagship phones or affordable mobiles look set to do well this year.
These users let us know what they’re after:
“Looking for an iPhone XS deal for Black Friday…”
“Really interested in this. Hope to find something.” (in response to our Black Friday Android deals thread)
“Any deals on phones in the £300-£400 range need to be measured against how damn good the Pocophone is at under £299.”
2) Gaming and consoles
Over 287,000 users engaged with our “Entertainment Lovers” content in the last thirty days alone.** A recent study by Voxburner found that the students of this generation (that’s Gen Z by the way) are spending more on nights in. That means there’s plenty of demand for home entertainment, like games consoles and Netflix (read youth marketing trends for more on Gen Z).
Users said:
“I hope they do a deal with a [Nintendo] Switch and Zelda 
“
“D.S. Lite or DSI is the way forward”
“Why aren’t console prices coming down?”
3) Laptops and MacBooks
One of the key motivations for students to look for Black Friday deals is to save on the bigger items. 50% or even 10% off a premium piece of kit like a MacBook can save a student over a hundred pounds. That’s a lot of extra study materials, drinks or clothes they can afford next month.
Students are already sharing their recommendations on our threads:
“The Surface Laptop is an excellent device and one of the cheapest ultrabook devices on the market. “
“The New Huawei computer is amazing, though a bit expensive.”
“Macbook air, it’s so light and easy to carry around and has such lovely features (brightness changes automatically based on the brightness of the room).”
We also asked users what Black Friday deals they wanted, here are a few responses:
“Laptops 100%”
“Laptop as mine is too slow”
4) Fashion and beauty
Image and personal identity are very important to young people. Students buy everything from concealers to costumes, so a great deal on a luxury beauty product is bound to hit their radar. Why not check out our fashion and beauty forum? Over 457,000 users are engaging with our fashion and beauty content seeking advice, offers and product recommendations. We’re seeing a spike in interest for deals at high street beauty retailers.
Here are some great opportunities to sell to students on our forums:
“I’m looking for good hair salons where prices aren’t too outrageous.”
“Like honestly…I don’t even wear makeup most of the time because it’s just too expensive! How do people manage to buy all these products from big brands on a uni budget?”
“H&M, Next, Zara, New Look, River Island, Monsoon, Bershka, Missguided are a few of my faves.”
“ASOS is the place for me.”
5) Christmas presents
Isn’t that heartwarming? One of the key trends on our site was students looking for deals to treat their loved ones. So why not take advantage of this and include “Great gift for dad” style messaging in your Black Friday offers? Low hassle items like subscription boxes and experiences get a great response.
Here are a few hints on what they will be buying this year:
“My gf has heavily hinted that she wants some new ghds for Christmas this year but I have no idea which ones to get or where to find the cheapest price and I don’t want to spend more than I have to. Anyone know the best place to find good GhDs or if there are any Black Friday offers ever on them?”
“I am planning on getting my parents the Amazon Fire TV stick [in the Black Friday sales]”
“For Xmas my girlfriend has asked me to get her a Pandora ring.”
We’re launching the Black Friday Hub on The Student Room this year. Get in touch to find out how you can promote Black Friday deals students want on our student deals pages.
We know that Black Friday really starts a lot earlier and runs until at least Cyber Monday, so we’ll ensure your campaign runs at the peak interest times.
“I’m more into that Cyber Monday, I need a new TV.” – user on The Student Room
You can also download our Black Friday media pack here or call 0800 999 3222 to get in touch with our team.
Notes:
* Research on 2018 Black Friday retail sales by Criteo
** Benchmarking report: The number of users (devices and browsers) we can target who have viewed relevant content e.g. “Gaming forum” (data from Oct 2019)
Author: Katie Hale