Black Friday Weekend 2024 Delivers Big Wins for MI Retailers

Last weekend’s Black Friday and Small Business Saturday kicked off the official start of the 2024 holiday shopping season. For independent MI retailers, it also marked a crucial moment to connect with customers and drive end-of-year sales. Music Inc. reached out to several dealers across the country to gauge how the weekend unfolded, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with many retailers reporting a strong turnout for both shopping days.

Mad Music in Chandler, Arizona, focused on Small Business Saturday by promoting deals starting in mid-November. Its approach, which also included strategic social media engagement and a unique lesson incentive, resonated with customers and delivered strong results.

“We promoted Small Business Saturday to encourage customers to ‘shop small’ over the weekend,” said Adam Daut, co-owner of Mad Music. “We know people want to support small businesses, but they often aren’t aware of Small Business Saturday. We shared posts on social media that listed ways to support small businesses: shop small, write positive reviews, engage on social media, and tell friends and family. The reception was great! We had engagement from our followers on social media about Small Business Saturday.”

Mad Music’s Small Business Saturday success also stemmed from promotions tailored to the season and customer needs. While product discounts drew shoppers into the store, it was the unique lesson promotion that set them apart.

“Customers have responded well to our promotions as we head into the holiday shopping season,” said Michelle Daut, co-owner. “While many customers expect deals on products, they are pleasantly surprised when we inform them about our lesson promotion. With a purchase of an instrument, we waive the registration fee for customers who enroll in music lessons with us. Customers are often excited at the opportunity to learn and play the instrument they’ll be getting for the holidays!”

Mad Music plans to continue its lesson promotion throughout December, this way there’s an incentive for customers who purchase instruments to return as they learn to play an instrument in the new year.

“This time of year, we see an increased interest in musical instruments, such as guitars, ukuleles and drum kits,” Adam said. “Many customers are still getting ideas for gifts, but many of them will return to purchase what they looked at on their first visit. If trends are anything like the previous couple years, we will have a lot of interest in acoustic and electric guitars for the holiday season.“

Marcia Stearns, owner of Bookmark Music in Pacific Grove, California, reported that her store had a significantly better Black Friday weekend by double compared to last year. Bookmark Music has long been a proud supporter of Small Business Saturday.

“We started a countdown to Christmas sale that kicked off Black Friday and Small Business Saturday,” Stearns explained. “Every Tuesday, we post on social media the next thing that’s being added to the sale through Christmas Day. We started out by discounting some of the gift items that we carry and will deep discount the ukuleles right before Christmas. We have little baskets of things that we put at 50% off that are things we know we’re not going to reorder again, so we may as well get rid of.”

One of Bookmark Music’s standout Small Business Saturday initiatives involved featuring live music performed by local student musicians on the sidewalk outside the store.

“The performances helped attract a big crowd,” Stearns said. “We also had local student musicians playing on our sidewalk, which brought good foot traffic. Every Saturday, [we’ll] have students playing, so it’ll be a different group of students outside the store.”

Due east in Fresno, California, Black Friday weekend was a resounding success for Bentley’s Drum Shop. Owner Dana Bentley reported two bustling days, with eager customers lining up outside the store to support local business and kick off the holiday shopping season.

“It was great,” Bentley said. “We had people waiting at the door to come in at opening, and it was busy all day Friday and Saturday.”

Bentley’s Drum Shop saw particularly strong demand for cymbals and low-volume drum heads, which emerged as the top-selling items of the weekend.

“The response was really good,” Bentley said. “We had many items on sale, and it was a great turnout. Cymbals were at the top of the buying list.” MI