Every year I see stores starting their Black Friday earlier and earlier in the month, or even in October.
A tactic that might work better in the long-term is to offer early access as a perk to your loyal customers.
Instead of just discounting everything early, you give your most loyal customers "VIP access to Black Friday deals" using a personal coupon code. This would incentive them to order early (instead of ordering from a competitor) as a reward for their loyalty.
Then when Black Friday starts you'd expire the coupons and set your prices as you intended originally.
It's a simple tactic that could be an early boost to the season. You'd get to spread out the orders, get paid sooner, and reward your most loyal customers.
If you're not sure who to send this to, use the Who Are Loyal dashboard in Repeat Customer Insights. I'd recommend either your VIP customers or your Above Average customers. Or even offer it to VIPs two weeks early and Above Average one week early.
Eric Davis
Measure your customer loyalty
Measure the different levels of customer loyalty with Repeat Customer Insights. It uses various models to segment and grade your customers based on their behavior.