I Made $74,050 in 9 Days with No Discounts or Paid Ads

I went to the mall with my 8-month old son to get his first Santa photo this year.

What I saw inside that mall… disgusted me.

Retailers had “30% off Black Friday” signs plastered all over their windows and even inside their stores. Mind you… this was in early November.

Whyyy? Let’s be honest. Retailers are getting too soft.

This year, I saw Black Friday sales starting on November 1st. And now that we’ve passed Black Friday Cyber Monday… “extended” holiday sales.

This reeks of desperation… Come buy our stuff! We’ll pamper you with the best deals!

Reminds me of those hole-in-the-wall bars in Seoul, South Korea where promoters are outside on the streets handing out flyers for free appetizers, free drinks, free whatever… just to get you into their bar.

No, screw that. I did an experiment this year during our Black Friday Cyber Monday…

For 9 days, I pushed hard. Results are in…

Our best 9-day period this entire year… without:

• Promotional discounts

• Paid ads

• Sales

That’s like cruising to a Super Bowl win without using any timeouts or challenges. (Bad analogy? Maybe.)

How did I pull this off? 3 strategies.

Collaboration Partnerships

We partnered up with other makers and designers who had a huge cult-like following for their work. When word got out that we were dropping their gear, they went nuts.

We built hype around our drop event together, generating even more demand and awareness. We had a huge spike in new customers.

Mind you… it took me 9 YEARS to build these types of relationships.

9 years ago, I was getting rejected left and right.

The point is.. start somewhere, build relationships with others in your industry, and collaborate together on a project.

If you do it right, it’s a win-win-win situation.

You get new customers from pigging backing off your collaborator’s audience, your collaborator is introduced to your audience, elevating their brand presence, plus customers get to buy something cool that’s never been offered before.

Limited Supply

How can you sell more of your products at full retail price if all your competitors are offering something similar for 50% off? Good question.

It’s not an easy task. But, the golden rule is…

Don't compete on price – let your customers compete for your products.

Create a new release drop event where you have limited supply. This creates urgency.

Now, if customers want your product regardless of whether it’s discounted or not, they HAVE to buy your products if they want it… fast. Otherwise, they’ll miss out.

Fear of missing out is a powerful motivator.

Consumers want to participate in something exciting. And they’re willing to pay full price for it.

You just have to provide the right environment and the right product.

New Product Drop

We released a new black model of our best-selling product named F5.5 on Black Friday.

We marketed the event as "Blackwashed F5.5 on Black Friday" playing off the "black" and "friday" theme.

At $349, it was one of our most expensive models of the product.

But, it sold out fast. Full retail price. No discounts.

Honestly? I was shocked.

Here I am… selling the most expensive product offering with no discounts on the same day all my competitors were fire-selling their entire shop for 30-40% off.

Experiment was a success… $74,050.37 sold in 9 days (our best this year) without hurting our brand image.

As for those Santa photos we took? Here they are – happy holidays!

'Til next time,
Yong-Soo

P.S. I’m loving the vibe on Threads - come find me!