Black Friday and Christmas are a prime opportunity for running special offers and promotions. 

But remember your pricing and promotions must be fair and legal. 

Check out this survival guide for running fair Black Friday and Christmas sales. 

Don't inflate the original price to make discounts seem bigger. Ensure your original price reflects a regular price at which the product has been offered recently. 

For instance, if you're advertising a TV as "50% off," make sure it was actually sold at the original price for a reasonable period. 

If you routinely sell products at a promotional price, then the promotional price becomes the usual selling price.

Avoid blanket statements such as “Everything 50% Off” or “All electronics half price” when there are a great number of exclusions, for example if only a small selection of electronics is half price. 

Techniques like countdown timers and limited stock notifications can create a sense of urgency and can increase a customer’s fear of missing out. 

While not illegal if true, these tactics discourage price comparisons and finding better deals elsewhere. 

For example, if you advertise a "limited edition Christmas barbecue set" as "selling fast" this may be misleading if you have plenty in stock. 

Always ensure the information is accurate and can be supported by information you hold. 

Highlighting customer reviews or customers who have previously purchased goods can be effective marketing tools, but only if they are authentic. 

Publishing fabricated reviews or inflated sales numbers is misleading and illegal.

If you use genuine reviews to attract customers, ensure you play fair and do not cherry-pick just the best ones or use outdated reviews that don't reflect the current products.

Black Friday and Christmas are busy sales periods. All the more reason why you should regularly monitor stock levels and update your website to avoid advertising unavailable items. 

There's nothing worse than a customer excited about a gift they can't buy, and advertising items that you cannot supply is illegal. 

Gift cards are a popular choice for Christmas presents. You might have heard that there's a new law coming into effect in March 2026. 

This law says that gift cards can't have an expiry date that's shorter than 3 years. All gift cards will need to tell you when they expire or say that they don't expire at all. 

As a business owner, you now have until March 2026 to prepare for the upcoming changes.

Find out more information from the Commerce Commission's website:

Pricing your products or services(external link) — Commerce Commission