We've been getting a ton of questions about whether we'll be running a sale for Black Friday / Cyber Monday, and we thought it’d be easier to answer everyone in this blog post.
Will there be a sale during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, [insert your favorite holiday weekend]?
TL;DR: For the third year in a row, we will not be having a sale for Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Our goal is to offer the best possible family travel gear at the best possible price we’re able to year-round. Unlike many companies, we refuse to sell our products at a higher price point during the year and then have them be cheaper during specific promotional periods like Black Friday. We know that parents have travel needs year-round, and we don’t want anyone to feel like they “missed” on a discount if they had to travel outside of these peak shopping holidays.
“Buy One, Give one (to a family in need)” Campaign
On the flip side, we hope to tap into one of our favorite parts of this time of year: giving. We have multiple exciting social impact initiatives this holiday season, and our first one is a special one-to-one giveback campaign to benefit families in need through our full-time impact partner, Baby2Baby! For every item purchased on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday, we will donate an identical item to Baby2Baby, supporting the organization’s mission to provide essential items to children in need across the United States. Through this partnership, we want to amplify the social impact of each purchase made during this peak shopping time period!
Additional thoughts around why we aren’t doing a sale.
In case you’re curious, this is something we think about deeply and we wanted to share some additional thoughts around our philosophy:
- We will always pass on savings directly to you. While we didn’t make an announcement about this, we were actually able to get lower shipping rates from UPS due to our growth — and we lowered our shipping costs across the board for everyone so that we can make every purchase as affordable as possible!
- We are always improving, but we aren’t charging more. As many of you saw last year, we introduced a lot of upgrades to the Getaway Bag last year. We listened to your feedback (again) for the Sidekick, and as mentioned above, we’re excited to share those improvements with you on Tuesday. Continuously investing in R&D to ensure we’re always designing the best possible travel gear for parents is the most important thing we can do as a company. Although our costs increase with each improvement, we absorb this cost rather than pass it onto you
- We’re 100% bootstrapped! Unlike most other companies, we aren’t VC-backed or publicly-traded, which means that Daniel and I set modest growth goals and we accept that we’ll be sold out at times (in fact, we’ve always been sold out during the December holidays — oops!). This kind of planning helps us ensure that we’ll always be able to grow sustainably and not be put into flash sale scenarios to meet “growth at all costs” targets / avoid bankruptcy. We’re building for the long-term and our hope is to create a brand that endures the test of time .
- Excessive consumerism vs. conscious consumerism. While we of course love a great bargain in our personal lives, we try to be mindful of making impulse purchases — and as a small business trying to make a positive impact, we definitely do not want to encourage excessive consumerism. Our hope is that our products are ones you’ve researched, thoughtfully considered, and ultimately decide that your family truly needs, and will use them over a long period of time (hence our lifetime warranty)! Basically, we hope they’re the opposite of impulse purchases.
Sorry for such a lengthy post on this topic, but we truly wanted to share everything that’s top of mind for us as we enter Black Friday / Cyber Monday. We know it’s counter to the popular trend, and we hope this post helps explain why .
Gemma + Daniel