How to gain consumer trust this Black Friday – and all year long

Winning over skeptical shoppers is a critical component of Black Friday success that pays dividends throughout the holiday season and beyond. 

For most retailers, the holiday shopping season has already been underway for at least a few weeks and possibly longer. But Black Friday still looms as the centerpiece of “Cyber Week,” a five-day sales blitz that runs from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday and typically includes at least two of the highest-grossing individual retail revenue-generating days of the year.

[READ MORE: Holiday shopping season has begun – here’s how to keep pace]

A recent survey from Omni Calculator revealed that a vast majority of U.S. shoppers don’t trust the discount prices they see posted on Black Friday (more on that in a moment). That got me thinking about how important consumer trust is to a successful Black Friday promotion, as well as to having a profitable holiday season and to maintaining good results the other 10 months of the year.

So here are a few ideas on how to make sure your Black Friday shoppers trust you, and then carry that trust through the end of year and into 2027:

Honesty in pricing and beyond

More than eight-in-10 (85%) U.S. adult consumers surveyed by Omni Calculator suspect retailers of playing games with Black Friday prices. This includes 59% who believe retailers raise prices in the weeks before the sale and then cut them back to normal, 54% who think stores advertise a "was" price that the item never really sold at and 53% who suspect fake low-stock claims.

Suspicious shoppers check out fishy Black Friday prices with solutions and strategies such as looking up price history, asking an AI chatbot and using a price-tracking browser extension. It’s safe to assume that when shoppers discover a retailer is playing fast and loose with Black Friday discounts, it goes on their naughty list and stays there long after the holiday lights come down.

With all the technologies available to assist customers in investigating sale prices, retailers are well advised to not engage in practices like artificially inflating a price right before they cut it for Black Friday. They also should avoid the controversial practice of surveillance pricing – or arbitrarily setting a price based on a shopper’s individual behavioral or demographic data –  or “surge pricing,” which conspicuously increases prices during peak demand periods. Both practices are wildly unpopular with consumers and even illegal in some jurisdictions.

Beyond pricing, retailers should also be forthright about factors like product availability and expected shipping times, as consumers who discover dishonest practices in areas like these will also probably be inclined to give those retailers a lump of coal instead of their hard-earned money.

Many happy returns

It’s no secret that consumers are returning items at higher volumes, with larger numbers engaging in practices like “bracketing,” or intentionally purchasing several variations of the same item with the intention of keeping the one that best suits their needs.

In response, many retailers are clamping down on their returns policies. Some practices, like flagging customers who return products at egregious rates and cracking down on fraudulent returns, make sense. But generally restricting returns or imposing fees may save a few dollars up front and cost numerous dollars in lost sales down the road.

Almost two-in-three U.S. online shoppers recently polled by Loop have either stopped shopping with a retailer or abandoned a purchase because of its return policy. Roughly six-in-10 say they always or often check a retailer's returns policy before making an online purchase and more than nine-in-10 say return fees affect how they shop online in some way. 

However, one finding from the survey offers a silver lining for retailers who may want to generate at least some income from returns. More than one-third (36%) of respondents would be willing to pay a fee for a premium online returns experience.

AI – as much or little as the customer wants

In the 1970s, Burger King  used the advertising slogan “Have it your way” to let customers know they could create custom burgers with any toppings they wanted. As Black Friday approaches and consumer use of artificial intelligence shopping technology climbs, retailers should take the same approach to their customer-facing AI tools.

A new survey from financial services company Synchrony and Oxford Economics reveals shoppers are most comfortable using AI for lower-risk tasks such as searching for products, comparing prices and applying discounts.

However, only 43% are comfortable letting AI purchase up to a preset limit and 37% are comfortable allowing AI to automatically purchase regularly used products. All this means retailers do need to take steps like making sure their product descriptions are compatible with agentic shopping bots and offering shopping experiences inside next-gen AI models like ChatGPT.

But it also means retailers need to offer shoppers a wide range of AI capabilities and then step back and let them control their experience. Trust your customers to choose the AI functionality they need, and they will trust you.