Where are the black Friday / cyber Monday deals?

[Alpha1]

While IPS addon developers have marketplace wide black Friday and cyber Monday deals, here on XenForo only a few developers seem to offer such deals.
Which is too bad, because I think its a good thing for xenforo as a platform. It offers some excitement and positive buzz. Which makes me wonder if there is any guidance from XenForo towards addon developers at all? It seems such a contrast with IPS.

 

[Ozzy47]

It’s not marketplace wide, developers only participate if they choose to, really no different than here. If developers want to offer a discount they do.

 

[Alpha1]

Indeed. That was already clear. No one is forced in the IPS marketplace either. Developers are free to participate or not. I was not suggesting in any way to force anyone to anything. Its still a stark contrast between the bonanza at IPS and crickets here.

Here is an impression:

Random stock photo of Christmas imagery to get you in the mood

The IPS Marketplace Black Friday sale is the largest and premier sale that goes on once a year, exclusively during the Black Friday season. The sale goes from November 11 - November 30, so hurry for the best sales on your holiday themes, must-have plugins, and innovative apps. These will be the lowest prices of the year. Mainly because Marketplace contributors are too damn lazy to do this any other time of the year.

All of the most trusted and respected modders from the IPS community are participating again in our IPS Marketplace Black Friday sale. Our list of participants is a Who's Who of the Invision scene: Spanner, Adriano Faria, Newbie LAC, Mike John, DawPI, onlyME, Fosters, OpenType, Faqole, A Zayed, Invision HQ, Ehren, IBTheme, Pete T, Steve00, Mark Round, TAMAN, Veilon, Heosforo, Lis Koduje, Brian A, Teascu Dorin, and pretty much everyone else.

We're the only third-party forum community that comes together for the Black Friday sale, as a sign of community spirit during the holiday season. We're proud to extend and support Invision Communities in new and wonderful days. As admins of our own Invision communities, we know how important it is to customize the design and functions of our communities and create special experiences for our users.

 

[Paul B]

Indeed. That was already clear. No one is forced in the IPS marketplace either.

It really wasn't, based on your first post.

While IPS addon developers have marketplace wide black Friday and cyber Monday deals

 

[Alpha1]

Fair point. With 'marketplace wide' I mean that there are a large number of developers participating:

All of the most trusted and respected modders from the IPS community are participating again in our IPS Marketplace Black Friday sale. Our list of participants is a Who's Who of the Invision scene: Spanner, Adriano Faria, Newbie LAC, Mike John, DawPI, onlyME, Fosters, OpenType, Faqole, A Zayed, Invision HQ, Ehren, IBTheme, Pete T, Steve00, Mark Round, TAMAN, Veilon, Heosforo, Lis Koduje, Brian A, Teascu Dorin, and pretty much everyone else.

 

[frm]

Fair point. With 'marketplace wide' I mean that there are a large number of developers participating:

An unofficial/official endorsement of aggregated sales going on would be kinda neat to see.

I'd like to see a collaboration of developers next year get together ahead of time to state their times and discounts in one thread posted by XenForo (not endorsing or supporting, but just providing the information) so I don't have to discount hunt developer by developer and see what addons they offer.

 

[imno007]

While IPS addon developers have marketplace wide black Friday and cyber Monday deals, here on XenForo only a few developers seem to offer such deals.
Which is too bad, because I think its a good thing for xenforo as a platform. It offers some excitement and positive buzz. Which makes me wonder if there is any guidance from XenForo towards addon developers at all? It seems such a contrast with IPS.

I imagine it's partly because Black Friday originated in the U.S., and Xenforo are located in the UK? I understand that the US did manage to infect the UK with this particular virus several years ago, but I don't think it really started to spread there until just the last two or three years. So maybe in another year or two Xenforo will finally succumb to it.

 

[Max Taxable]

The whole "Black Friday" thing to me, smacks of "Hey, we've been ripping people off all year, here's what we could actually be charging and still make money!" If they don't participate that's a plus, to me.

 

[frm]

I imagine it's partly because Black Friday originated in the U.S., and Xenforo are located in the UK? I understand that the US did manage to infect the UK with this particular virus several years ago, but I don't think it really started to spread there until just the last two or three years. So maybe in another year or two Xenforo will finally succumb to it.

I'm an American living in Japan and it had only spread in, I think, 2016. Though, I don't think that they fully understand that it's 1 day out of the year as there are Black Friday week(s).

My only suggestion is a collaborated thread on deals, posted by XF (or a volunteer) displaying developers, addons, discounts and times.

Whether XF wants to participate with their core and 1st party addons is up to them, as some developers aren't UKians and do offer deals—there should be an official thread for each holiday discount in my opinion.

 

[frm]

The whole "Black Friday" thing to me, smacks of "Hey, we've been ripping people off all year, here's what we could actually be charging and still make money!" If they don't participate that's a plus, to me.

Not entirely true. Look into the history of Black Friday and its existence: It's to still be profitable, but to give back some of those profits (to non shareholders) through discounting, be it the manufacturer or merchant.

From a marketing standpoint, it gains shopper loyalty.

 

[imno007]

I'm an American living in Japan and it had only spread in, I think, 2016. Though, I don't think that they fully understand that it's 1 day out of the year as there are Black Friday week(s).

My only suggestion is a collaborated thread on deals, posted by XF (or a volunteer) displaying developers, addons, discounts and times.

Whether XF wants to participate with their core and 1st party addons is up to them, as some developers aren't UKians and do offer deals—there should be an official thread for each holiday discount in my opinion.

Right, the biggest reason it's started to spread to other parts of the world is the internet, of course. Other retailers in other parts of the world want to be able to compete with the US when it comes to online sales.

I don't see a collaborated thread happening, or necessarily succeeding if it does. Because of course it would depend on the voluntary participation of addon developers, and having such a thread and not being able to or not wanting to add their own names to such a thread might make it feel a bit like coercion to some of them.

 

[djbaxter]

 

[Robust]

Not entirely true. Look into the history of Black Friday and its existence: It's to still be profitable, but to give back some of those profits (to non shareholders) through discounting, be it the manufacturer or merchant.

From a marketing standpoint, it gains shopper loyalty.

Black Friday is not something 'charitable'. It makes money. People buy things they would not have otherwise bought just because it's discounted. The bigger the discount, the more likely that happens. Overall, the seller tends to increase their revenues because the discounted sales they made were probably sales that wouldn't've been made at all had it not have been for the discounts.

And that's also the reason why it doesn't make sense for XenForo to participate. It's a loss of revenue for them. Most people renewing their license would be renewing it anyway at the regular price. Similar for new licenses. The principle is slightly less true for add-on developers since there's a lot on the market, but still, an increase in revenue as a result is not exactly seen in a relatively small market of consumers like the one here. It generally isn't economical.

 

[Robust]

Other retailers in other parts of the world want to be able to compete with the US when it comes to online sales.

Most good Black Friday sales are physical items, not digital ones. And physical retailers outside the US don't try to compete with US ones, because when you chuck in duties and shipping it makes more sense to buy the overpriced local one.

 

[frm]

Black Friday is not something 'charitable'.

Obviously you didn't look into the history, otherwise you would understand that it is somewhat "charitable" for companies to cut costs when they're in a good profit zone.

It makes money.

Obviously you still profit with smalller margins and hopefully more quantity sold to make up for that.

And that's also the reason why it doesn't make sense for XenForo to participate.

I never sad XF should do it. Just aggregate a thread each year to make it easier for buyers to find sales instead of scattered all over the place.

But since you brought up XF specifically, have you seen their books or know if cutting 10% on 1 day would cost them or would they still profit (as the goal is still to profit on Black Friday, but to give back to customers that allowed you to get those profits instead of just shareholders).

 

[Masetrix]

View attachment 214384

I fully agree! Anyway, I get this in Germany exactly the same way. (Not at all, but most)

XenForo is already a cheap and very good software, so I expect no Blackfiday prices because the price of XenForo is always blackfriday-alike

 

[djbaxter]

I don't know what some of you have been reading but the idea behind Black Friday has nothing to do with retailers and manufacturers "giving back" and nothing to do with "charity". It has everything to do with blatant commercialism. Black Friday is the day the business try to get their books out of the RED and into the BLACK (i.e., the profit zone). On Black Friday, they try to do this by offering sales on some items (loss leaders) in order to increase sales quantities, and to entice customers into a frenzy of buying, often items they would not normally but because they believe they are getting a deal.

In fact, as the cartoon I posted above implies, often the sales aren't even sales. They are just paper discounts on inflated prices.

Some stores, like Shoppers Drug Mart, use this as their year-round sales model. Their items tend to have listed regular prices higher than their competitors but they are dropped to near the same as their competitors as a "special", mixed in with a few loss leaders to get people into the stores.

It's basically a blatantly promoted sales frenzy.

 

[Ozzy47]

instead of scattered all over the place.

They are not scattered all over the place, if a developer chooses to offer a sale of any sort, and advertise it, they are all listed in one forum,

Third-party services & offers

This forum is to be used for announcing and discussing XenForo-related services or special offers only. Its purpose is not the general buying, selling and exchange of property, software licenses or domain names. The services announced in this forum are in no way affiliated with or endorsed by...

xenforo.com

 

[frm]

They are not scattered all over the place, if a developer chooses to offer a sale of any sort, and advertise it, they are all listed in one forum,

Third-party services & offers

This forum is to be used for announcing and discussing XenForo-related services or special offers only. Its purpose is not the general buying, selling and exchange of property, software licenses or domain names. The services announced in this forum are in no way affiliated with or endorsed by...

xenforo.com

This only proves my point that they are scattered everywhere though as each developer has their own thread for services, styles, add-ons, and resources each has a thread that can have its own code to bump it. I like how some developers have their own dedicated threads for just codes, but, they get moved around as they're updated or someone else posts, making them harder to find when these are timed deals.

That said, I would like XF, under the XenForo account, to post 1 official thread that's stickied and then give developers the ability to reply in it with themed offers only. They can then, as the original post, invite developers to reply with their codes and terms for that holiday or sale. There aren't many that they have to do and could even be automated to be posted throughout the year so it'd be a 1-time setup.

"Official Black Friday 2020 Promo Codes For Addons and Styles"

No Q&A. Just developers posting codes and offers. No users replying with "thanks", etc., or deleted. It'd be hectic on mods if users didn't follow rules of just posting the code of products they develop (not others), but it would surely be a great thread and give more exposure if done under that account, and stickied, in my opinion. When Black Friday is done, unsticky and lock it.

Just a suggestion.

Maybe they should give it a try for Christmas? They don't even need to post nearer to Christmas; they could post it now and developers could reply with their deals leading up to Xmas with their terms (I'd limit word count and font size/color to make it not be a huge ad page though).

 

[Robust]

I like how some developers have their own dedicated threads for just codes, but, they get moved around as they're updated or someone else posts, making them harder to find when these are timed deals.

I'm pretty sure every major developer that has a seasonal discount posts it in a thread in that forum. Even if they move up or down by a post, every single relevant thread remains on the first page of that forum (it's a quiet forum, that forum's first page goes back to August 2019). That forum has been used for discounts for years, it's recommended for users to check that forum if they're looking for seasonal discounts on add-ons. It's not really "all over the place" and confusing.