Black Friday is known for deep discounts and shopping frenzies, but today’s eco-conscious consumers expect more. This gives brands an opportunity to focus on how they can contribute to positive change whilst continuing to stand out and build lasting loyalty. This article shares simple ways to market responsibly this black friday, focusing on encouraging mindful choices, all while driving sales.

How Is Black Friday Affecting the Environment?
Black Friday generates an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of extra waste, with deliveries in the UK alone contributing to an additional 429,000 metric tonnes of CO₂. But how does this relate to marketing?
Over the years digital marketing has led to a huge increase in sales for brands by allowing them to access new audiences and re-engage with loyal customers, however with this increase we have also seen the rise of returns. Most people are now tuned into a quick buying cycle through the use of Apple/Google pay and Klarna making snap decisions instead of meaningful purchases, with 17 out of 100 UK purchases in 2024 ending up in a return and Black Friday being an even greater contributor to this cycle.
So How Do We Capture Demand Whilst Also Being Sustainably Conscious?
Balancing strong sales with sustainability might seem tricky, but it’s absolutely possible with the right approach. By rethinking campaigns, highlighting quality over quantity, and communicating transparently, brands can meet customer demand while staying eco-conscious.
Below are practical strategies to make your Black Friday marketing both effective and responsible.
Crafting Eco-Friendly Messaging and Creative
The key element of any sustainably friendly Black Friday campaign is to encourage thoughtful consumption over rapid purchases. Look to promote a relaxed shopping experience, stepping away from countdown timers and flash sales, to allow the audience to have enough time to make a considered decision.
Stressful shopping experiences feed into the return cycle and could end up costing you more in the long run. More considered purchases can also lead to repeat customers as well as customer referrals, creating strong customer loyalty.
In terms of your creative strategy you should be looking to create evergreen Black Friday creative and landing pages to reduce waste year after year. If you have a creative that you can reuse then you will limit time in production as well as reduce the energy needed to create and upload the new creatives/landing pages.
Rethinking Discounts for Sustainability
It’s easy to slap on a 50% off deal for Black Friday to entice customers but your key to higher profits and a more relaxed user experience is focussing on the efficiency of your internal supply chain.
Offer promotions on items that you have the most stock to reduce the waste needed to order more products into your warehouse. Additionally, look at bundling your offers (optionally) with your bestselling products to save waste on delivery packaging and shipping.
You could also look into alternative incentives to help support the community and sales such as donating a proportion of your Black Friday sales to charity, helping to push for considered purchasing whilst also giving back.
Website Efficiency: Reducing Your Digital Footprint
Looking at your website’s digital footprint is not only important for Black Friday but all-year-round sustainability. A study from the BBC in 2020 accounted for 3.7% of total global greenhouse gas emissions to the internet, with this expected to double by the end of 2025.
Black Friday means higher levels of traffic to your site so if your carbon output is already high then you are a contributor to the problem. Your website landing page needs to cope with the demand of high amounts of traffic and still be fast enough to reduce bounce rates and carbon outputs. Find out how much carbon your website uses here and how you can reduce your output to <0.5 grams CO₂ per page view.
Sustainable Marketing Strategies That Still Drives Sales
There are many methods that you can use to target customers more thoughtfully and efficiently for Black Friday. GrowRoom uses a variety of tactics to support this but below are a few notable mentions.
Enable Slow Marketing Tactics
Don’t just use the weekend of Black Friday but spread it out to pre/post the events and capture the anticipating demand throughout the period. Using this method you are encouraging that thoughtful consumption cycle mentioned above as well as promoting a “greener” way of promotion. We are still leaning into the traffic demand but not chasing snap decision sales.
Target Only Loyal Customers
Target your most loyal customers as a reward system, as well as lowering return rates due to targeting users who have bought your products previously. You could offer them a buy one get one free offer, % off, or referral bonus, again spreading this out over a couple of weeks or a month to encourage that deeper connection to the product.
Avoid Promotions and Offers
Scrap product offers and promotions and use the Black Friday traffic to promote your brand mission. Look at educating your audience for the cause that is meaningful to your brand, if you are a non-profit this could be spreading information on the issue you are trying to aid.
Alternatively, if you are a retail client it could be a message into why the user should think about your product more compared with others on the market, are they trainers that can support foot pain? T-shirts that are sweat resistant? All this could be relevant to the target user and help to promote your product without the need for traditional offers.
Opt Out of Black Friday
You may not see the climb in sales that you would get from running a Black Friday campaign however the benefits are that you keep spend and performance consistent, you are driving towards more sustainable purchases and seeing less waste from returned products.
Key Takeaways for Sustainable Black Friday Campaigns
Whichever way you approach Black Friday, the real takeaway should be to encourage thoughtful consumption, minimise waste, and question whether the event truly aligns with your strategy. The gains may not outweigh the costs, especially if high return rates are eating into profits. This year, thinking smarter may matter more than selling harder.