Every year I see stores starting their Black Friday earlier and earlier in the month, or even in October.
A tactic that might work better in the long-term is to offer early access as a perk to your loyal customers.
Instead of just discounting everything early, you give your most loyal customers "VIP access to Black Friday deals" using a personal coupon code. This would incentive them to order early (instead of ordering from a competitor) as a reward for their loyalty.
Then when Black Friday starts you'd expire the coupons and set your prices as you intended originally.
It's a simple tactic that could be an early boost to the season. You'd get to spread out the orders, get paid sooner, and reward your most loyal customers.
If you're not sure who to send this to, use the Who Are Loyal dashboard in Repeat Customer Insights. I'd recommend either your VIP customers or your Above Average customers. Or even offer it to VIPs two weeks early and Above Average one week early.
Eric Davis
Retain the best customers and leave the worst for your competitors to steal
If you're having problems with customers not coming back or defecting to competitors, Repeat Customer Insights might help uncover why that's happening.
Using its analyses you can figure out how to better target the good customers and let the bad ones go elsewhere.