Black Friday sales have taken over our inbox here at The Ives HQ, and we are sure yours are the same. It's a hard time of year for small business (especially handmade) to compete.

We are not having a site wide sale because of this but we are rewarding our email subscribers with an email subscriber only discount. We want to thank our supporters by giving them something back. And hopefully this will go a small way in helping at this economic time of need!

Holly & Co are celebrating all things small business with their Colour Friday where small business is encouraged to take part and celebrate great value all year rather than the consumerism that comes from big business who are able to discount massively.

Many of us are feeling the pinch at the moment so a bargain could be timing especially for Christmas presents. Here are some pretty eye opening stats from Holly & CO

• Carbon emissions generated from Black Friday online sales alone are equivalent to 215 flights from London to Sydney²
• 89% of shoppers reported finding Black Friday highly stressful³
• A quarter of Brits surveyed said they regretted their Christmas Black Friday buys

Vouchercodes.com has some tips if you are going to shop in the sales to help:

- Do your shopping prep

- Start browsing Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2022 before 25 November

- Bookmark your product pages

- Shop with Christmas in mind

- Stack your discounts and deals together

- Visit dedicated Black Friday pages

- Watch out for flash sales and lightning deals

- Think about delivery costs in advance of buying

- Don't forget the travel deals

So if you are going to be Black Friday shopping don't forget to stay calm and try to enjoy it as part of your Christmas shopping.

Are you planning on getting your Christmas wrapped up with Black Friday deals this year? We would love to know.

The Ives 🧡