This Black Friday strategy proved the best results

Black Friday sales are more dependent on strategy than they are on pricing. Retailers saw one of the most successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday results in history this year. There was a new record of 7.9 billion dollars spent on Cyber Monday sales, according to Adobe Analytics. Despite this, some retailers experienced better results than others.

In a report this week, retail analyst Edited determined that retailers with well-planned strategies saw the best performances over the sales event weekend. "Your Black Friday planning needs to work with your year-round discounting approach. Don’t just rely on having the lowest prices," Edited wrote.

Edited noted that retailers in the U.S. have their Black Friday strategies figured out, and British retailers are not there yet. Prices over the sales weekend were reduced by an average of 41 percent in the U.S. and 31 percent in the U.K.

The best strategies had to do with communicating sales to shoppers and planning when to initiate sales. "Shoppers are getting savvier as to when the best discounts are to be had," wrote Edited. The retailers who offered enticing discounts all year round were impacted less than retailers who offered deals shoppers knew were exclusive to Black Friday weekend.

The Monday and Tuesday just before Black Friday were the key days in the U.S. for retailers to start reducing products, and reductions slowed as the week progressed. Rather than overhauling the actual discounts, American retailers have refined their communication strategy through promoting sales far ahead of time via emails.

Conversely, in the U.K, retailers focused more on the actual price reductions than a long-term plan. New discounts were continuously added, with 67 percent of markdowns starting between the Monday and Thursday of that week, with new reductions added on Black Friday. Edited reported that these retailers were using old stock to lengthen the time span of these promotions.