We Analyzed Every Black Friday 2021 Coupon Code — The Big Winners from Our Data

The holidays are over. And now that we're done buying gifts and eating unhealthy food, it's time for the real fun: Data analysis!

Here at SimplyCodes, we catalog (pretty much) every single coupon code from every single store. No big deal. So we examined every coupon code from the week of Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021 to see exactly what was out there. (We targeted Monday, November 22nd, through Tuesday, November 30th.)

Here are our findings, which we hope you find both interesting and useful. The coupon codes speak to growing BFCM trends — so this data could even give you a potential edge in your shopping prep for next year.

Without further ado, let's put on our hard hats and thick horn-rimmed glasses to take a deep dive into the data.

Coupon Codes on Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021

There are two primary types of discount codes:

• Percent off codes, e.g., 20% off

• Amount off codes, e.g., $10 off

On Black Friday/Cyber Monday week in 2021, the average percent off coupon across all stores was... drumroll... an 18.5% discount. That's up from the 2020 average, where brands' issued coupon codes for an average of 17.34% off.

As for coupons offering a specific dollar amount off, the average coupon code on Black Friday was for $2.94. That's down from $3.27 in 2020. 

Why would brands trend toward larger percentage-off discounts than dollar-off discounts? Jonah Berger, a marketing professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, has a theory called the Rule of 100 that just might apply in this case. In short: If someone's purchasing a product for less than $100, a percentage-off discount feels like a better deal. But if someone's purchasing a product for more than $100, a dollar-off discount feels like a better deal. (And those "feelings" persist even if the percent-off and dollar-off would be identical discounts, like either 10% or $5 off a $50 item.)

It's possible brands anticipated more small purchases this Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Thus, they focused on percent-off discounts which seemed more lucrative to shoppers.

The 10 Types of Products That Had the Best Coupons on Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021

1. Creativity & Design

• Average percent off coupon: 32.6% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $116.66 off

Yes, creativity & design had the best overall coupon codes on Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021. Which presents us with the opportunity at the top of this list to say: Um, Black Friday isn't just about gifts and TVs anymore.

Black Friday/Cyber Monday has evolved into the time of year when almost all businesses offer their most alluring discounts. That includes businesses that are quite far from the realm of holiday gifts, including B2B and professional services businesses.

As digital art, photography, freelancing, and side hustling grow in popularity, software solutions from Adobe Creative Cloud, Canva, and more have seen an increase in demand. BFCM saw these prices drop, and the hordes of rabid creators eagerly grabbed what they could get their hands on. 

2. Business Solutions

• Average percent off coupon: 34.3% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $67.50 off

Business solutions are B2B software or technical services including things like accounting, CRM, live chat software, PowerPoint templates, and more.

The lesson here: Your business should mark Black Friday on the calendar as an opportunity to sign up for the services you need at a discount. Because you're probably going to find a discount — and a good one.

3. Styling Subscriptions

• Average percent off coupon: 32.9% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $78.30 off

Styling subscriptions continue to grow in popularity — after all, why not let an expert find clothes that look good instead of continuing to fail at doing so yourself? Not only are styling subscription boxes time savers compared to going to stores, they’re often more affordable than individual clothing purchases.

Many influencers spent 2021 promoting styling subscriptions — and there’s a lot of competition in the space. So it’s not surprising that style subscription brands offered serious discounts to try to lure new customers over BFCM. 

4. Cruises

• Average percent off coupon: 25.5% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $500 off

The cruise industry felt the pandemic hard — and they want you back. The latest strategy: Major discounts on Black Friday.

Cruise liners such as Costa Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, and more offered discounts on room rates for 2022 cruises in hopes people would buy friends, family, and themselves a vacation with these attractive coupons. 

5. Website Development

• Average percent off coupon: 33.4% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $49.78 off

If you were sitting around over Black Friday weekend, thinking, “I sure would like someone to make me a website” — lucky break for you. Web development services saw large percent-off and amount-off coupons over BFCM this year; yet another B2B category that used the shopping holidays as an opportunity to offer eye-catching discounts.

6. Bed & Bath

• Average percent off coupon: 24.57% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $99.04 off

Black Friday was a great time to stock up on bed and bath products. (No word on whether it was also a good time to stock up on “beyond” products.)

The significant coupons on bed and bath products are indicative of another BFCM trend: People now use that time of year to stock up on necessities. It’s becoming more common to buy functional, practical items on Black Friday/Cyber Monday when the discounts are at their peak — a far cry from the old school BFCM purchases of gifts and big-ticket items. 

7. Education

• Average percent off coupon: 28.98% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $49.44 off

Skill development is a top New Year’s resolution. So as more people buy online courses or subscriptions to MOOCs (massive online open courses, and just a wonderful acronym) for themselves or as gifts, we’re seeing more coupon codes in the space. BFCM 2021 saw solid percent-off and dollar-off discounts on education courses and materials.

8. Department Stores

• Average percent off coupon: 25.95% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $55 off

Once upon a time, department stores owned the holiday shopping season. In this era of eCommerce, countless DTC brands, and plummeting mall foot traffic, department stores aren’t the goliaths they used to be. However, they are still very strong retailers who never have a problem offering significant discount codes to earn your business. America’s department stores like Macy's and Bloomingdale's showed up in full force for Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021, offering large discounts to hang onto their share of holiday spending.

9. TVs & Home Theater

• Average percent off coupon: 23.60% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $138.57 off

TVs aren’t exactly expensive — you can get a pretty amazing and pretty large TV for pretty cheap these days. But… we still want ‘em cheaper. Every year during BFCM, retailers offer TVs and home theater systems at their lowest prices in preparation for new models to hit the shelves. So once again, on BFCM 2021, if you wanted a good discount code on a TV or home theater, you could probably find one.

10. Speakers & Audio

• Average percent off coupon: 23.91% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $82.38 off

Alongside TVs, speakers and audio equipment have been popular Black Friday and Cyber Monday purchases for many years, and 2021 was no different. 

Since these products can be more expensive than, oh I don’t know, purchasing a kidney on the black market, BFCM is often the best time of year to buy them. Specialty stores that sell high-end headphones and speakers offered up some of their biggest discounts of the year to make the products… well, not cheap, but not as expensive as usual. 

The 10 Types of Products That Had the Worst Percent Off Coupons on Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021

1. People Search

• Average percent off coupon: none

• Average dollar off coupon: none

Bad news for anyone looking to run hot background checks on Black Friday. People search providers — including services that run background checks, email mining, and reverse phone lookups — didn’t offer any coupon codes on BFCM 2021. Looks like you’re stuck paying full price for your lite private investigation work.

2. Movie Theaters

AMC Theatres offered a deal on their loyalty program but no coupons.

• Average percent off coupon: none

• Average dollar off coupon: none

Movie theaters rarely offer coupon codes, and Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021 was no exception. None of the movie theaters in our database offered promo codes for the shopping holidays. At this point, your best way to save money at the movies is either to join a theater’s loyalty program or look for discounted gift cards.

3. Financial Advising

• Average percent off coupon: none

• Average dollar off coupon: none

You would think financial advising businesses would offer promo codes — after all, aren’t they all about their clients making smart financial decisions? But on Black Friday/Cyber Monday 2021, no financial planners, wealth management companies, or brokers offered any coupon codes. 

4. WiFi & Networking

• Average percent off coupon: 15% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $17.27 off

Another category that usually isn't at the top of people's Black Friday and Cyber Monday wish lists is WiFi and Networking products. And if those were on the top of someone’s list… well, the coupons weren’t particularly good. Some retailers tried their best, but with supply shortages up and down the tech industry, discounts were presumably not cost-effective. 

5. Restaurants 

• Average percent off coupon: 21.07% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $5.05 off

This Black Friday saw few restaurants offering big savings on dining out. Since the restaurant industry was severely affected by the pandemic and inflation is causing chaos on restaurants’ margins, not many are in a position to provide significant discounts. 

6. Executive Coaching

• Average percent off coupon: 21.1% off

• Average dollar off coupon: none

We apologize if you were looking for a life coach or career counselor on Black Friday. Our “executive coaching” category also includes intervention coaching — so if there was a family incident on Thanksgiving that might’ve warranted an intervention on Black Friday, you were stuck paying full price.

7. Entertainment Attractions

• Average percent off coupon: 21.48% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $8.33 off

With many entertainment attractions only recently re-opening after lockdowns, there were not many Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals or discounts. Unlike in years past when there were many attractive discounts on entertainment attractions like theme parks and museums, this year's Black Friday wasn't quite so eventful for entertainment seekers. 

However, a few places offered discounts, but they were not anything jaw-dropping. For example, SeaWorld Orlando had a “save up to $35 on an annual pass” discount on Black Friday. Another example: The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex had a buy-one-get-one-free daily admission pass for $57 on Cyber Monday.

8. Video Games & Accessories

• Average percent off coupon: 20.3% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $26.67 off

Video game and accessory makers didn’t offer horrible discounts on Black Friday, the discounts just weren’t eye-popping. It was likely cheaper to buy those games and accessories from larger third-party companies like Amazon or Gamestop. (And hopefully if you did shop for video game accessories at Amazon, you used our guide on how to save money at Amazon to get the best possible deals.)

9. Hobbies & Toys

• Average percent off coupon: 21.2% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $24.87 off

Hobbies and toys are some of the most popular gifts out there, so we were disappointed to see the merchants in this category in the bottom 10 of discounts. Hobby and toy merchants braced for supply chain issues over the holidays as much as — if not more than — most other industries, and likely tightened up their discounts to maximize their revenue from the products they did have on-hand to ship.

10. Fragrances

• Average percent off coupon: 21.63% off

• Average dollar off coupon: $19.71 off

Although the makeup industry experienced a huge drop in sales during the pandemic, the one beauty category that has maintained its footing is fragrances. According to the well-known market research firm NPD Group, the fragrance industry saw a surprising surge in sales in the first quarter of 2021, with sales up more than 45%. (Maybe when people weren’t showering, they wanted to cover up their odor with a quick spray of perfume or cologne?)

Unfortunately, these sales highs didn't translate to massive Black Friday coupon codes. Most fragrance brands didn't offer any discounts — and those that did mainly provided small-ish savings.

Black Friday Coupon Code Data: Conclusions and Takeaways

With Black Friday/Cyber Monday and the 2021 holiday season in the books, we could take a step back to analyze the coupons from the season.

Overall, the average merchant offered a percent-off coupon code for 18.5% savings or a dollar-off coupon for $2.94. However, those numbers varied widely by product category.

According to our Black Friday coupon data, the types of products with the largest coupon codes over BFCM 2021 were creativity and design, business solutions, styling subscriptions, cruises, and website development. Yes, there are a lot of B2B services in there — which speaks to a growing BFCM trend away from gifts and high-ticket items and toward more business-focused and practical purchases.

On the other end of the scale, there were three product categories with no Black Friday coupon codes: people search, movie theaters, and financial advising. 

How to use this data to plan future Black Friday/Cyber Monday shopping

Now that we’ve looked backward, it’s time to look forward — and use the data here to power your future BFCM purchase strategy. Here’s our expert analysis.

• If your business has its eye on a piece of software or other service but doesn’t need it urgently, wait for Black Friday. B2B companies have fully embraced Black Friday. So if you can hold off that long without a subscription or service, it might just be your best chance to snag it with a discount code.

• High-ticket, high-margin products usually have large coupons. Cruises, TVs, online courses, and high-end stereo equipment are all high-margin products — so it’s not a coincidence all of those industries offered up big BFCM coupon codes.

• The “experiential” world hasn’t joined the Black Friday party yet. Movie theaters, restaurants, and entertainment attractions were all in the bottom 10 for coupon codes on Black Friday. While the spirit of Black Friday discount codes has hit most other industries, your out-of-home entertainment options haven’t joined in.

• Popular gift items may not feel the need to offer big discount codes. Video games, hobbies and toys, and fragrances were all in our bottom 10 — all three categories had average coupon codes that were just OK, not great. The merchants in those categories know their products are probably going to sell quite well with or without a major discount. So they offer up enough of a discount to get people in the door — but they aren’t giving away coupon codes that offer massive savings.