By November 11, shoppers are already expecting discounts: marketplaces and electronics and cosmetics chains launch sales, while people start looking for winter holiday gifts. A small store can use the day as an occasion to run its own promotion. This article brings together 14 ideas adapted to Ukrainian retail and explains how to set each one up in Torgsoft.
Where 11.11 came from and why the date works in Ukraine
The date 11.11 originated in China. At the end of the last century, students came up with Singles’ Day : the four ones in the date symbolized people without partners. Later, Alibaba turned it into an annual online sale, and other platforms followed. The holiday’s central idea remained the same: people buy themselves a gift.
In Ukraine, the day is often called Shopping Day. Large online stores hold Shopping Day sales in the first half of November. Some chains start Black Friday discounts as early as mid-month. For a small store, 11.11 brings a separate wave of demand before shoppers spread their budgets among the major players.
The number 11 also provides a ready-made theme for a promotion: an 11% discount, a receipt of at least UAH 1,111, or an hour from 11:00 to 12:00. Shoppers do not need an explanation for why the promotion is built around that number.
Set a goal before choosing a promotion
One promotion rarely solves every problem at once. A storewide discount brings in shoppers, but reduces the margin on items that would have sold anyway. First decide what should change after 11.11 and which figures you will use to measure it.
| Goal | Ideas in this article | What to check after the promotion |
|---|---|---|
| Increase average transaction value | 11–22–33, receipt of at least UAH 1,111 | Average transaction value and number of items per receipt |
| Clear seasonal stock | 11% off a category, 11.11 week | Stock in the promoted group before and after the promotion |
| Bring regular customers back | Early access, personal code, 11-day bonuses | Number of purchases made with members’ cards |
| Attract new shoppers | Bring a friend, certificate with a bonus | Number of new customer cards and first purchases |
| Bring people into the store during a quiet period | 11:00 hour | Number of receipts by hour |
Ideas based on the number 11
1. 11% off everything or one category
A basic promotion: an 11% discount for one day. To avoid discounting items with low margins, limit the promotion to one or two categories or exclude new arrivals. Shoppers understand this discount without explanation, and it costs the store less than a typical 20–30% discount.
Open Marketing → Promotions and click Add. In the Apply promotion as field, select % discount and enter 11. In the Promotion product group field, select the required group. You can exclude individual items by clicking Select products prohibited from promotions in stock in the product group window. On the For period tab, set the promotion start and end dates to November 11. Check which customer types are eligible and how the offer combines with other discounts.
2. Progressive 11–22–33 discount
The first item on the receipt gets 11% off, the second 22%, and the third 33%. This works for clothing, footwear, cosmetics and home goods, where shoppers often buy several items. The “a gift for yourself” theme can be used in the announcement: the shopper gets the third item for themselves.
In the promotion form, open the Per product tab and turn on Activate and the Separate discount for each product setting. To assign discounts according to scan order, choose to apply the promotion by the order in which products are added. Add three rows to the table: number 1 with an 11% discount, number 2 with 22%, and number 3 with 33%. Numbers are counted among units that meet the promotion conditions. For the fourth and subsequent units, if there is no matching row, the discount under this promotion is zero; the 11–22–33 sequence does not repeat automatically.
3. Receipt of at least UAH 1,111: 11% off all purchases
A discount triggered by a receipt threshold encourages shoppers to add another item. Set the threshold slightly above your usual average transaction value. If the store’s average transaction is around UAH 800, a threshold of UAH 1,111 asks the shopper to add one more purchase.
In the promotion form, select Apply promotion as % discount and enter 11. On the By amount tab, enter 1111 in the Sales amount field. The threshold is checked against the sum of the list prices of all items on the receipt before discounts. The discount itself applies only to items that meet the promotion conditions. To apply it to all items, configure the corresponding product group. A promotion based on an amount does not apply to sales in foreign currency.
Time-limited ideas
4. The 11:00–12:00 hour
The discount lasts one hour. This brings shoppers in at a specific time, and an announcement with the exact time works well for Stories and the store’s Viber channel. Choose an hour when the store is usually quiet so the promotion does not overload the checkout during peak hours.
To find a quiet hour, open Analysis → Sales intensity analysis, select a period covering recent weeks, set the grouping to Hour and the data to Number of receipts. In the promotion form, on the For period tab, set the start and end date to November 11. Turn on On specified days of the week and times, select the weekday on which that date falls, and set the 11:00–12:00 interval. A weekly schedule alone is not enough to limit a promotion to one day.
5. 11.11 week: one category each day
The store spreads the promotion across the week from November 5 to 11: each day, a different category is discounted. Shoppers return several times, while the store spreads the load on stock and checkout. Publish the category schedule in advance so shoppers can plan their visit.
Create a separate promotion for each day, with its own product group and date. In the promotions list, the Status filter selects records by their set status, while Validity period filters by dates. The Active status alone does not mean that the required day and time have arrived. You can add an explanation on the Comment tab; it will appear in the promotions list.
Ideas for regular customers
6. Early access on November 10
Discount card holders get a discount one day before everyone else. This shows regular customers that the store values them and gives them first choice of sizes and colors. The announcement to other shoppers can say: “Tomorrow, this discount will be available to everyone.”
On the Customers tab in the promotion form, select Only selected customers and add participants. You can compile the list in Analysis → Customer activity analysis: set a period and the required number of purchases, select customers and click Add customers to promotion. At checkout, the salesperson must identify the customer using their discount card so the program can check whether they are included.
7. Personal code in a message
Each customer receives their own discount code. The code works once, and after the promotion the store can see how many purchases were made using codes from the message.
In the promotion form, under Control barcodes, select Use control barcodes: Once. With the Bulk messaging to customers option, link the message to the promotion in Marketing → Bulk messaging, select Generate control barcode: Yes, and add the Promotion barcode variable to the template. At checkout, the salesperson scans the promotion code, discount card and products. A separate code for the recipient does not automatically prevent them from sharing it with someone else, so do not promise shoppers that restriction.
8. Bonuses with a short validity period
For purchases made on November 11, the store awards bonuses that are valid for, say, 11 days. This gives shoppers a reason to return before the next wave of November sales. Announce the terms for earning bonuses and their start and end dates at the checkout and in the message.
The Bonuses with limited validity period option adds a Bonus expiration: Automatically setting with a duration in days under Marketing → Discount card type. The program calculates when new bonuses expire from the date they become active. Changing this setting does not automatically change the dates of bonuses awarded earlier. To give individual bonus accruals the promotion’s validity period, award bonuses manually via Marketing → Customers or Document → Sale → Additional actions → Award bonuses, and set the Valid through date. Bonus transactions and expiration dates are shown in Analysis → Bonus transactions analysis; the Bonus amount variable is available in the message template.
9. Bring back customers who have not shopped in a while
Every store’s database includes customers who made one or two purchases and disappeared. For them, 11.11 is a chance to reconnect with a personal offer. The discount for these customers can be greater than the general offer because the store is using it to bring them back.
The Analysis → Customer activity analysis window has Last purchase date and Last receipt amount columns. Select the required stores, sort customers by last purchase date, select participants and click Include in bulk messaging or Add customers to promotion. Note that the data is limited by the selected stores and the user’s access rights.
Gift and game ideas
10. Scratch cards with different discounts
At checkout, a shopper draws a card with an 11%, 22% or 33% discount under a scratch-off layer. The game gives the store something to share in social media videos and talk about in the store. The store decides in advance how many cards to make for each amount, so it knows how many shoppers will receive each discount.
Create three promotions with different discount percentages. In each, select Use control barcodes: Once, click Generate barcodes, enter the quantity and print the codes for the cards. The promotion does not apply unless the code is scanned. A code set to Once works for one receipt only.
11. Certificate with a bonus added to its face value
A shopper pays UAH 1,000 and receives a certificate worth UAH 1,100. In November, people are already thinking about holiday gifts, and a certificate solves the problem of choosing one. The store gets the money now and hands over the goods later.
The Gift certificates option lets you enter the certificate amount and Sale priceseparately when issuing it. The sale price can be lower than the face value. Enter the expiration date in the Valid through field, and select the stores where it can be used in the Valid at stores section.
12. Bring a friend during 11.11 week
A regular customer gets one-time codes to share with friends. A friend shops at a discount, and the customer earns bonuses from the friend’s purchase. This promotion brings in new shoppers through recommendations from people who already know the store.
The Bring a Friend promotion option adds a Bring a Friend tab to the customer card. Set the validity period in days, the friend’s discount and the conditions for awarding bonuses to the customer. Minimum friend purchase amount determines whether the customer who invited the friend receives bonuses. Do not treat this threshold as an automatic condition for giving the friend a discount.
Team and community
13. Salesperson competition
The salesperson who sells the most items from a promoted group receives a bonus. The competition motivates staff to offer the promotion to every shopper. Announce the competition rules and bonus before the promotion starts.
If one salesperson is responsible for each receipt, open Analysis → Discount usage analysis, select discount type Promotion and the employee. The report uses the salesperson assigned to the entire receipt. If different employees sell different items, a competition based on individual sales requires a report that accounts for the salesperson on each item. The Link each product sale to a salesperson option lets you assign items to employees, but does not change how this report works. The Payroll and staff motivation option helps include the bonus in payroll calculations.
14. A share of sales for a charity fundraiser
The store announces that it will contribute a fixed amount from every November 11 receipt to a fundraiser supported by the team. After the promotion, the store publishes the results: number of receipts, amount raised and transfer receipt.
The number of receipts for the day is shown in Analysis → Sales intensity analysis with grouping set to Day and data set to Number of receipts. A screenshot of the report together with the transfer receipt shows shoppers that the store kept its promise.
One promotion in your store, on your website and on marketplaces
A shopper who sees the promotion on Instagram may visit the store or order online. If website prices and stock differ from those in the store, the shopper may receive a canceled order or a different price. Before 11.11, check how the promotion works in every sales channel.
The Online store synchronization option keeps website products, orders and shipments in the same database as the store. Torgsoft Online Market provides a ready-made online store that syncs with the program. For marketplaces, there is Prom.ua integration and Rozetka.ua integration.
Under Settings → Parameters → Discounts , select Advanced sales conditions calculation and open Settings. There are separate switches for Sale with invoice and Customer order for manufacture. Check which document your online sales channel creates: if it is an invoice, use the setting for sales with an invoice. Support for a specific promotion on a website or marketplace must be checked separately: synchronizing products does not by itself transfer every checkout promotion to the online storefront.
Torgsoft promotion preparation checklist
Complete these steps by November 7 so there is time to announce and check the promotion.
- Check the discount mode: under Settings → Parameters → Discounts, Advanced sales conditions calculation must be selected. Promotions do not work in Standard mode.
- Create the promotion product group under Product management → Product groups. Exclude products that are not eligible for the discount.
- Create a promotion under Marketing → Promotions. Specify stores, period, customers and how discounts are combined on the Add to discount tab.
- Open the Result tab: the program describes the promotion conditions in text. Read it as a cashier would.
- Click View products covered by the promotion, check the list and print labels. You can add the Promotion end date variable to the label template.
- Assess stock. Analysis → Comparative revenue analysis by product type calculates a forecast from the ratio of indicators for selected periods. Choose comparable periods from previous sales yourself. The Automatic stock replenishment calculation option helps calculate the minimum stock based on sales and supply parameters.
- Tell sales staff about the promotion terms. In the Staff notifications option, select recipients and send a message. The program shows which of them have read it.
The ideas in this article require a Torgsoft version that includes promotions and the relevant reports. Torgsoft Start does not include the bonus system, promotions or some of the analytical modes mentioned. Before preparing, check that the required features and additional options are available in your license.
What to check after 11.11
The promotion is over, but its lessons will be useful for Black Friday. Two to three days after 11.11, review these reports.
- Analysis → Discount usage analysis. Select discount type Promotion: the report shows promotional sales, discount amount and the receipt’s salesperson. Product rows where the sale price does not exceed cost are highlighted. The Product sold under a promotion with a control barcode switch filters sales by those codes.
- Analysis → Sales profitability for period. A button in this report opens the Revenue breakdown by discount percentages window for the period, which shows how revenue and profit depend on the discount amount.
- Analysis → Sales intensity analysis: number of receipts by hour on the promotion day compared with an ordinary day.
- Analysis → Bonus transactions analysis: how many bonuses were awarded and how many customers have already used.
- In the Bulk messaging window, check sending results and the available delivery statuses in the message list. Update the statuses if needed. The Bulk messaging analysis tab helps assess customers’ subsequent purchases and messaging costs.
The State Food and Consumer Service reminds businesses that discount information and the final price must be truthful, and the previous price must not be artificially raised to make a deal look better. A discount alone does not remove the shopper’s right to exchange or return a product or receive warranty repairs: general legal requirements and their stated exceptions apply. A blanket notice saying “promotional items cannot be returned” is unlawful.
Frequently asked questions
Try the ideas in this article in the Torgsoft demo version before your promotion starts.
Download the demo version
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