Black Friday: Pricing Claims to Watch Today
- The HRG Team
- Nov 28, 2025
- 2 min read
Black Friday moves fast. Price files, promotions, and point-of-sale (POS) syncs don’t always move with it. When they don’t, you get price claims and invoice debits.
Top pitfalls (and how to catch them in real time)
Promo mismatch
Symptom: Store POS shows the promo; your invoice doesn’t. Or vice versa.
Fix: Validate that the promo price, effective dates, and item IDs are identical across systems before stores open. Re-pull proofs if a price file was re-uploaded overnight.
Unit of measure confusion
Symptom: Retailer thinks the promo is per “each,” but your invoice shows “inner” or “case.”
Fix: Standardize unit of measure (UOM) by retailer and embed conversions in your invoice logic. Flag any PO where ordered UOM ≠ ship UOM before loading.
“Compare-at” chaos
Symptom: A cross-shop or strikethrough price creates an unexpected variance claim.
Fix: Document your “compare-at” source and ensure it complies with the retailer’s policy. Keep a screenshot + timestamp in your proof library.
Variant mix-ups
Symptom: Wrong size/pack ties to the promo, creating underpaid invoices.
Fix: Map Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs) to promo IDs and lock substitutions unless re-approved.
Post-audit sweeps
Symptom: Everything looks fine today … until January.
Fix: Save proofs (ads, landing pages, emails) and store them by event ID now.
Fictional example (for illustration): A personal care brand found a $0.50 price variance on a doorbuster because the UOM was “inner 3” in one system and “each” in another.
They caught it by running a 9 a.m. price-match sweep on their top 20 SKUs (stock keeping units) and sent corrected invoices the same day.
Black Friday live-day checklist
Re-validate price files against live POS for top SKUs
Confirm promo dates/IDs match invoices
Lock UOM conversions and block mismatched shipments
Archive proofs (screenshots, ad scans) with timestamps
Set a PM sweep for late price-file updates
Wiser Decisions. Fewer Deductions. Contact us.