How to prepare your Magento store for Black Friday

I wanted to write this post as it seems like small and mid-sized Magento stores don’t prepare well enough for Black Friday. That is the busiest period of the year for eCommerce and you definitely want to use that for your advantage. Therefore, I have prepared some pointers that can help you achieve better results during the sales period.

Look back

Each business is different and unique in its way, therefore it is important to look back at the previous years. Here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• What struggles did you have?
• How did the sales do? What had the biggest and smallest impact on them?
• How did the website perform? What caused it to perform in that way?
• Where were you visible and what kind of advertising you did?

To be sure you know the answers for the above questions, take a look at your analytics tools such as Google Analytics or your business intelligence tool.

Promote heavily

Some businesses just expect their sales grow by the increased Google Search traffic and conversion rates. Don’t be one of them, invest also into advertising to ensure you get the most out of the busy period.

It is important to test the ads upfront to ensure your ads are optimal and proper, otherwise, you might end up spending more for conversion than you can afford. I would suggest doing at least 1–2 months of some advertising in the channels you want to press on during the holiday period to ensure good performance.

Also, raising awareness of your store before holidays such as Black Friday is recommended. This way you can cut through the noise of ads during the busy period more easily.

According to our data, the highest sales spikes are between 10–11 PM EST on Black Friday and between 9–11PM on Cyber Monday. Advertise even more during those periods.

Black Friday doesn't end on Friday

Well, technically it does but that is not the point. The point is that you can pick the fruits of the day even after it has ended, especially on the first Monday afterward which is also known as Cyber Monday.

You should set up various re-targeting campaigns across channels to keep your audience fresh and informed. If you don’t have any of this, start with the following:

• Set up Google Analytics goals to determine the most valuable visits
• Set up Google Ads retargeting campaigns to all or potentially valuable visitors
• Ask for your visitor email address and add it to your marketing list
• Set your holiday Google Ads campaigns on a schedule to promote your store heavily during the busy period — a minimum of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Ideally also some advertising on Sat and Sun in between
• Set up email follow-ups, preferably with at least 2 emails

Look good during the sales

Really, it is important that your store looks good and have great deals on that day. People tend to buy things they don’t need during Black Friday just because that is the day everything has such great discounts. If you will have your daily look, you might lose sales just because people won’t have the urgency and will be able to buy the product later.

Take advantage of their sales-oriented mindsets during the days by offering great deals. Also, changing your homepage banner to a holiday sales one is the minimum you should do. Ideally, your store would be changed to look that it has way more deals than usually and you would use targeted holiday landing pages.

Prepare for the sales

It is not business as usual during periods like these. Heavily increased store traffic and conversion rates will affect it also in ways you might not expect or want. Therefore, ensure that your store is able to withstand huge traffic spikes in terms of visitors without slowing down the site. Also, ensure that the business side of your store can run smoothly during the campaigns such as shipping the products in time, etc.

Concentrate on mobile

While desktop was a thing in the past, mobile is now. Ensure your website runs fast and without glitches on mobile as you want to sell as much as possible to customers on mobile. While desktop usually has better conversion rates, the mobile traffic is much bigger and utilizing it properly can give you the results you don’t even expect.

Financing and longer payment methods

This doesn’t apply for all businesses but if you sell more expensive products, another way to encourage your shoppers is by offering 0% financing on products or flexible payment terms so they can pay later.

Get professional help

Contact professionals to ensure you get the most out of the busy periods. While you might be able to accomplish all of the above and more, reaching out for professional help can help you get even better results which may make a big difference in terms of sales and revenue. Don’t sacrifice possibly your biggest day in terms of revenue just to save a couple of bucks.