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Why You Should Start Preparing for Black Friday Now

Black Friday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday – two of the busiest days in a small business owner's calendar - are just around the corner. According to Practical Commerce, last year alone, US shoppers spent a whopping $9 billion on Black Friday, up 21.6% from 2019. Adobe says total spending globally on that single day was an incredible $62.2 billion.

This year likely won’t be any different, with some experts predicting sales in the US to exceed $17 billion. Globally, Black Friday sales could surpass $100 billion for the first time.

Why You Should Start Preparing Now

If you want to improve on last year’s returns and potentially break your Black Friday sales record, the time to begin preparing is now. Here’s why;

1. Prep your sales strategies early on

A common mistake small businesses make is attempting to sell everything at once. Every well-run business knows what products to sell and when. Therefore, you should select the products you want to promote the most on D-Day and schedule start dates and sale prices in advance.

Starting early allows you to test-run all these activities. In addition, it allows you to alert the customers of your leading Black Friday offers. You can give them a hint of sale prices and start building anticipation. If you don’t do this early, no one will have you in mind heading into Black Friday.

2. Formulate contingency plans

Starting early also gives you enough time to hypothesize what could go wrong and brainstorm solutions. For instance, what if the supplier doesn’t deliver items on time? What happens if the shipping company gets too busy with holiday demands? Remember that you may also run out of stock if demand is unexpectedly high.

The only way to prepare for these possibilities is to start thinking of solutions now. List down everything that could go wrong and draw up contingency plans, so you’re not scrambling to troubleshoot them on Black Friday.

3. Ensure your site is up to speed

Massive traffic on this Small Business Weekend can substantially slow down site speeds. Sometimes websites even crash when a certain traffic threshold is exceeded. If this happens, you’d miss out on valuable sales as well as put off future customers.

Starting now allows you to test your site to ensure it can withstand a substantial spike in traffic. You may even need to expand the available bandwidth to manage the traffic. It also gives you the chance to fix any bugs that may hamper customer experience.

4. Get your ad campaign in order

Advertisement campaigns are invaluable during the holiday season. But, they can also set you up for failure if you don’t get it right early. For instance, you may forget to set up tracking, thus miss out on important metrics. You may also mix up keywords.

Starting now is the only way to make sure everything is in order when the day arrives. Take this time to set up your ads and the entire campaign properly. Then, test everything and fix any issues before sending it out.

5. Experiment and optimize for conversions

The rate of cart abandonment on Black Friday is extremely high. Last year, it sat around 74%, and it’s been higher in previous years. The worst part is that the primary reasons for cart abandonment are often complex and even confusing.

Starting preparations now allows you to find out and fix any issues that may lead to cart abandonment. You can also test-run various activities to uncover and fix issues. If you wait until October, it could be too late.

When is Black Friday?

This year’s Black Friday is set for 26th November 2021, while Cyber Monday will occur on 29th November 2021. So, it’s really not that far away! Get started on your marketing campaigns today and get ahead of your competition.


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