Checklist to prepare your eCommerce for Black Friday 2023

Black Friday is the best-selling holiday of the year and the most eagerly awaited by shoppers. Discover the most successful strategies for Black Friday 2023 and boost your eCommerce.

For eCommerce, Black Friday sales can be greater than the entire year combined. This extraordinary sales peak requires special planning, focused on maximising the efficiency of all sales, collection and inventory processes.

Pandemic and biosecurity measures have boosted online sales statistics during Black Friday. In addition, online shopping has increased by 30% annually since 2020.

Many shoppers have replaced traditional retail queues with online shopping from the comfort and security of their devices. For sectors such as fashion, sales during Black Friday have increased by 38% in the last three years.

Unlike in previous years, Black Friday shopping is not confined to that particular day. More than half of shoppers confess that they choose to shop before Black Friday. In fact, 12% of shoppers start their shopping even towards the end of summer.

These changes in consumption patterns have not gone unnoticed by eCommerce retailers who have changed their inventory and sales strategies. Some online retailers start preparing their Black Friday inventories during the first quarter of the year. Other retailers start their marketing strategies at the end of the second half of the year.

Some eCommerce statistics for Black Friday 2023

The top 5 sectors with the highest sales during Black Friday are:
- Fashion 51%
- Footwear and accessories 41%
- Toys 31%
- Telecommunications 31%
- Electronics/Electronic Appliances 28%

Conversion rates for eCommerce and marketplaces increase by 3.8% from the end of summer to CyberMonday.
45% of consumers make their Black Friday purchases before 1 November, 25% do so before 1 October and 12% during the summer.

These statistics are influencing strategy changes for online retailers. Today, more than ever, planning takes centre stage to optimise sales, inventory and logistics during this crucial time for eCommerce.

Let's take a look at some of the most important strategies to maximise the efficiency of your eCommerce in the face of new consumer patterns. We will help you checklist the most successful strategies for Black Friday 2023.

1. Check your technical stack

Can you imagine your eCommerce website having a problem on Black Friday? Sales not being synchronised with inventory? The payment gateway not being able to charge credit cards?

Although it may seem like something that never happens, it is more common than we think. Many eCommerces have serious technology failures due to increased traffic and sales volume.

Other retailers install new platforms, applications and digital solutions to optimise the user experience. However, in this regard, it pays to do as much testing as possible in advance.

On the other hand, the best time to make technology platform changes is during the first quarter of the year. Traditionally, and for many sectors, this is usually the quietest time of the year. Therefore, it is the ideal time to do all the functional testing, bug fixing and optimisation of the technology stack.

2. Improve the loading speed of your website

The loading speed of eCommerce websites is one of the most important factors affecting SEO all year round. However, during the Black Friday shopping frenzy, shoppers often need faster and more effective responses. According to WooCommerce, every second your eCommerce takes to load, your sales are reduced by 7%.

There are many reasons why a website may have a slower loading speed, the most common are:

Non-optimised images. Many HD images or images with animated GIFs can take up more RAM and slow down the loading speed. Choose .JPEG formats over .PNG or .GIF formats.
JavaScript/jQuery issues. Many eCommerce plugins and APIs use Java as a programming language. Do audits and optimisation of your plugins and tools before Black Friday.
Excessive Flash content. Many websites, in their quest to create better graphical elements, overuse Flash content. This content slows down the loading of websites and creates significant delays. Evaluate replacing Flash content with HTML5 alternatives.
Excessive HTTP requests. Reduce your CSS and Javascript files to speed up your website.
Lack of caching techniques
Excess of Ads, banners, pop-ups and drop-downs.
Undebugged codes
Lack of CDN services
Inadequate hosting
Inefficient gZIP compressors

All these technical elements affect the loading speed and eventually affect the volume of sales. Some sellers choose to minimise technical and graphical elements for Black Friday. However, we must always maintain a balance between the visual appeal and the technical values of our eCommerce.

4. Boost the SEO of your website

Taking care and working on the organic positioning of your business, whether you have your own eCommerce page or you sell in a marketplace, has an extremely important impact on sales.

Being in the top positions of search engines organically, although it is not an easy task, it is an investment that is more economical and profitable in the long term than investing in advertising. Although, we have to say, both are necessary to make your business known.

During the high season of online sales, which starts with the pre-Black Friday campaign, advertising costs skyrocket. If you have done a good SEO job in the previous months, you can be among the first positions without investing more money. That's why we recommend that you work on optimising it as much as possible. Tools like Semrush can help you do this work.

7. Personalize your service

Offering a personalised service is one of the most effective ways to differentiate your eCommerce from the competition during Black Friday. There are different strategies to personalise your service:

Customer segmentation: We recommend that you divide your customer base into groups according to their purchase history, interests or behaviour on your website, as this will allow you to send specific messages and personalised offers to each group.
Personalised recommendations: Offering recommendations that are relevant to the customer can increase cross-selling and increase cart value. That's why we advise you to use recommendation algorithms to suggest products related to your customers' previous purchases.
Birthday and anniversary messages: Congratulate your customers on their birthdays or purchase anniversaries by offering them special discounts. This builds customer loyalty and creates an emotional bond.
Live chat and proactive support: Provide immediate assistance with a live chat on your website or by being proactive and helping a customer when they seem to have problems during the purchase process.
Personalised loyalty programmes: Implement a loyalty programme that rewards your customers for their loyalty by offering points, discounts or exclusive gifts based on their purchase history.
Personalised feedback and surveys: Ask customers about their preferences and interests and how to improve their shopping experience.

8. Offer exclusive promotions

It is essential that on Black Friday you offer exclusive promotions that encourage customers to choose your shop over the competition. Some strategies we recommend you to follow are:

Early access and priority access: Offer your loyal customer base early access to Black Friday deals as it will make them feel valued and interested in shopping on your website.
Personalised discounts: Send personalised discount codes to your registered customers. This creates a feeling of exclusivity and can increase conversion rates.
Limited-time offers: Offer special deals that are only available at a specific time on Black Friday, in order to create a sense of urgency.
Free gifts or samples: If you give away free samples with purchases over a certain amount, you are enticing shoppers to seek additional value.
Product bundles: Bundle related products together and offer them as discounted packages as it can increase cart value.
Exclusive rewards programmes: Provide customers with offers, bonus points per purchase, exclusive events or Black Friday gift cards.
Exclusive partnerships: It is a very good initiative to collaborate with other brands to offer exclusive Black Friday products as it can generate buzz and attract a wider audience.

10. Forecast your inventory and do not run out of stock

Running out of stock before Black Friday is one of the worst nightmares of all online retailers. Lack of planning and inventory forecasting can be one of the worst mistakes in eCommerce.

To avoid this, our best allies are statistics and strategic, measurable and effective planning. Analysing the best-selling products and studying purchasing trends are two of the most assertive purchasing optimisation tools that currently exist.

Some of the strategies that allow us to reduce the risks of running out of stock prior to Black Friday are:

Plan purchases from the last quarter of the previous year.
Make pre-purchases and scheduled purchases, in advance and with delivery schedules.
Include financial analysis, possible leverage and inventory financing as a cash flow formula for an increase in purchases.
Analyse storage capacity and study dropshipping, fulfilment and inventory management outsourcing formulas.
Deepen the relationship with suppliers, diversify the source of products and create private label lines.
Create lines of substitute and complementary products that can be alternatives in the event of occasional inventory failures.
Negotiate lines of credit, allocated inventories and pay-as-you-sell.

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