Waiting until the week—or even the month—before Black Friday to start planning is a mistake that can leave business owners unprepared to capitalize on the biggest shopping event of the year.

If you want to maximize your success during Black Friday 2024, it’s crucial to start planning as early as possible.

Independent retailers, brands, and customers worldwide are gearing up for the busiest shopping season. Black Friday remains a key source of retail profits, especially for those with e-commerce stores.

But how can you ensure your store is ready? 

In this post, we'll analyze past Black Friday events and share actionable tips on aligning your marketing strategy with current trends to drive sales.

By the time you finish reading, you’ll be equipped with fresh marketing ideas to make this holiday season your most successful.

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What Does BFCM Mean?

In business, Black Friday Cyber Monday, commonly called BFCM, is a weeklong holiday shopping extravaganza immediately following Thanksgiving. It’s filled with discounts and heavy traffic.

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, marks the start of this weekend, with stores worldwide offering generous discounts. Cyber Monday follows, dedicated exclusively to online deals or e-commerce businesses. 

When is BFCM?

Black Friday 2024 will occur on November 29, kicking off the big weekend that culminates with Cyber Monday on December 2.

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Analyzing 2023 BFCM Trends and Predicting 2024

As they say, failing to plan is planning to fail. So, planning for Black Friday this year is as crucial as ever. Analyzing 2023 Black Friday trends is probably a good way to start.

Let’s take a quick look at the top two 2023 Black Friday trends:
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1. Early Shopping Habits and Their Implications

Throughout the last two years, more than half of shoppers began their holiday shopping by early November.

And, with Thanksgiving falling so late this year, customers are pretty much guaranteed to start reaching into their wallets well before the unofficial “start” of the holiday shopping season.

According to our Holiday Spending Report, Black Friday generated over $9 billion in 2023. This increase was driven by consumers' growing preference for early shopping, particularly online. 

Many shoppers took advantage of early discounts and promotions, significantly boosting their spending in the weeks before November.
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2. Spending Trends

Years of inflation have certainly not deterred past holiday shoppers from spending big, with more of them seeking out deals and promotions when making their purchase decisions.

According to a 2023 study by Boston Consulting Group, 60% of customers prefer “discounts on everything” over short-lived flash deals or bundle deals. This indicates that such specific sale offers could be the key to your success in this BFCM.

Looking Ahead: Predictions for BFCM 2024

Looking forward, reports suggest that consumers will continue to seek out early deals this year. This proves that Black Friday sales and promotions are no longer limited to a single weekend—they’re a month-long extravaganza.

Additionally, flexible payment options like buy now, pay later (BNPL) are expected to drive conversions, especially in the context of ongoing inflation.
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Related: Black Friday (BFCM) Ecommerce Trends: What to Expect in 2024

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Tips to Prepare Your Ecommerce Store for BFCM 2024

We predict paid search will drive the most sales in 2024 this e-commerce Black Friday. To help you create a proper action plan, we've created an extensive guide on how to get ready for Black Friday 2024.

Here's a quick overview before we dive into the details:

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Phase 1: Initial Research and Planning

The first step to a successful Black Friday is thorough research and strategic planning to align your offers with customer expectations.

1. Set Clear Goals

Set specific sales targets, revenue goals, and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your upcoming BFCM sale. You can consider using Black Friday statistics to help you set goals for your business. This gives you a focused and purposeful approach to your campaign. 

You must decide your campaign parameters, like 

• products to promote
• The offers you will be running
• Budget for the campaign, 
• Marketing channels to leverage, 
• Other business goals

2. Optimize Inventory

Prepare for the expected spike in demand by ensuring that your inventory is well-stocked and set to meet the Black Friday rush. Many unprepared retailers cap their Black Friday gains by running out of stock because they didn’t plan ahead. 

Proactively managing your inventory can prevent customer disappointment caused by stock outs

3. Equip Your Team

Train your customer service, sales, and technical teams to confidently manage increased traffic and customer inquiries during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales.

Make sure you have enough staff to keep business operations running smoothly. Get all hands on deck from your support team, and have team members ready to answer customers’ questions immediately.

4. Research Your Target Audience

Your targeted customers are people who share your business goals and interests. While creating a buyer persona can be helpful, most stores already have a good understanding of who their customers are.

Instead of focusing on identifying your target customers, shift your research towards understanding the types of offers that appeal most to them. For example, customers in the electronics market tend to prefer price cuts, while those shopping for beauty products might respond better to BOGO deals or free gifts.

Doing so will help you plan your offers better and maximize your profits Black Friday 2024.

5. Plan and Test Your Offers in Advance

Once you've done your research, it's time to move ahead.

To make the most of Black Friday 2024, we recommend running test campaigns before the November sale period. You should be testing 

• offers, 
• email copy, 
• social media copy and channels, 
• funnels 
• lead generation strategies.

Doing this now will let you know which products, discounts, and promotions will have the biggest impact on your bottom line in November. It will also help you gauge how far you can go with discounts and special offers like ‘two-for-one’ or ‘free shipping.’

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Phase 2: Preparing Your Website

Next, ensure your website is fully optimized and ready to handle the surge in traffic with a smooth, user-friendly experience.

1. Optimize Your Website

Think of Black Friday as a race. Before thinking about how to win this race, make sure you don’t lose it. 

Here are a few website optimization essentials to keep in mind:

Improve Your Website Load Speed

If your site is too slow or has technical issues, you'll lose Black Friday sales. These issues drive shoppers away.

Pages that take longer to load have a proven increased bounce rate, potentially by as much as 123%. Expect even shorter margins this Black Friday, with fierce competition for consumers’ attention.

Here are a few tips to boost your website’s load speed:

• Compress images and videos,
• Minify CSS and JavaScript files,
• Limit the number of HTTP requests,
• Limit the use of external scripts

Improve Your Site’s UX Design

Before Black Friday, conduct a self-audit of the customer journey and identify areas for improvement. Ensure that navigation is smooth and intuitive and that products are easy to find.

Make your CTAs big, bold, and obvious. View every part of your site from a CRO perspective. The small details count.

See if you can streamline your checkout process. During BFCM, customers rush to finish their purchases and look for the next deal.

Ensure Your Website Is Mobile-Optimized

Moreover, any site that’s not mobile-friendly today is losing out on a massive share of its audience. The share of mobile vs desktop traffic will tilt heavily in favor of mobile over Black Friday/Cyber Monday. 

Data from Shopify stores in 2021’s BFCM period showed that 71% of purchases were made on mobile, and the figure has only increased year after year.

Here are a few tips to optimize your website for multiple devices:

• Implement a responsive layout
• Declutter your website design
• Use a large and readable font
• Make images and CSS as light as possible

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‍Stress-Test Scalability

As you plan for Black Friday, it’s crucial to ensure that your website’s servers can handle the expected surge in traffic.

While planning for Black Friday, you must check if your servers can withstand the expected traffic influx through stress tests. Ensure your hosting and site's technical architecture will not give out if you get up to 500% more than your usual traffic.

This preparation is essential to avoid any downtime during the critical sales period.
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2. Update Your Website

As Black Friday approaches, it’s essential to ensure your website is fully optimized to capture and convert the influx of holiday shoppers. But once you're done with that, you need to ensure your website is fully prepared for BFCM by updating the pages.
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Update the ‘Featured Products’ Section

Get ready for Black Friday by showcasing your featured products. Handpick spotlight items for the event and ensure that all product descriptions and visuals are captivating and aligned with your Black Friday and Cyber Monday audience.

Check Product Listings & Details Pages

Product Listing Pages (PLP) list all products in a specific category or are filtered based on users’ needs. 

PLP leads to Product Details Pages (PDP), which have details about a particular product. Since customers can’t see or touch products in real time, your product pages must effectively convey the qualities and benefits of your offerings through compelling copy, visuals, and reviews.
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3. Streamline Your Checkout Flow

An easy checkout process helps customers successfully complete their purchases and reduces the chances of cart abandonment. 

Go through your checkout process and make sure that it’s smooth and safe. Audit the process yourself, especially on mobile, to identify any possible issues and fix them before Black Friday.

Here are a few ways to streamline your checkout:

• Reduce the number of fields and use auto-fill wherever possible
• Mark mandatory fields with a asterisk (*)
• Offer guest checkout to speed up the process
• Integrate digital wallets like Google Pay and Apple Pay
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4. Implement Upsell and Cross-Sell Tactics

For your Black Friday 2024 strategy, consider offering discounted product bundles as a cross-sell strategy.

Motivate your customers to explore complementary items, driving up their cart value and elevating your Black Friday and Cyber Monday results. 

Here are a few ways to do that:

• Prominently feature bundles on your home page or the landing page you are redirecting your audience to,
• Add a 'Frequently Bought Together' section to encourage customers to explore complementary items and increase their cart value,
• Highlight the savings customers can enjoy by buying bundles

Similarly, you can use upsell tactics like showing a more expensive version of the product a customer currently has in their cart, highlighting the added features to entice customers. This can help increase the average order value and it is especially effective during holiday shopping when people are ready to shop their hearts out.

5. Enable Cart Continuity Across Devices

Enabling cart continuity across multiple devices is necessary to ensure a seamless shopping experience, leading to higher conversions.

Consumers can browse a site and add items to their cart on mobile but then switch to their laptops to complete the purchase. They might also save the items and plan to make a purchase later.

Websites that fail to save users' carts between devices are at a serious disadvantage, especially during the holiday season when people tend to add more to their carts than usual. 

So, streamline your website's user experience by saving users’ shopping carts when they switch devices. It can be the difference between converting that visitor into a customer and losing them altogether.
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6. Use Conversational AI for Customer Support

Depending on your business model, you might not have 24/7 customer service reps available to respond to customer queries. But that shouldn’t be an issue—thanks to conversational AI like chatbots. 

Chatbots can engage and answer customer questions on your website, social channels like Facebook and Instagram, and even through mobile apps. On websites, you might frequently see them as dialogue boxes.

Chatbots can quickly answer specific queries—just as if the customer were interacting with a customer service representative. This responsiveness and accessibility can improve customer satisfaction and, in turn, convert browsers into buyers. 

If you're on the Shopify platform, there are multiple ways to connect with shoppers via chat. For BFCM 2024, Shopify Inbox provides an easy way to streamline communications with potential (and returning) customers wherever they are.
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7. Clearly Communicate Order & Shipment Timelines

Unspecified delivery timelines and delayed orders can frustrate customers and make them hesitant to purchase. Clearly state your shipping timelines on the product page and checkout page.  If they depend on your regional and geographic area, then let your customers know. 

For products, clearly label them with something like “In Stock & Ready To Ship” to let people know what’s still in (or out of) stock. Clearly specify how many days or hours are left to qualify for overnight shipping. If you have your own warehousing system, mimic other retail solutions to increase operational efficiency.

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Phase 3: Building Hype Around Your Sale

As the sale approaches, focus on creating excitement and urgency through targeted promotions and engaging content.

1. Update Your Website

Building hype around your sale is essential to maximizing engagement and driving conversions. Here are a few ways to do that:

• Start by adding eye-catching banners across your website that announce the sale and highlight key offers,
• Implement countdown timers to create urgency, encouraging visitors to take action before the deals expire,
• Incorporate pop-ups that capture attention and guide users directly to the sale,
• Finally, ensure your sale page is easy to navigate and optimized for mobile to reach your audience wherever they are.

These strategies will help generate excitement and boost your sale's success.
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2. Leverage Email Marketing 

Fighting for customers’ attention during the holiday season, specifically Cyber Monday, is the most intense than it is at any point during the year.

To make the most of this ecommerce Black Friday 2024, create an optimized email marketing strategy to capture their attention, increase online traffic, and nurture and convert shoppers. 
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Grow Your Email List

If you’re not currently working on growing your contact lists, you’re already behind. A common mistake is when mid-market businesses wait until a week or two before Black Friday or Cyber Monday to prepare and grow their lists. Instead, we highly encourage you to create campaigns throughout the year to collect as many email addresses as possible.

Pop-ups are an excellent way to drive email addresses into your marketing system. To encourage visitors to subscribe, we suggest offering a gift or an enticing discount.‍

Start Sending Campaigns Early

Build bigger brand equity with more engaged users through email marketing. Start sending holiday emails and promotions at the beginning of Fall − around the end of September − to build suspense around your holiday deals.

If you notice a sizable unsubscribe rate, consider changing your email strategy; try sending fewer emails, different subject lines, or send times. Testing is the way to go. 

Most importantly, choose quality over quantity. Focus more on building a relationship to establish brand equity rather than focusing on how often you’re emailing them.
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3. Increase Social Engagement

When planning for Black Friday, you cannot neglect social media. Use interactive quizzes, giveaways, and other promotions to increase traffic and engagement. You can even conduct live sessions to show customers your products in real-time. Also, promptly respond to queries to convert visitors into customers.

Most importantly, monitor your competitors' promotions on their social platforms. Are there any contests or quizzes your brand can run on social media? Drive additional traffic with giveaways and other promotions that require contestants to share your content and tag their friends.

Social media is also a great place to portray your brand personality and help people learn why your business is what it is. Show them the humans behind the brand. If customers ask questions on social media about your products, respond swiftly and devote effort to answering their inquiries thoroughly. This develops their trust.

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[Bonus] Phase 4: During The Sale

When the sale is live, maintain momentum with real-time updates, customer support, and seamless checkout processes to maximize conversions.

1. Use Ads Recover Abandoned Carts

If you want to track abandoned carts effectively, integrate your ad account with Shopify. Shopify can sync abandoned cart data automatically if you choose the appropriate targeting strategy within your ad platform. This integration allows you to retarget users who’ve abandoned their carts with tailored promotions, improving your chances of converting them into buyers.

Note: Once a customer completes a purchase, they should be automatically removed from the abandoned cart retargeting list. This streamlined approach helps ensure that your marketing efforts are focused on users who still have the potential to complete their transactions.
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2. Leverage Remarketing Email Campaigns

Set up remarketing email campaigns to follow up with lost customers and win back those lost sales.

When a visitor lands on your web page and leaves without purchasing something, you have to nurture them. Track their browsing behavior and see what they have viewed on your site so that you can better tailor your remarketing efforts to fit their needs.

You’ll need an efficient email marketing platform to unlock customer insights and deliver highly optimized messages.
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3. Set Up A Post-Purchase Flow

Setting up a post-purchase flow for BFCM 2024 is essential to capitalize on the heightened shopping momentum.

Start with a confirmation email immediately after purchase, thanking the customer and highlighting exclusive BFCM deals they may have missed. Follow up with a delivery notification, ensuring it includes tracking information and a teaser for upcoming holiday sales.

A few days after delivery, request feedback or reviews and offer an additional discount for their next purchase as a BFCM special. Personalize recommendations with complementary products, encouraging further shopping before the season ends.

This optimized flow will keep the excitement alive and drive repeat sales during the most critical shopping period of the year.

4. Most Importantly...

When it's showtime, stay tuned into what’s working and what isn’t. Always be ready to change your messaging and offer if needed.

And don’t forget the cardinal rule: customer service. Avoid leaving consumers waiting for answers to their queries; you don't want them to head over to your competitors' sites. If you snooze, you lose!

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Parting Thoughts

To truly capitalize on Black Friday 2024, it's essential to think beyond just a short-term revenue spike. While a five-day surge in sales is valuable, the real win comes from converting new customers into loyal, long-term shoppers who continue to engage with your brand throughout December and beyond.

By implementing the best practices we've discussed—whether it’s through strategic promotions, careful inventory management, or targeted marketing efforts—you can maximize your success during this lucrative holiday season.

However, we understand that the level of preparation required can be overwhelming. If you need expert guidance to ensure your Black Friday strategy is seamless and effective, DIGITORM's Black Friday specialists are here to help. Call us now to learn more!

From comprehensive marketing strategies to effective conversion rate optimization and email marketing, we’ll work with you to develop a game plan that not only drives record sales but also fosters long-term growth for your ecommerce store. Reach out today to make this Black Friday your most successful yet.