Black Friday 2026 starts now
Black Friday falls on 27 November this year, with Cyber Monday on 30 November. That gives most brands about six weeks to prepare.
For many eCommerce businesses, these few days decide whether the year closes strong or flat. Traffic peaks, acquisition costs climb, and customers have more choice than at any other point in the calendar.
The brands that win rarely have the biggest discount. They have a clear plan, a site that holds up under pressure, and marketing that is already warm before the doors open.
Below is the checklist we use with our clients, split into three phases. Under each one, we show how we help and what it has delivered for brands like yours.
Phase one: set goals and shape the offer
Start with what success looks like in numbers. Revenue, new customers, average order value (AOV) and margin all pull in different directions, so decide which matters most this year.
Then build the offer around it. A blanket 30% off drives volume but can erode margin and train customers to wait. Bundles, tiered spend thresholds and gift-with-purchase often protect profit while still giving people a reason to buy now.
Before you lock anything in, check:
- Your target for revenue, margin and new customer acquisition
- Stock depth on hero products and likely sell-outs
- Offer mechanics that protect margin, not just volume
- Messaging that speaks to your customer, not every customer
- A trading calendar covering early access, the weekend and Cyber Monday
How we help: Our Customer Success and performance teams work with you on goals, offer structure, and trading plans, using your data to model what each option is likely to return.
For functional drinks brand VITHIT, smart bundling and minimum-order-value discounting lifted AOV by 31% while protecting margin. Combined with a rebuilt Shopify Plus store, email and paid social, UK revenue grew 115% year on year.
Phase one: get your site peak-ready
Every second of load time and every checkout bug costs more on Black Friday than on any other day. Your site needs to be fast, stable, and easy to buy from when traffic is highest.
This is also when product and category pages earn their keep. Strong, well-structured pages capture organic demand and give paid traffic somewhere worth landing.
Six weeks out, check:
- Page speed on mobile, especially product and collection pages
- App bloat and third-party scripts slowing the site down
- Checkout steps, payment options and delivery messaging
- Product and category page content, structure and search visibility
- A code freeze date, so nothing new breaks during peak
How we help: As a Shopify Platinum Partner, we build, migrate and optimise stores that hold up when it matters. We audit performance, remove friction, and ensure your platform is ready for the traffic you pay to drive.
When VITHIT faced record-breaking traffic across multiple regions, the site ran without a single stability issue. For bedding brand Piglet in Bed, our redesign of collection and category pages lifted sales by 32%, orders by 35% and add-to-cart rate by 21% year on year.
Phase two: build demand before the doors open
The brands that trade best on Black Friday have done the hard work weeks earlier. Their email lists are growing, their audiences are warm, and their creative is ready.
Email and SMS are your most profitable channels during peak, because you own them. Paid media then does the heavy lifting on reach, but costs rise sharply as the weekend approaches, so early audience building pays off.
What to have in place two to three weeks out:
- A segmented email plan with early access, launch, reminder and last-chance sends
- Automated flows for abandoned basket, browse and welcome tuned for peak
- Teaser content and paid campaigns building your retargeting pools
- Brand and non-brand search campaigns separated, with budgets ready to scale
- Creative for email, social and onsite banners that looks and sounds consistent
How we help: Our performance marketing team runs paid search, paid social, affiliates, and email as one joined-up plan, so every channel works toward the same commercial goal.
After a complete Klaviyo overhaul, Supplement Needs grew email revenue by 171%, new subscribers by 95% and abandoned cart revenue by 117%. For Tatti Lashes, restructuring paid search into brand and non-brand lifted brand campaign revenue by 68% and non-brand return on ad spend (ROAS) by 39%. Fashion label Tokyo Laundry saw PPC revenue grow 200% year on year.
Phase two: turn traffic into orders
Driving traffic is only half the job. On Black Friday, customers compare quickly and leave quickly, so every point of friction costs you sales you have already paid for.
Good conversion work makes the offer obvious, the path to purchase short and the reason to buy now clear.
Where to focus:
- Offer messaging visible from the first screen on every device
- Navigation and filters that get people to deals fast
- Product pages that answer questions on sizing, delivery and returns
- Urgency that is honest, such as stock levels and countdowns to real deadlines
- Pop-ups and banners that help rather than interrupt
How we help: Our conversion rate optimisation (CRO) and UX team finds where users drop off, removes friction, and tests improvements that lift conversion and AOV.
For sports brand Proviz, our UX and development work increased total purchases and first-time purchases by 23%. VITHIT saw conversion rate rise by 170% after working with us.
Phase three: launch, monitor and react
Black Friday weekend moves fast. The brands that come out ahead watch live data and make decisions by the hour, not the following week.
That only works if your tracking is accurate before the weekend starts. Broken tags or mismatched numbers between platforms make it impossible to know where to push spend.
On the weekend, make sure you can:
- Trust your tracking across your store, ad platforms and analytics
- See revenue, conversion and spend in one live view
- Shift budget quickly towards the channels and products that are working
- Spot site issues, stock problems or failed promotions early
- Agree in advance who makes which decisions, and how fast
How we help: Our data and analytics team audits tracking ahead of peak and builds reporting you can trust. During the event, our teams monitor performance alongside yours, so we can act on opportunities as they appear.
Phase three: turn Black Friday buyers into loyal customers
Black Friday is not the finish line. It brings in more new customers than any other week, and what you do next determines their value.
A clear post-peak plan carries momentum into Christmas, January and beyond:
- Welcome and second-purchase flows for every new customer
- Christmas gifting and last-delivery-date campaigns ready to go
- A full review of what worked by channel, product and offer
- Lessons captured while they are fresh, ready for next year
How we help: We report on what drove results and what did not, then turn that into a retention plan and a sharper strategy for the year ahead.
Make this your strongest Golden Quarter yet
We are a Shopify Platinum Partner and full-service eCommerce agency. Our teams cover strategy, build, CRO, performance marketing, email, and data, so your Black Friday plan is joined up from the first teaser to the January sale.
Whether you need a peak-readiness audit, a performance marketing push, or a partner for the whole quarter, we can help you plan, launch, and learn from it.
See more results in our case studies, or get in touch to talk about your Black Friday plans with our team.