9 min read
Black Friday 2026: How to prepare your online store for Black Week
Black Friday is one of the biggest sales periods of the year for many ecommerce businesses. But the online stores that perform best are rarely the ones that start preparing the week before.
In 2026, Black Week runs from 23–29 November, with Black Friday on 27 November and Cyber Monday on 30 November.
That means now is the time to start preparing your online store, offers, inventory and marketing.
How to prepare your online store for Black Friday – step by step
A successful Black Friday campaign involves much more than simply discounting a few products.
Make sure you:
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decide which products and offers you want to promote
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review your pricing and previous lowest prices
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create a clear Black Friday page
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prepare your inventory, deliveries and returns
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review your product pages and product images
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test the entire customer journey on mobile
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make sure your tracking and advertising are working
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plan your communication before, during and after Black Week
Here’s how to tackle each step. Want to jump straight to the checklist? Scroll down to find it later in the article.
1. Start with the goal – not the discount
It’s easy to start your Black Friday planning by asking:
How big should our discount be?
A better question is:
What do we want to achieve?
Do you want to attract new customers? Increase your average order value? Clear selected inventory? Or encourage more customers to return ahead of the Christmas shopping season?
You don’t need to discount your entire range either.
A smaller number of clear offers can be easier for customers to understand while also protecting your margins. For example, you could offer:
Think of Black Friday as part of your wider sales strategy – not simply as a day when everything needs to be cheaper.
2. Review your pricing well in advance
Ahead of Black Friday, it’s especially important to make sure you are communicating discounted prices correctly.
When promoting a price reduction, the previous price shown must be the lowest price the product has had during the previous 30 days. If you communicate a discount as a percentage or a fixed amount, the discount must also be calculated from that price.
This means you need to understand each product’s pricing history before Black Week begins.
Planning other campaigns during October or November? Check how they could affect the price you later want to promote during Black Friday.
This is one area you definitely don’t want to leave until the final week.
3. Create a clear Black Friday page
Consider bringing all your Black Friday offers together on a dedicated campaign page in your online store.
This makes it easier to:
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link directly from ads, newsletters and social media
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guide customers to the right products
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clearly communicate campaign dates and terms
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highlight your most important offers
If you already have a Black Friday page, there’s no need to create a brand-new one every year. Instead, update the existing page with this year’s dates, offers and content.
It’s also a good idea to publish the page before the campaign actually begins. That gives both customers and search engines time to find it.
4. Make your offers easy to find
A visitor arriving at your online store during Black Week should quickly understand three things:
What’s on offer? How much can I save? How long does the offer last?
Don’t make customers click through several pages just to find your campaign.
For example, you could use:
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campaign messaging on relevant product pages
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selected campaign products on your homepage
Be consistent across your different channels too.
If you promote a specific product or discount in an ad, customers should be able to find the same offer easily when they arrive at your online store.
5. Review your product pages
During Black Week, many customers will compare several products and online stores before making a decision.
That makes your product pages especially important.
Pay particular attention to the following:
Product images
Show your products clearly and, where possible, from several angles. If relevant, images showing the product in use can also make it easier for customers to make a purchase decision.
Product descriptions
Answer the most common customer questions directly on the product page.
This could include:
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size
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material
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dimensions
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intended use
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compatibility
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care instructions
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contents
The fewer unanswered questions a customer has, the easier the path to purchase becomes.
Stock status
Make it clear whether a product is in stock. Avoid letting customers get far into the purchase journey before discovering that an item is unavailable. See how to add stock information here.
Delivery and returns
How quickly can the customer expect their order? What happens if they need to return an item?
Clear delivery information can be especially important when customers are shopping ahead of Christmas.
6. Test the entire customer journey – especially on mobile
Black Friday is not the time to discover that a button is in the wrong place, a discount code doesn’t work or a payment method is causing problems.
Run a few test purchases before your campaign begins.
Test the entire journey:
Homepage → campaign page → product → cart → checkout → order confirmation
Check:
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navigation
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search
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filtering
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product selection
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discount codes
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shipping options
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payment
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forms
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order confirmation
Test the experience on different screen sizes too.
Pay particular attention to mobile. Customers should be able to move from product discovery to completed purchase without having to zoom in, hunt for buttons or repeatedly go back a step.
7. Prepare inventory, shipping and returns
More orders also mean more work after the customer clicks “Buy”.
Make sure you review:
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stock levels for campaign products
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packaging materials
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staffing
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carrier collections
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delivery times
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shipping options
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returns handling
Be realistic about what your business can manage.
If deliveries are likely to take longer than usual during Black Week, clear communication is better than making a promise you can’t keep.
Remember that Black Friday also falls close to the Christmas shopping season. For many customers, knowing when their parcel will arrive can be just as important as the discount itself.
8. Plan your marketing before Black Friday
Don’t wait until Black Friday morning to tell customers you’re running a campaign.
Start building interest before Black Week begins.
Before Black Week
Let customers know that something is coming. For example, encourage them to sign up for your newsletter so they can be among the first to know when the campaign goes live.
When Black Week begins
Present your offers clearly and link directly to your campaign page.
During the week
Highlight different products, categories or bestsellers across your channels.
On Black Friday
Focus on your strongest offers and make it clear how long they are available.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday falls on the Monday after Black Friday and can either be used as the final day of your campaign period or as an opportunity to run a separate offer.
Which channels you use will depend on where your customers are. These could include:
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communication with existing customers
Prepare as much as possible in advance so you don’t have to create all your campaign communication in the middle of Black Week.
9. Check your tracking before the traffic arrives
If Black Week goes well, you’ll want to understand why.
Before the campaign begins, make sure your analytics and tracking are working correctly.
At a minimum, you should be able to track:
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traffic to your online store
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traffic sources
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product views
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purchases
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conversion rate
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average order value
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advertising performance
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new and returning customers
It’s also a good idea to complete a test purchase and make sure it is recorded correctly.
It’s much easier to discover a tracking issue before the campaign than in the middle of Black Friday.
10. Prepare your customer service
As traffic and order volumes increase, customer questions usually increase too.
Think in advance about the questions customers are most likely to ask.
Common topics include:
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delivery times
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stock availability
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discount codes
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payment
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returns
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exchanges
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when the campaign starts and ends
Make the answers as easy as possible to find directly in your online store.
Clear information can help customers get answers faster while also reducing the pressure on your customer service team.
Black Friday doesn’t end when Black Friday is over
A common mistake is to focus only on how much you sold during the campaign itself.
Black Week can also bring a large number of new customers to your business.
The important question afterwards is:
How do you get them to come back?
After Black Friday, you could:
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follow up with new customers
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recommend complementary products
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communicate with customers ahead of Christmas
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analyse which offers performed best
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identify which channels delivered the best results
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compare new and returning customers
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document what you learned for your next campaign
That way, Black Friday becomes more than just a few intense days of sales – it becomes an opportunity to build a stronger ecommerce business over the longer term.
Black Friday 2026 checklist
Before Black Week begins, make sure you have:
☐ Chosen your products and offers
☐ Checked each product’s previous lowest price
☐ Prepared your Black Friday page
☐ Updated product images and product information
☐ Checked your stock levels
☐ Reviewed shipping and returns
☐ Tested your online store on mobile
☐ Completed a test purchase
☐ Tested discount codes and campaigns
☐ Checked your tracking
☐ Planned newsletters and advertising
☐ Prepared your customer service team
☐ Decided how you will measure and follow up on the results
With these pieces in place, your online store will be better prepared for Black Week – leaving you more time to focus on customers, sales and performance once the campaign gets underway.
Prepare for Black Week with Abicart
If you run your online store with Abicart, you can prepare many parts of your Black Friday campaign in advance.
You can work on your store content and SEO, highlight campaigns with banners and use discounts and promotional codes.
With scheduled campaigns and limited-time offers, you can also prepare campaigns in advance and have your offers automatically start and end at the right time.
Whatever type of offer you are planning, the most important thing is to start early, test the entire customer journey and make it as easy as possible for customers to move from offer to completed purchase.
See what’s included in Abicart’s different plans →
Want to try Abicart? Start your free 30-day trial →
Good luck with Black Week 2026 🚀