The holidays are always a special time of the year. For many people, the Christmas spirit arrives early, prompting them to head to stores well before Christmas Eve. This practice has become so ingrained that it has given rise to two informal holidays following Thanksgiving: Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
For consumers, these events are joyous shopping sprees as they count down the remaining days until Christmas. For business owners, it’s a mix of excitement and loads of work.
In-store sales typically reach their peak during this season, with over 84 million shoppers visiting retail stores. Similarly, online sales spike dramatically and capture a significant market share year after year.
The caveat with an influx of customers is that you can only maximize gains if you’re ready, especially if you’re running an eCommerce website. Without the proper infrastructure, your website may crash and incur thousands of dollars in costs.
In this blog, we highlight key elements you should have checked and optimized to prepare your eCommerce website for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Why You Should Optimize Before the Holiday Rush
A massive surge in traffic, increased competition, and heightened consumer expectations accompany Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Without prep, you’re leaving money on the table—or worse, setting your brand up for failure.
During the holidays, shoppers aren’t just looking for good deals. They’re expecting fast-loading websites, seamless checkouts, and exceptional service. Even a few seconds of delay or a confusing user experience can make them bounce to a competitor.
Optimizing your website ahead of time means more than just avoiding crashes; it also ensures a seamless user experience. It’s about maximizing conversions, preserving your brand reputation, and capitalizing on opportunities that only come around once a year. A well-optimized site builds trust, reduces friction, and helps you rise above the noise, so you don’t just participate in Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you win it.
How to Optimize Your Ecommerce Website for Black Friday & Cyber Monday
Your Inventory
Seeing items sold out is almost always considered a good sign, but that’s not always the case. If there are discrepancies between your actual inventory and what is seen on your website, it will lead to frustrated customers and lost sales.
The worst that could happen is you continue selling items that are already out of stock, creating a customer service nightmare. In 2011, Best Buy encountered this issue and failed to deliver some Black Friday orders on time for Christmas. It sparked public outrage, tarnished brand trust, and created a headline that read, “Best Buy is Ruining Christmas.”
Be prepared for the increased demand during the holidays. Ensure that your inventory is closely tracked and updated in real-time on your website.
To minimize the risk of human error, implement a reliable inventory management system. There is free software available, such as Sortly Pro, inFlow Inventory, and ZhenHub, or you can ask your web developer to create one that’s custom-tailored to your needs.
Make it a habit to perform daily inventory audits during sale periods. Automated systems are great, but manual spot checks help you identify inconsistencies more quickly. Additionally, ensure that your return policy is clear and up-to-date—an increase in sales may lead to a corresponding rise in returns. Setting expectations upfront helps protect both you and your customer.
Website Speed and Performance
Two common problems that eCommerce websites face during this season are downtime and slow page loading times. If you’re not prepared, heavy traffic can significantly slow down your site speed or even cause your website to crash completely.
Your top priority before the sale begins is to make sure your website’s performance is in its best shape. Run frequent speed tests and check your website’s server load capacity to ensure it can handle traffic surges on the big day.
Apache JMeter and BlazeMeter are examples of open-source tools used to run high-volume speed tests. Ideally, loading time should be under two seconds to avoid visitors from bouncing. Both tools also examine website functionality and performance. If any issues are found, address them immediately to ensure a smooth journey from selecting products to checkout.
Prepare your website for scalability and stability, but also have a contingency plan in place. Coordinate with your IT team and web hosting provider to determine how to accommodate increased traffic and potential downtime.
Additionally, consider utilizing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to minimize load times and enhance reliability. A CDN distributes content to multiple servers worldwide, allowing users to access your site from the server closest to them, which improves speed and reduces crashes during peak hours.
Discounts, Gift Cards, and Coupons
During the holidays, it’s not just about who has the best product, but also who offers the best deals. Discounts are major forces that contribute to customers’ willingness to spend. While last-minute sales elicit a sense of urgency that’s good for impulse buys, it’s better to organize upcoming sales and roll out discounts with a plan in mind.
Review your profit margins and inventory to set appropriate discounts. A good way to stay on top of this is by creating a spreadsheet of all your upcoming sales. Identify which products will have their prices reduced and specify when the discount will take effect and when it will expire.
Accomplish this ahead of time so you can refer to your sales map when the time comes. If your store is on Shopify, you can get help from the Shopify App Store to schedule sales effortlessly.
Whether you’re using promo codes, gift cards, or coupons, the trick is always to make things easy for the consumer. If visitors have difficulty applying a promo code, they are likely to abandon their cart. Keep the process simple, straightforward, and transparent. The fewer surprises they encounter during checkout, the more likely they are to complete their purchase.
Utilize shareable discount links and maintain a robust coupon management system to prevent fraud and coupon abuse.
Don’t forget to localize your offers if you’re targeting international markets. Currency adjustments, language translations, and regional product highlights can drive higher conversions. A minor adjustment in how your discounts are presented can significantly boost global sales.
Banners and Advertisements
You will be facing tough competition during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Every brand will be on its A-game trying to attract customers in the hopes of making the most profit. Sprint ahead by creating and publishing magnetic advertisements to promote your holiday sales.
Advertise early to prime consumers to make a purchase and keep you top of mind. Something as simple as using banner ads or switching the header image on your homepage to match the theme will encourage visitors to explore your offerings.
With modern technology, you don’t have to be an expert on graphic design to make ads. Design tools like Canva, Taler, and CreativeMarket feature user-friendly editors to create your graphics. These platforms also offer tons of beautiful templates. Still, you may want to check in with your web designer and developer to ensure these images don’t harm your site’s speed.
Maximize your reach by utilizing other channels for promotion. Invest in email marketing, pay-per-click ads, and social media marketing. Monitor which campaigns are generating engagements and eliminate those that aren’t driving sales to reduce costs.
Video ads are particularly effective during the holiday season. Consider creating 10–15 second product teasers or tutorial-style content to showcase how your product solves a problem or makes for a perfect gift. Post these on Instagram Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts to capture mobile shoppers as they scroll through their feeds.
Checkout Process
A significant number of customers become hesitant to complete their transactions when they see that a site’s checkout page is too complicated or insecure.
Review your checkout process and identify opportunities to streamline it for consumers. There are a couple of unnecessary steps in your existing scheme that are holding you back from closing a sale.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday typically attract a large number of first-time visitors. Allow these users to check out without registering and then prompt them to create an account after the purchase has been made.
Equally important, keep your forms simple. Remove unnecessary fields and indicate shipping costs early in the process. You should also support multiple payment options, add trust badges, and optimize the page for mobile users.
Offer express checkout options, such as Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Shop Pay, for users who prefer a one-click experience. The less friction between desire and purchase, the higher your conversion rate will be.
Abandoned Carts
It is ideal to have all visitors become paying customers, but the reality is that many people won’t easily progress through your sales funnel. It’s normal to have a handful of abandoned carts during Black Friday and Cyber Monday — what’s crucial is what you do with them.
Although abandoned carts are technically ominous signs, they’re only missed opportunities if you leave them unattended. Firstly, ensure that your website has the functionality to recover abandoned carts.
The WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery plugin does just that while capturing email addresses on the checkout page. Fifteen minutes after abandonment, the plugin sends an abandoned cart email to encourage customers to go back and complete their transactions.
Automate your contingency plan using the tool of your choice to save time and resources.
Add urgency with time-limited cart recovery emails. Highlight remaining stock, offer a small discount, or display the number of people who are eyeing the same product. A compelling reminder sent within 1–2 hours can often seal the deal.
Contingency Plans
Finally, be prepared for the worst. Many things can go wrong on the busiest day for sales.
Backing up your data should be a routine practice, but during peak seasons, it’s on a whole new level of criticality. Have your team ready for possible downtime and prepare for a quick return to live status.
Beyond your e-commerce website, you also need to address issues with your shipping company, inventory management, and cybersecurity threats. Prevention is always better than a cure; it’s nice to have a game plan on how to troubleshoot before things go awry.
Create a priority-response matrix so everyone on your team knows what to do in different failure scenarios—whether it’s a payment gateway crash, database issue, or security breach. Clear roles and rapid communication can make the difference between recovery and disaster.
Mobile Responsiveness
More than half of online traffic now comes from mobile devices, and holiday shoppers are no exception. If your site isn’t fully optimized for mobile, you could lose a large chunk of potential customers. Responsive design ensures that your website displays and functions properly across all screen sizes, from smartphones to tablets and beyond.
Test every part of your site—home page, product pages, cart, and checkout—on multiple devices and browsers to ensure optimal performance. Ensure buttons are easily tappable, images load quickly, and text is readable without requiring pinching or zooming. A frictionless mobile experience increases your chances of turning mobile visitors into paying customers.
Customer Service Channels
Expect an uptick in inquiries, complaints, and support requests as more people visit your site. If you’re not equipped to handle them efficiently, it can negatively impact your brand reputation and customer retention. Ensure your customer service team is prepared and that your support channels—whether via chat, email, or phone—are visible and functioning correctly.
Consider adding a live chat feature to answer common questions quickly; tools like Intercom or Tawk can help you manage conversations in real-time. Prepare FAQ pages and automated responses for frequently asked questions, such as shipping delays, returns, or issues with promo codes.
You can also create holiday-specific customer service templates to help your team respond more efficiently while maintaining the quality and brand tone.
Avail of On-Call Web Development Services
Have your website performing at its best on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Our professional team of web developers and designers provides on-call web development services to address a range of issues and optimize your website pages.
Contact DevWerkz today to gear up for the busiest—and most rewarding—shopping days of the year. Let’s ensure your site is ready to handle the rush, convert browsers into buyers, and close the year with a bang.