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Black Friday Preparation Checklist

Get your store ready for the biggest shopping weekend of the year

18 items

Black Friday and Cyber Monday can generate months of revenue in a single weekend, but only if your store is prepared. Traffic spikes, aggressive competition, and high customer expectations make preparation essential.

Start this checklist at least 6 weeks before BFCM to ensure everything is optimized and tested.

Inventory and Fulfillment

Forecast demand by producthigh

Analyze last year sales data and current trends to estimate BFCM demand. Order extra inventory for top sellers.

Coordinate with fulfillment partnershigh

Confirm capacity with your 3PL or warehouse. Delays during BFCM severely damage customer satisfaction.

Set up backorder or waitlist functionalitymedium

Prepare for stockouts with backorder options or email notification signups. Do not lose customers permanently over temporary stockouts.

Test shipping rate accuracyhigh

Verify shipping rates and delivery estimates for BFCM volume. Incorrect estimates lead to support tickets and negative reviews.

Site Performance

Load test your storehigh

Simulate high traffic to identify bottlenecks. Shopify handles infrastructure, but third-party apps and scripts can still slow down.

Remove unnecessary appshigh

Uninstall or disable apps you do not need for BFCM. Every app adds script weight that compounds under traffic spikes.

Optimize product page speedhigh

Follow the product page speed checklist to ensure your highest-traffic pages load fast under pressure.

Test checkout flow under loadhigh

Complete test purchases to verify payment processing, inventory updates, and email notifications all function correctly.

Prepare a status pagelow

Have a plan for communicating with customers if anything goes wrong. Proactive communication preserves trust.

Promotions and Marketing

Plan discount strategyhigh

Decide on discount types: percentage off, dollar off, BOGO, or gift with purchase. Set clear start and end times.

Create BFCM landing pagehigh

Build a dedicated deals page with your best offers. This becomes the focal point for all marketing campaigns.

Schedule email campaignshigh

Plan a sequence: teaser, launch, reminder, last chance, and extended sale emails. Segment by customer history.

Set up abandoned cart recoveryhigh

Increase the urgency in BFCM abandoned cart emails. Limited-time deals create natural scarcity.

Prepare social media contentmedium

Create and schedule social posts for each day of the sale period. Include customer reviews and UGC in creative.

Social Proof Optimization

Maximize review collection before BFCMhigh

Aggressively collect reviews in the weeks before BFCM. More reviews mean higher conversion during the sale.

Feature best reviews on deal pageshigh

Curate and display your most compelling customer reviews on the BFCM landing page.

Optimize review widget for speedhigh

Ensure Eevy AI widget is configured for fast loading. During BFCM, every millisecond of load time matters more.

Run A/B tests before BFCMmedium

Complete review layout A/B tests before the sale starts. Use the winning configuration during BFCM rather than testing live.

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