A Black Friday Ecommerce Checklist to Prepare for the Holiday Season

Online holiday shopping has set new records in 2024, with Adobe forecasting that $240.8 billion will be spent from November through December, up 8.4% over last year.

Again, that number is a whopping $240 billion, with a “b”.

Cyber week, which encompasses Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, will swallow up over $40 billion of this projected amount, with nearly $11 billion in U.S. online sales occurring on Black Friday alone.

For many shoppers, this intense buying period starts well before the actual day.  55% of U.S. consumers took advantage of pre-Thanksgiving sales in 2023, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF). 

This surge in shopping activity presents an enormous opportunity for retailers, but competition is steep, and consumers are busy. Success during this critical pre-holiday shopping period requires thorough preparation. 

Optimizing site performance, focusing on personalized experiences, and making sure everything loads quickly—every tip in our Black Friday ecommerce checklist is meant to keep you primed and ready for retail’s busiest season.

Black Friday Ecommerce Checklist

Let’s jump right in with seven tips to keep your website sharp and optimized for the holidays. There’s no time to waste!

✅ 1. Make Search Work Harder

We’re starting with site search because that’s where your customers typically…start. Shoppers arrive ready to search for specific products when they land on your site. In fact, 70% will go right to your search bar. Effective site search can mean the difference between a sale and a bounce, especially during high-traffic events like Black Friday. 

Prep your ecommerce search tool for the influx of holiday shoppers by adding features like personalized search, autocomplete, product recommendations, and product groupings—all AI-powered capabilities that connect visitors to products they’ll love.  

Natural language processing (NLP) uses AI to better understand the language shoppers use, along with the context. That equals more relevant results and a much easier experience. This “smart search” allows for common misspellings and synonyms—so Aunt Rita can find the perfect gift without having to know how to spell “Furblet” (one of the hottest toys for 2024, according to Amazon.)

✅ 2. Plan For The Season, Not Just The Day

Black Friday isn’t a single-day sprint anymore. Over 200 million consumers shopped during the five-day holiday weekend in 2023. But many retailers now kick off the holiday promotional extravaganza before then, starting in October and extending promotions through December. 

Breaking your strategy into distinct phases ensures you’re capturing as many shoppers as possible: pre-Black Friday, the main event (including Cyber Monday), and post-sale follow-up. Set up automated offers and messages that shift with demand throughout the season. Adobe predicts that discounts will reach about 30% between November 22 and December—so plan your margins accordingly.

✅ 3. Make Sure Your Site is Wicked Fast

Site speed directly impacts your bottom line from both a conversion rate and average order value perspective (AOV). According to HubSpot, conversion rates drop by nearly 4.5% for every second added to a page’s load time (from 0 to 5 seconds). The AOV increases as your site speed increases, so make sure you test your site’s load times well before the holiday rush hits.  

Some tips to improve page speed: compress images (without sacrificing quality), remove unused apps and plugins, minimize page redirects, and make sure your hosting plan can handle increased traffic. Run through your entire checkout process and time each step—each precious second matters when shoppers are racing to grab deals.

✅ 4. Inspire Shoppers with Personalized Recommendations

Shoppers want relevance. According to McKinsey, over three-quarters of consumers say they’re more likely to buy from brands that personalize. What does this look like from the perspective of an ecommerce buying journey? Top personalized experiences noted by consumers include relevant product recommendations, tailored messaging, and targeted promotions. 

An AI-powered personalization platform like Monetate lets you check these boxes. For example, you can create landing pages with curated products and offers aimed at different audience segments (first time visitors, moms with toddlers, loyal customers, etc.) Use dynamic and personalized bundles to pair complementary items and similar products. Our system uses browsing behavior and purchase history along with other signals to create personalized groups. Tap into FOMO by displaying top-rated items and trending products to inspire gifting ideas and help 

✅ 5. Get Email Involved

Don’t wait until Black Friday has arrived to add email to your holiday shopping strategy. Email remains a reliable way to reach holiday shoppers, with 70% of consumers proactively seeking deals during Cyber Week, according to Adobe.  

Start building anticipation with early access offers. The NRF reports that consumers spent an average of $321 on holiday-related items during Thanksgiving weekend in 2023. You can also recapture the comparison shoppers (and isn’t that all of us?) with cart recovery and reminder emails. Don’t let up, but also don’t inundate people with email. Send your holiday email in waves (e.g., one wave before the holiday push, a burst during peak shopping days, and follow-up messages) to keep the momentum throughout Cyber Week and beyond.

✅ 6. Test What Works Before the Holidays Hit

With billions of consumer dollars on the table, there’s too much revenue at stake to risk on guesswork during the holiday shopping season. Focused test runs can help you optimize your approach before the rush hits.

Use both A/B and multivariate testing to perfect your shopping holiday strategy. Start with A/B tests of single elements like promotional banners or discount messaging. For more complex changes, use multivariate testing to understand how different page elements work together—like testing how images, CTAs, and navigation interact to guide purchasing decisions. Monetate client Darn Tough, a sock maker based in Vermont, used this testing approach to achieve an 8.4% conversion rate lift and a 12% increase in AOV.

✅ 7. Don’t Forget About Mobile

Mobile revenue hit a milestone during the 2023 holiday season, overtaking desktop purchases to encompass 53.2% of all holiday revenue. This isn’t just occasional browsing. Per Adobe data, just over half (51%) of shoppers prefer mobile even when a desktop is available, and 82% use their phones to compare prices while in physical stores.

Your 2024 holiday prep should plan for mobile shoppers, and that means designing mobile-first shopping experiences. You’ve already got speed covered, per item #3. Make sure you’re optimizing images and navigation for small screens. Pay special attention to mobile checkout. Between 74-79% of Buy Now, Pay Later purchases will happen on mobile devices this holiday season, so make sure these payment options are clear and easy to use.