Winter is Coming. The Time to Prepare for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas is Now.

Published in

Mammoth Factory

6 min readSep 6, 2018

Thankfully, our winter prediction is that there won’t be any white walkers this year — unless you count the hordes of retail zombies that are going to be pouring into your eCommerce store.

Yes, we know summer hasn’t even officially ended yet. Yes, we know it seems so early. Yes, we understand that seeing an email already mentioning the Holidays makes your blood pressure skyrocket.

But calm down. The fact that you are seeing this now means you have plenty of time to prepare for the massive influx of shoppers the holiday season brings. If you start on this list of fixes and prep now, you can look confidently ahead to the holidays.

…At least as far as your eCommerce site is concerned, anyway.

Step One. Be mobile optimized.

At this point, a mobile-optimized site is such a vital necessity of all eCommerce stores that you’ve surely heard this a thousand times already. Even so, it bears mentioning, because mobile traffic has surpassed that of desktops.

So far in 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones.

Additionally, according to Custora, last Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend saw over 26% of orders come through a mobile device.

So, consider your mobile experience. Is it intuitive? Streamlined? Responsive? Have you got digital wallet apps enabled? This can take some time to complete, so put it this on your priority to-do list now — not later.

Step Two. Fix your site issues.

Dozens of crawl errors? A storm of 404’s? Get ’em fixed.

Unsure if your site experience is up to par? It can be hard to self-evaluate. UserTesting is a great tool to get feedback on your layout and user experience. Site issues like these are easy to find through your data reporting tool, like Google Analytics.

But don’t confine your hunt for problems just to software and reporting tools. There are plenty of barriers to digital shopping (check out our list here) that can prevent a sale. Look at what are your customers saying too. Consider any negative trends in your feedback, and take whatever steps you can to fix the issue.

Step Three. Shine up your product pages.

Customers start researching far earlier than you might expect. According to NFR, 40% of customers begin researching their holiday shopping as early as October. They’re looking for information and images, with lots of room to compare and contrast with your competitors.

So, shine up those product pages, folks, and make sure your customers have all the info they need at their fingertips.

Step Four. Launch all your products.

Have some new products or designs waiting in the wings, almost ready to launch? Push to get those products completed and on your site as soon as possible. Give people time to eye your shiny-new-things and start their research process. Remember, people start hunting for Black Friday / Cyber Monday and Christmas presents in early fall!

Step Five. Organize your sale.

Don’t wait until the last minute. Organization now will save you time and innumerable headaches later.

Create a list of all your website products and plan the sales for each. Choose a start and end date, list the sale prices, the type of sale, where you’ll promote it, and any notes. (For example, add a reminder to create a separate coupon code for your VIP customers.)

This chart gives you an at-a-glance reference point in the midst of the Black Friday / Cyber Monday craziness. Last-minute planning is a recipe for gallons of coffee at 3am the night before a sale launch — and tons of mistakes.

Check out the Shopify App store — they have tools to make scheduling sales a piece of cake. Our favorite choice is Shopify Flow.

Step Six. Map your processes and create backup plans.

Who do you ship your products through? Do they tend to get overloaded in the holiday season?

Do you have enough materials in stock to meet the demand?

Is your website hosting up to the challenge of Cyber Monday or a holiday flash sale? Do you have a tech team or developer on call in case something breaks on your site?

If you’ve invested in a great platform, such as Shopify Plus, most of these things won’t be issues to worry about. Shopify has an army of support staff available 24/7, and your site will only go down if Shopify goes down — and that’s almost unheard of.

Even so, it’s always best to plan for the worst. You know the phrase — an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

So, if you’re not on Shopify, test your site to ensure it can handle a traffic surge. (You can test the server load capacity of your store with tools like LoadImpact.com or Blitz.io.) And don’t forget to send an email to your supplier and manufacturer to check that they will be able to meet the increased demand of the holiday season.

Step Seven. Spruce up your automated communication.

The cart abandonment rate on Black Friday to Cyber Monday is extremely high. In 2014, a study by Barilliance showed that 79% of mobile phone users abandoned their shopping cart during the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend. The average cart abandonment rate of all users during that period was 65%.

Your job is to get people back to that lonely cart to finish checking out. If you haven’t set this up already, now is the time to automate a series of abandoned cart emails.

If you’ve built on Shopify Plus, you’re in luck, because they’ve made this task incredibly easy with built-in abandoned checkout recovery. There’s also a great selection of abandoned cart apps in the Shopify App Store.

Step Eight. Create your sale content.

It seems like you’ve still got plenty of time, right? Well, by the time you get to this stage, you’re likely only a handful of weeks away from Turkey Day. So, ensure your sale content is well underway.

The best way to promote your sale (and the holiday) is by creating eye-catching visuals to advertise it. You’ll need:

Hero images (website and email)
Social media images
Banner ads (for ad campaigns)
In-store promotional materials (if you also have a brick-and-mortar)

If you don’t have the skills yourself, outsource to a freelance designer. You can find talented designers for reasonable prices here and here.

You also need to create your sale content.

Homepage copy
Emails
Social media messages
Blog announcement
Ad content (if running ad campaigns)

If you’re planning to run ads, remember that cost-per-click (CPC) can increase during holiday seasons. Adjust your budget accordingly.

Step 9. Create some buzz.

Now that you’re so ahead of the game, you have some extra time on your hands to maximize your holiday impact. Start tantalizing your fans with hints about your upcoming sale. Get them excited and researching now so they can plan their purchase later.

Create gift guides videos, infographics, and emails.
Pitch new products on your blogs and social media.
Remind disengaged prospects and customers you exist with retargeting pixels. (If you’re on Shopify, check out their tool for social retargeting ads, Kit. You can thank us later.)
Plan to start your email marketing campaigns in October.

Remind everyone that Santa is doubling down on that list — or rather, they should be doubling down on it, right about now.

Is It Too Soon To Say Happy Holidays?

Best of luck to you this holiday season. If you need help (or a new eCommerce site), remember, we’re here for you.

And if you’re interested in more research on what to expect for the holidays this year, Shopify wrote this article on the trends they expect to see in 2018. So, refill your coffee and sit back for another read. Spoiler: There’s a whole section devoted to AI bots.

Love,