Black Friday is on Friday 27 November this year, with Cyber Monday on 30 November and Christmas shopping straight after. For a lot of small online shops, the next six weeks bring in more orders than the rest of the year.
It’s also when things break. A checkout that stops working on a Sunday in December can cost more than a whole month’s hosting. Here’s the checklist we run through with shops before the rush.
1. Test Your Checkout From Start To Finish
Put a real order through, on your phone, using a real card, then refund it. Check you get the order email and the customer gets theirs. We recently fixed a shop whose checkout said there were no available payment methods after a plugin updated itself, just as its Christmas orders were due to start.
2. Do Your Updates Now, Not In December
Get WordPress, WooCommerce, your theme and plugins up to date in early November, take a backup first and test afterwards. Then leave things alone through December unless there’s a security fix. Busy weeks are the worst time to discover an update has broken something.
3. Check Your Stock And Prices
- Make sure stock levels are right, so you don’t sell things you haven’t got.
- Set sale prices with start and end dates, so offers switch on and off by themselves.
- Check discount codes work, and can’t be stacked in ways you didn’t plan.
4. Make Your Delivery Cut-Off Dates Clear
Put your last order dates for Christmas delivery on your home page, product pages and checkout. Customers would much rather know than guess, and it saves you a lot of “will it arrive in time?” emails.
5. Check Your Site Copes With More Visitors
Slow pages lose sales. Check your shop on a phone over 4G, not just on the office Wi-Fi. If it’s sluggish now, it’ll be worse with more people on it. Big images and too many plugins are the usual culprits, and some cheap hosting simply isn’t built for busy periods.
6. Make Sure Your Backups Are Working
Check when your last backup ran and that you know how to restore one. If the worst happens, you want to be back up in minutes, not days.
7. Tell Google And Your Customers
- Update your Google Business Profile with any special opening hours.
- Add a banner to your site for your offers and delivery dates.
- Email past customers. They’re the people most likely to buy again.
Common Questions
(01)Should I Do A Black Friday Sale At All?
Only if the numbers work. A small, clear offer on a few products often does better than cutting everything and eating your margin.
(02)Can I Schedule Sale Prices In WooCommerce?
Yes. Each product’s sale price can have start and end dates, so it goes live and ends by itself.
(03)Can You Check My Shop Before Black Friday?
Yes. Get in touch and we’ll run through your checkout, updates and backups so you go into the busy weeks with confidence.
Get Your Shop Ready
If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your shop before the rush, get in touch. Shops on our hosting get updates, backups and monitoring handled for them.
