Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on October 29, 2018. It’s been updated with additional information, recommendations, insights and data to address the most current digital strategies and tactics.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner. The sooner you start preparing for the highly anticipated weekend, the better your business will do. If you start preparing now, you'll have plenty of time to get your promotional material ready, plan out your sales throughout the season, and restock inventory.

Following are 11 things you should be doing right now to ensure that your online store is ready for the upcoming shopping season.

1. MAKE A SALES PLAN

Decide and plan which sales you will have and when they will run.

Will you run different deals on Black Friday versus Cyber Monday? Will you offer a percentage or dollar amount off entire orders, run sales pricing on different products or both? Will you require the use of discount codes or will the deals be redeemed automatically at checkout?

Organize all of your various deals and discounts, and decide where and how you will advertise them.

2. ENSURE TRACKING IS ACCURATE

Optimize and enhance your analytics accounts to ensure you're able to gather cleaner and more insightful data.

Make sure ecommerce tracking is turned on and properly recording data.
Add event tracking and goals for on-page events, such newsletter sign ups, wishlist additions, review submissions, social sharing, etc.
Create audience and content segments so you can evaluate on-site behavior and engagement with various types of users and site elements.
Place retargeting pixels before the holiday season to start building your audience pools. Even if you have no plans to run retargeting during the holidays (but you should, because users are 70% more likely to convert with retargeted ads!), this will allow you to reach customers after the busy shopping season.

Check out our blog "Not Your Basic Google Analytics Implementation" for more tips.

3. PREPARE FOR INCREASED TRAFFIC

An online store can crash if it isn't prepared to handle a sudden influx of customers. Test your website's servers beforehand with a tool like CyberFlood to ensure that your site will function well with increased traffic. Crashing or lagging will definitely deter sales and drive consumers away.

If you’re using an eCommerce platform like Shopify or BigCommerce, you shouldn’t have any issues with up time, as these platforms are made to handle spikes.

4. CREATE UNIQUE LANDING PAGE(S)

Creating landing pages dedicated to holiday items and deals is a quick and easy way for visitors to explore the festivities at a glance. This draws attention to other products consumers may be interested that they may not have otherwise been aware of, and can create organic visibility on terms like “Black Friday deals,” “Cyber Monday offers” or “holiday sales.”

5. CREATE HOLIDAY ADVERTISING

Decorate your online store for the holidays. Include festive banners, holiday-themed photos and social media imagery, product images, logos, automated emails, and holiday-deal-themed keywords for paid search campaigns, etc. Now is the time to start planning for, designing and scheduling everything.

6. CONSIDER THE MOBILE EXPERIENCE

Many shoppers use mobile devices for online shopping ease. Consider the appearance and functionality of your eCommerce mobile site. Your mobile site should look professional. Site navigation and checkout should be simple and easy to use.

While most ecommerce platforms today such as Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce handle the responsive design, you still want to consider the look, feel and navigation to ensure it functions the way you want and the way your customers need.

7. PREPARE GIFT GUIDES

It can be difficult for some customers to find the perfect gift. Provide organized gift guides to help shoppers find the right present. Gift guides organized by age, gender, interest and price can be a useful tool for online browsing. Gift guides also provide varied ways for you to market your products into new groups, cross-promote across categories, and even gain some organic visibility on “best holiday gifts for dads,” “top tech gifts,” “good gifts under $10” or other phrases related to your brand and products.

8. SELL GIFT CARDS

Gift cards are a great option for customers that want to give their loved ones something from your store, but are not sure what the giftee wants or needs. Not only that, customers using gift cards typically spend 20-50% more than the average purchase amount. And if they don’t end up using the entire amount with one purchase, it keeps them coming back to redeem the full value (and, oftentimes, then some!).

9. ENCOURAGE CUSTOMERS TO COMPLETE THEIR PURCHASES

Make sure you have automated emails for cart abandonment and browse abandonment. These email reminders can be a gentle yet successful way to redirect customers back to your site if they got distracted or are still researching their purchase decisions.

10. LEVERAGE DEAL SITES

Submit your Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials to coupon and deals websites. This will help deal seekers find your sales. Some of the top deals sites are: RetailMeNot, PromosPro, Coupon Chief and MyCoupon.

11. DON’T STOP AT CYBER MONDAY

Black Friday and Cyber Monday aren't the only days for holiday shopping. Shoppers will continue to make purchase throughout the season, especially with the prevalence of two-day and faster shipping.

Keep your customers engaged by maintaining consistency with your deals and ads throughout the entire holiday season. Planning your specials gives you an opportunity to strategically map out deals and make sure nothing overlaps or conflicts, as well as giving multiple products or categories a chance in the spotlight. Consider marketing around the last guaranteed shipping date for your business, which will vary depending on your shipping and fulfillment process.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest days of the year for retail and online stores. In 2019, online businesses raked in $601.75 billion, an increase of 14.9% over the previous year’s BFCM sales days. And with limitations that COVID19 will place on in-store shopping this holiday season, you can be sure that 2020 will be an even bigger year for online sales. In fact, Klaviyo is predicting BFCM sales could reach $1.1 trillion this year, an increase of 82.8%!

Don't miss this opportunity. The sooner you start preparing for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the better your business will perform.