Despite the fact that it’s still in the 80’s here in North Carolina, the holidays are coming. And as an online store owner, it’s already time to start thinking about how you’re going to prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It can be daunting to think about, sure. And it’s hard to tell how soon is too soon to start planning. But, for the sake of good measure, we’re going to give you a run down of ways to prepare to avoid the whole fail to plan, plan to fail thing.

How to Prepare for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Decide on promotions

Go ahead and start thinking about what kind of deals you want to offer for both events. Get your team together (if you have one) and hammer out the details. If you work with a web developer who helps you manage your store, inform them of what discount codes you’ll need generated. You may also want to change your newsletter pop up to incentivise your followers to be the first to know the special deals.

Prepare social media and newsletter content

If you’re running any kind of deal, you need to get people excited for it! Informing people is more than half the battle. Take some time to go ahead and prepare your social media and newsletter campaigns surrounding the events. You can use the lead up to the events as a growth campaign by utilizing newsletter opt-ins for access to unique deals.

Square away your shipping details

Make sure your customers aren’t getting hit with unexpected shipping costs. Compare methods and choose the one that works best for you and your customers. Just a heads up, cart abandonment tends to spike around Black Friday & Cyber Monday, and often times shipping rates are to blame. Don’t let that happen to you!

Make sure you have enough inventory

The last thing you want is to oversell your inventory. Make educated inventory projections to accommodate the influx of sales. It can be tough to gauge. If you do run into any snaffous, be transparent with your customers about delayed shipments. Remember, these people are likely buying your products as gifts that need to arrive before the holidays.

Need a hand optimizing your Shopify store in time for the holidays? Get in touch! We’re Shopify Experts who can get you set up for success!