The irony of e-commerce: you build sales for months, and the site crashes exactly when everyone is buying. Holiday campaigns are won 4 weeks BEFORE the holiday. Here is the plan.
4 weeks out: tech
- Capacity — expecting 5-10x the visits? Talk to your host about reinforcement (with us: a Business plan with Turbo, or temporarily boosted resources)
- Speed — compress the images of your sale products NOW; every second on Black Friday costs orders
- A payment test — a full card order, cart to confirmation; check the email notifications too
2 weeks out: the offer
- Clear discounts (old and new price) — up to -70% where nothing is -70% kills trust permanently
- Banners and a dedicated sale page or category
- Warm up your email list: a teaser before, a reminder on the day
1 week out: logistics
Stock synced with the site (nothing worse than sold-but-none), a courier deal for higher volume, and a clear delivery timeframe ON the site — expectations prevent anger.
D-day
Watch live: orders, speed, errors. Keep your hosting support contact handy (we stay awake on those days). And do not deploy a new site version ON the day — changes are for after.