4 Signs Your Black Friday eCommerce Strategy Needs an Upgrade

Reviewing and upgrading your Black Friday eCommerce strategy ahead of time is essential for maximising Q4 sales.

62.3% of shoppers cite discounts as a key consideration in their purchase decisions.¹ This means Black Friday is likely to drive many new deal-seeking shoppers to your site.

Looking for ways to improve your eCommerce strategy in advance can help to further increase the likelihood of these shoppers converting.

In this article, we’ll help you harness your brand’s full Black Friday potential by covering the key signs your strategy needs updating.

Lessons from previous Black Fridays

Using data to drive your Black Friday strategy can really help you maximise its effectiveness.

Our Black Friday Report in 2024 revealed some interesting figures.

While the majority of sales took place on Black Friday itself, sales began steadily increasing from the beginning of November. This highlights the importance of preparing your Black Friday eCommerce strategy in advance to capitalise on sales throughout the entire month.

Additionally, mobile devices dominated the event in 2024, with almost 70% of orders placed via mobile. This trend continued into 2025, with research revealing a 13.8% rise in mobile spending over the holiday season.² This means offering a mobile-friendly experience is essential to capture sales from these tech-savvy shoppers.

Black Friday challenges for online retailers

There’s no denying, preparing for Q4 can be overwhelming. From planning discounts to preparing your social media content plan, Black Friday is one of the busiest dates in the eCommerce calendar.

All the traffic you generate through your marketing and advertising is being driven back to your website. Therefore, offering an optimised, user-friendly shopping experience is crucial for Black Friday success.

Some websites may struggle to cope with the huge surge in online traffic, resulting in slow page loads, errors, and site crashes. You’ll need to address these issues before the peak of Q4 hits.

Let’s look into some of the problems your online store may run into this Black Friday, and explore ways you can combat them:

1. Slow site functionality

At this time of year, the internet is bustling with online shoppers looking for the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals.

No matter how great your discounts are, if your user experience (UX) is bad, it can create friction that prevents your shoppers from converting. 

During Black Friday in eCommerce, shoppers are often impatient, and delays in functionality can lead to them shopping elsewhere.

For example, over half of mobile shoppers will abandon your site if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load.³ Slow loading and poor search functionality can make it difficult for shoppers to find products they’re looking for, and this frustration can result in lost sales.

What you can do: Make navigating your website as painless as possible for shoppers.

Some of the ways to do this include:

• Making product discovery efficient: Connect shoppers with your products quickly and accurately using an AI-powered search solution. By doing this, you’ll create a smoother path to checkout and increase the likelihood of purchase.

• Optimise for mobile: Check that your site functions well and is easy to navigate on mobile. Ensure images and text aren’t too large or small.

A better shopping experience can also help build long-term customer relationships. Studies show that 87% of shoppers who report a great experience with a brand go on to buy from them again.⁴

2. Abandoning shoppers

With a multitude of deals on offer throughout Black Friday, decision-making can be even more challenging than usual. Shoppers are likely to abandon browsing sessions or carts as they consider their purchase or shop around.

If you’re not retargeting these shoppers and bringing them back to your site, you’re likely to miss out on potential revenue to your competitors.

What you can do: Implement a series of automated emails to effortlessly retarget your shoppers with personalised campaigns.

If you have time to implement just one automated campaign ahead of Black Friday, make sure it’s an abandoned cart email.

For some brands, sending a single cart abandonment email was enough to recover sales from over 20% of abandoned carts.⁵

How to build effective abandoned cart emails

You can create optimised abandoned cart emails ahead of Black Friday by:

• Considering the timing: Set out a time frame in which you send out your abandoned cart emails. Do you want to send a series of emails over a specific time frame, send a one-off basket reminder or create a series of automated emails?

• Including incentives such as free delivery or further discounts: You may already be offering a large Black Friday discount, so consider if you can take it one step further. You could offer free shipping or an additional incentive to encourage your shopper to come back and complete their purchase.

• Building urgency: Carefully consider your subject lines and include time-sensitive CTAs. This creates a sense of urgency for your shopper, as they’ll want to avoid missing out on the items in their basket.

Pro tip: If you use Klaviyo for email, you can further enhance the performance of your cart abandonment emails with an identity resolution tool like AI Connect. These integrations can identify more of your anonymous visitors, allowing you to retarget shoppers you would normally miss. Learn more in our webinar ‘Elevating Klaviyo Flows with AI Connect’.

3. Low average order value

You work hard to drive traffic to your website, so you want to ensure you get the most out of those who convert.

This is especially important over Black Friday when your profit margins are slim, and your discount offerings are high.

If your shoppers are only placing low-value orders, it can be a sign you’re missing out on opportunities to drive additional revenue.

What you can do: Get more value from your customer acquisition spend with tactics that increase your average order value (AOV).

One of the easiest ways to do this is by displaying product recommendations on your website and in email campaigns. Tools like Salesfire use AI to personalise recommendations to each user’s shopping activity and interests, making it more likely shoppers will click through.

This can help drive upsells and cross-sells, encourage shoppers to build bigger baskets, and boost your AOV by 10%.⁶

4. Poor customer retention rates

Black Friday is the perfect time to invest in acquiring new customers. You’ll likely be spending a lot of time and money driving shoppers to your site through PPC ads and social media campaigns.

However, acquisition is just the first step. To maximise your ROI, you need to retain them too.

Many brands neglect this part, leading to low customer lifetime value and wasted investment. If your shoppers often make a single purchase and then disappear, it might be time to work on your retention strategy.

What you can do: Make sure you’re nurturing customers across the entire customer lifecycle.

Building relationships with your new and existing shoppers can increase loyalty and keep them coming back for more. This is key if you want to maintain your success throughout Black Friday and beyond.

A successful retention strategy could include the following:

• Personalised customer journeys: Show shoppers that you understand them and what they want with messaging personalised to their interests and buying stage. Tools like Salesfire AI can help you track more shopper behaviour and enable more accurate personalisation.

• Sending post-purchase campaigns: Consider setting up simple email or SMS automations to follow up on a shopper’s purchase with relevant, helpful links or an exclusive discount code. This can build trust and promote repeat purchasing.

• Create conversations on social media: Build up a community of loyal shoppers by encouraging and sharing user-generated content (UGC) on your social media. This helps shoppers to stay engaged with your brand even when they aren’t on-site.

Final thoughts

Black Friday falls on the 27th of November this year, but it’s not just a one-day event. Therefore, reaching your brand’s full potential this time of year requires a strong strategy spanning all of November.

If you’re experiencing issues like excessive cart abandonment or poor customer retention, now’s the time to address these. By ensuring you offer shoppers a seamless experience and valuable communications, you can drive up conversions and revenue this Q4. 

Start upgrading your strategy now, and make this your best Black Friday yet.

1 5 key stats on the shopping journey | eMarketer

2 2025 HOLIDAY SHOPPING TRENDS | Adobe for Business

3 Google: 53% of mobile users abandon sites that take over 3 seconds to load | MarketingDive

4 50 Stats That Prove The Value Of Customer Experience | Forbes

5 The Truth about Cart Abandonment | Smart Insights

6 Using Ecommerce Recommendation Engines to Keep Your Customers Coming Back | BigCommerce