Build the Black Friday page this month: decide real offers, set stock limits, schedule the start and the end, write the email, and test everything on a phone before November 25.

Seventeen days away

Black Friday falls on November 25 this year, the day after American Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday follows on November 28.

Both have become Canadian shopping days. Large retailers advertise them for weeks, and customers now expect smaller shops to join in.

Many small shops decide the night before. Prices are changed by hand, a banner goes up, and an email goes out at midnight.

Most of what goes wrong on the day was decided, or left undecided, in the weeks before it.

What goes wrong when it is rushed

Overselling costs the most goodwill. Refunding an order the customer thought was a bargain, after taking their money, leaves a worse impression than not running a sale at all.

Decide the offers first

Start with what you can afford to offer, not with what the large stores are doing.

A modest discount across the shop, a deeper one on a few lines, a gift with purchase, or free shipping over a set amount all work. Pick one or two, not five.

Any regular price shown beside a sale price has to be genuine. The Competition Act expects it to reflect real sales at that price, or a genuine offer at that price, over a reasonable period.

If a deal is limited to a few pieces, say so on the page. Treat this as an outline rather than legal advice; for larger promotions, a short conversation with a lawyer is worth having.

Build the page now

A sale page built this week can be checked, corrected and approved calmly. One built on the Thursday night cannot.

Give it a plain address, such as /black-friday, and keep it unpublished or unlinked until the sale starts.

Put the offers at the top, then the dates and times the sale runs, then the products. State shipping cut-offs and any limits on the same page.

Many shop systems can schedule a sale price to start and end at set times. Scheduling prevents both the early start and the forgotten finish.

Stock and shipping

Count what you actually have, and set stock levels in the shop so each product stops selling when it runs out.

Decide now whether to allow back-orders, and if so, say plainly on the product page how long the wait will be.

Check packing supplies and hands as well. A busy sale weekend needs boxes, tape and someone to pack, and those take longer to arrange than a page.

Shipping dates matter more in late November than at any other time, because many of these orders are Christmas presents.

Write the email now

The sale email can be written, designed and tested two weeks ahead, then scheduled.

Send it only to subscribers who have given consent, with the dates, the offer and one clear link to the sale page.

Click every link on a phone before scheduling, and check the mailing account's time zone, so a message meant for seven in the morning does not arrive at four.

A short reminder on the Sunday or the Monday can go to the people who opened the first email, rather than to everyone again.

A worked example

A candle maker in a rented studio sells hand-poured candles and three-candle gift boxes through an online shop, and at craft fairs through the summer.

Last year it decided on the Thursday evening to run a Black Friday sale. Prices on about forty products were changed by hand, and the email went out after midnight.

The discount missed the gift boxes, which were what customers wanted most. The best-selling scent ran out by midday, but no stock levels were set, so orders kept arriving for candles that did not exist.

On the Tuesday the banner was still up and the prices still reduced, because nobody had remembered to change them back.

This year the sale page was built in the first week of November, with sale prices scheduled to start and end automatically. Stock levels were entered for every scent, and the email was written and tested two weeks early.

The offer itself is simpler: one discount across the shop, gift boxes included, and a sample candle with every order.

Test it as a customer

A few days before the sale, place a real order on a phone, using the discount, exactly as a customer would.

Check that the code works on the products it should, fails on those it should not, and cannot be combined with offers you never meant to combine.

Ask someone outside the business to find the sale page from the home page. If they hesitate, the link is not prominent enough.

When the sale ends

Decide the end time in advance, state it on the page and keep to it. A sale that quietly runs on teaches customers that your deadlines mean nothing.

When it ends, remove the banners, restore the prices, and take the sale page down, or swap its contents for a brief line saying the sale has finished, with a link to the shop.

Check that ads, social posts and email signatures no longer point to an offer that has finished.

The counter-case

Not every shop should run a Black Friday sale. A maker with thin margins, or a shop whose customers buy on quality rather than price, may do better without one.

A gift with purchase or free shipping can mark the day without cutting prices, and a shop can simply sit it out.

What does not work is joining at the last minute. If you run a sale at all, build the page early and plan the end as carefully as the start.

Before Black Friday

  1. Choose one or two offers you can afford.
  2. Check every regular price shown beside a sale price.
  3. Build the sale page and keep it unlinked.
  4. Set stock levels for every product on sale.
  5. Schedule the start and end of every sale price.
  6. Write and test the email two weeks ahead.
  7. Place a real order on a phone.

Step four is the one that protects goodwill. A shop that stops selling when stock runs out disappoints nobody, while one that keeps taking orders spends the following week writing apologies.

Getting the products themselves online in time is covered in Christmas stock arriving before the product pages.

Frequently asked questions

When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Black Friday is November 25 this year, the day after American Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday is November 28. Both are now established shopping days in Canada.

Why build the sale page early?

Because a page built weeks ahead can be checked, corrected and approved calmly. Most problems on the day come from decisions rushed or skipped the night before.

What rules apply to sale prices?

A regular price shown beside a sale price must be genuine under the Competition Act, and limited quantities should be stated. A lawyer can check a larger promotion before it runs.

How do I avoid overselling?

Set stock levels in the shop for every product on sale, so items stop selling when they run out, and state any back-order wait plainly.

When should the sale email be ready?

Two weeks ahead: written, tested on a phone and scheduled, going only to subscribers who gave consent, with one clear link to the sale page.

What happens when the sale ends?

End it at the stated time. Restore prices, remove banners, take the page down or replace it with a note, and check ads and posts no longer promote it.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Black Friday sale planned for that Thursday night?

Send us your offers this week. We will help build, schedule and test the page before the day.

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