How ecommerce brands can prepare for Black Friday

Black Friday is one of the most important moments of the ecommerce year. It’s a chance to grow sales, connect with new customers, and get your brand in front of a wider audience before the holiday season begins. 

And while the sales spike happens in November, most successful ecommerce teams begin preparing their campaigns months in advance.

This guide will walk you through how to plan for Black Friday 2025. From getting your offers and visuals ready, to building campaigns that attract new customers, by the end you should have the tips you need to get started.

Want to skip this blog? Check out our Black Friday planner pack to help you get your ducks in a row before the big weekend. 

Black Friday: is it worth it for ecommerce?

The short answer? Yes — if you approach it strategically.

Although Black Friday started as an in-store event in the US, today it’s a major part of the ecommerce calendar around the world. Every year, shoppers plan ahead to hunt for deals, discover new brands and tick off their holiday shopping lists. It’s one of the few moments in the year when people are actively looking to buy — and that makes it a huge opportunity for ecommerce businesses.

It’s true that some Black Friday shoppers are deal-hunters who disappear once the sales end. But many are people who already know about your brand and just need the right offer to make their first purchase. That’s why how you plan, position and follow up on your Black Friday promotions matters more than the size of the discount itself.

Handled well, Black Friday isn’t just about a short-term boost in revenue, it’s an opportunity to:

• Turn browsers into first-time buyers
• Grow your email list and future remarketing audiences
• Build awareness with new audiences
• Create momentum that carries into the rest of the holiday shopping season

How and when to get ready for Black Friday

With Black Friday falling on 28th November 2025, many brands will already have their campaigns mapped out well in advance. Don’t fall into the last minute scramble. 

Here’s where to start:

• Set clear goals: Decide what you want from Black Friday. Is it about acquiring new customers, clearing old inventory, or boosting average order value? Your offers and messaging should tie directly to those goals.
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• Decide on your offers early: Will you run blanket discounts, product bundles, or free gifts with purchase? Think through your margins and long-term goals so you don’t end up sacrificing profit for one-off sales.
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• Time your promotions strategically: Most brands see the best results when they start promoting 5–14 days in advance. Any earlier and you risk losing urgency. Any later and you might miss your window to build momentum.
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• Prep your content and assets ahead of time: Plan product photography, social posts, email visuals and ad creative well before the rush. Storing everything in a digital asset management tool like Dash makes it easy for your team to find, share and update content without wasting time digging through messy folders. And because Dash links never expire, you won’t have to worry about broken links derailing your campaigns or partners losing access to the Black Friday assets they need.
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• Plan for post-Black Friday follow-up: Think beyond the sale weekend. How will you nurture new customers once the deals end? Plan personalised emails, product recommendations and loyalty offers to turn them into repeat buyers.

The earlier you start planning, the more control you’ll have over your campaigns, your margins, and your customer experience. And when the big day arrives, your team will be focused on driving sales, not scrambling to fix last-minute problems.

What types of discounts should you offer?

Black Friday is all about great deals — but that doesn’t mean you have to cut prices across the board. The key is finding the right balance between enticing new customers and protecting your bottom line.

Some brands go all-in with deep discounts, but heavy markdowns can eat into your margins and often attract bargain-hunters who disappear once prices go back up.

If you want to avoid that trap, think beyond blanket discounts. There are plenty of creative ways to deliver value without racing to the bottom. We’ll go into more detail on these in the next section, but some popular BF offers include: 

• Bundles of bestsellers: Package complementary products together at a slightly reduced price to boost average order value.
• Freebies: Add a free gift with every purchase, like a sample, accessory, or future discount code.
• Giveaways: Encourage engagement on social media or email sign-ups by giving customers the chance to win something special.
• Loyalty rewards: Give your existing customers early access to deals or extra perks to make them feel valued.

Not all customers are motivated purely by price. Many are happy to spend more when they feel they’re getting added value — and these are the customers more likely to stick around after the sale ends.

The best Black Friday offers are the ones that align with your goals, attract the right kind of customers, and keep them coming back long after the discounts are gone.

Get more inspo in our article that covers 18 creative Black Friday campaigns from ecommerce brands. 

9 strategies for your ecommerce Black Friday sales

Once you’ve picked your offers and timeline, it’s time to focus on the tactics that will help you cut through the noise, attract new customers, and boost sales during the busiest online shopping event of the year. Here are eight practical Black Friday strategies to make this holiday shopping season a success.

1. Personalise every message

Last year messages from traditional email rose by 9%, whereas messages sent via push notifications, SMS, and streaming services grew by 37%. That shift tells us that generic batch-and-blast emails might not cut it anymore.

Instead, the brands that stand out are the ones that deeply understand their audience and speak directly to them. As Martin Harper, Co-Founder of Quickfire Digital, puts it:

“The brands that win aren’t the ones with the biggest discounts. They’re the ones who know exactly who they’re talking to and execute with precision.”

Take Gym+Coffee, for example. Ahead of Black Friday, they increased their SMS subscriptions by over 2,000 % using targeted campaigns. They didn’t just rely on broad discounts. Instead, they segmented audiences, aligned messaging by channel (email, push, SMS), and used automation flows to reach people at the right moment.

And that precision starts with data. Dive into your purchase history, look at what sold last year, when people bought, and which marketing channels converted best. Then segment your audience based on behaviour and preferences. For example, look at VIP repeat buyers, first-time shoppers, loyalty members, and high cart abandoners. They’ll all respond to different types of messaging.

Once you’ve segmented your audience, tailor your creative to match:

• Your most loyal customers (your VIPs): Reward them with exclusive deals or early access to sales.
• First-time buyers: Use social proof, reviews, and UGC to build trust.
• Returning customers: Suggest complementary products they haven’t bought yet.

And remember, personalisation isn’t just about copy, your visuals should be just as targeted. That’s where Dash comes in. It lets you tag and organise creative by audience segment, product category, or campaign, so you can quickly find and reuse the assets that perform best. Once you know what’s working, Dash’s AI features help you discover lookalike images, making it easier to keep sending out high-performing, on-brand content across email, SMS, ads, and more.

2. Optimise your website

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, your ecommerce platform is likely to see a big surge in website traffic. A slow or clunky site can be a deal-breaker for new visitors. Run a performance check ahead of time and use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights to make sure your pages load fast and can handle the influx of online shoppers.

Once they land on your ecommerce site, shoppers need to find your Black Friday promotions quickly. Add clear navigation, highlight key offers on the homepage, and consider a dedicated landing page for seasonal deals. A fast, frictionless checkout and clear calls-to-action will improve the customer experience and increase your average order value.

3. Optimise for mobile

In 2023, 69% of online Black Friday sales happened on mobile devices. With shoppers comparing prices and buying on the go, your ecommerce site needs to offer an easy shopping experience on smaller screens.

Make sure your online store is mobile-friendly, loads quickly, and supports popular payment options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Shop Pay. This will speed up the checkout process and ensure that you don’t lose out to impatient shoppers during a high-traffic sales period.

Also, think about how your promotions look on mobile. You might have Black Friday deals in banners or eye-catching calls-to-action. The easier you make it for people to shop online wherever they are, the more likely you are to maximise sales during the holiday rush.

4. Get your assets ready

On an intense shopping day like Black Friday, visuals can make or break a sale. Around 75% of ecommerce shoppers say product photos influence their buying decisions — and when people are scrolling fast, first impressions matter more than ever.

Start preparing your visuals well before the big weekend. That means:

• Fresh, high-quality product photos and videos
• Lifestyle imagery and user-generated content to build trust
• Black Friday banners and graphics for email, ads, and social
• Branded creative that ties your marketing channels together

It’s also worth revisiting your past campaigns. If certain assets performed well before, there’s no reason you can’t reuse and repurpose them for Black Friday. As we mentioned, Dash makes it easy to tag and organise content based on performance, so you can quickly find top-performing visuals and even use AI-powered visually similar search to uncover other assets with the same look and feel.

5. Have a plan if products sell out

The goal of any Black Friday ecommerce campaign is to boost sales, but if things go really well, you might face a new challenge: stock selling out faster than expected.

Running out of inventory can frustrate potential customers and damage their experience, but with the right strategy, it can actually work in your favour.

• Keep an eye on inventory so you can update your online store quickly.
• Let shoppers know when a product is nearly gone — scarcity is a powerful motivator during high-pressure shopping events.
• Capture email addresses for out-of-stock items so you can re-engage customers as soon as products are available again.
• Even better, use that contact list to promote similar products or future seasonal deals, turning disappointment into another opportunity to convert.

6. Don’t forget your existing customers

Black Friday is a golden opportunity to attract new customers, but your loyal customers are just as important — and often far more profitable in the long run. Make them feel like VIPs with special offers like early access to deals, exclusive bundles, or extra perks for shopping again.

These kinds of rewards improve customer retention and reduce the risk of alienating people who recently paid full price. You can even build dedicated campaigns for your most loyal customers, segmenting them in your email marketing platform to deliver offers based on their purchase history.

The goal here isn’t just to drive one-off purchases. It’s to keep customers engaged and deepen their connection with your brand beyond the holiday sales season.

Here’s how:

• Send personalised email marketing campaigns that thank new customers for their order and introduce them to more of your range.
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• Use data from purchase history to recommend relevant products and create tailored offers.
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• Launch loyalty programs or follow-up promotions to keep your customers engaged throughout the rest of the holiday season.

This is also a great time to analyse performance across your marketing channels. Which offers generated the most clicks? Which visuals converted best? Insights like these can shape your future ecommerce strategy and help you build even more effective campaigns for next year’s Black Friday ecommerce push.

8. Use social media to build momentum and drive sales

Social media has become a powerful tool for ecommerce brands during Black Friday — not just for brand awareness, but for driving sales. Nearly 48% of online shoppers now search for deals directly on social platforms rather than search engines, and many are happy to buy without ever leaving the app (just take TikTok shop as a prime tool for capturing social media users.)

A great example is Shopify-based fashion brand Edikted, which set out to attract high-value Gen Z and millennial customers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Already known for its strong TikTok presence — with over 250,000 followers and a steady stream of creator content — Edikted built a full-funnel social strategy combining TikTok Video Shopping Ads (VSA) with a large-scale creator campaign.

The results speak for themselves: The campaign helped Edikted sell out twice during the weekend and cut its CPA by 50%, achieving a 4.76 ROAS — a 70% jump from the previous week.

Use social media to build anticipation in the weeks leading up to the sale, tease your best deals, and showcase products in action through short-form video, influencer content, and live shopping events. This kind of content helps you reach new audiences and keep customers engaged right up to the start of the sale.

With so many shoppers discovering, researching, and even completing purchases on social media, brands that show up consistently with engaging, relevant content will be best placed to turn scrolling into sales this holiday shopping season.

9. Build buzz with influencers and social proof

63% of consumers are likely to buy products from an influencer they trust. So if you've got a good influencer programme on the go, getting them to promote your Black Friday offers is a great tactic.  

Collaborate with creators who align with your brand and ask them to showcase their favourite picks, exclusive bundles and deals. 

For example, L’Occitane collaborated with beauty and lifestyle creators to curate holiday gift guides using their products — giving influencers freedom to tell authentic stories rather than pushing sales. Those curated guides ran across Instagram Reels, TikToks and social posts, with embedded offers and link-throughs.

That approach blends the power of trusted creators with campaign objectives — which is exactly the kind of strategy you should aim to replicate during Black Friday.

Further reading: 

🤓Influencer marketing benefits to boost sales 

🎧 How Lick built a community on social media 

The secret to  your Black Friday success

All the strategies we’ve covered require one thing: good visuals. From product photography and campaign banners to influencer assets and UGC, visuals are what help shoppers discover your products and make confident purchase decisions.

Getting those assets organised ahead of time means your team can move faster, keep messaging consistent, and make the most of the surge in traffic and attention. That’s where Dash comes in.

Dash is a digital asset management tool built for fast-growing ecommerce brands. It gives your team one central place to store, organise, find, and share everything — from product shots and ad creative to influencer content. You can:

• Create guest uplinks so customers can send their content to you (rather than relying on scattered WeTransfer links, email chains and Slack messages) 
• Build branded portals so your retailers can get the promotional materials they need to sell your products 
• Connect with Shopify so you can quickly update your product pages on the fly 

There’s loads more ways Dash can help you with your Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) campaigns. Check out the full list of DAM features. 

So before the holiday shopping season ramps up, get your visual content in order and give your team the tools they need to make this your strongest Black Friday yet.

👉 Right now you can get 15% off Dash when you sign up before 1st December 2025.

Black Friday FAQs for ecommerce brands 

What’s the difference between Black Friday and Cyber Monday?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday started as two separate events. Black Friday was originally focused on in-store shopping and big-ticket purchases, while Cyber Monday followed as the online alternative, aimed at capturing shoppers looking for digital deals.

Today, the lines have blurred, with most brands running promotions across the whole weekend. But each day still serves a slightly different purpose: Black Friday is best for major discounts and high-value orders, while Cyber Monday works well for online exclusives, smaller impulse buys and clearing leftover stock.

The key takeaway? Don’t treat them as the same thing. Tailor your offers and messaging to match how people shop on each day and you’ll maximise sales across the entire weekend.

How much do prices drop on Black Friday?

It varies by brand, product category, and strategy - but on average, Black Friday discounts range from around 20% to 30%. For example, in 2024 the average discount across categories was about 28%.

Some retailers go much further, offering up to 50–70% off on selected lines, particularly when they’re clearing old stock or driving quick sales. For example, electronics saw average discounts of 31%, while furniture averaged around 21% off during Black Friday 2023.

It’s worth noting that deeper discounts don’t always guarantee better results. Bigger price cuts often attract deal-hunters who disappear once the sale is over, whereas smaller, well-targeted offers can help you attract new customers who stick around. Research by Which? also found that 98% of Black Friday deals weren’t the lowest prices of the year, highlighting why smart pricing and timing matter more than simply slashing prices.

Why do people like Black Friday?

People are drawn to Black Friday because it offers them real value and a sense of excitement they don’t get at other times of the year. It’s a chance to buy products they’ve been eyeing at lower prices, discover new brands, and get ahead on their holiday shopping.

With most purchases now happening online and 69% made on mobile in 2023, customers can browse and buy from anywhere, often directly through social media. Limited-time offers and early access deals add to the sense of urgency, making the experience feel exciting and rewarding.

For brands, understanding these motivations is key. Black Friday isn’t just about cutting prices, it’s about meeting customers where they are, creating a smooth and engaging shopping experience, and using that moment to build relationships that last beyond the sale.

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