How to prepare your online store for Black Friday: a week-by-week checklist

Black Friday 2026 falls on Friday, November 27, and for many brands it kicks off the busiest stretch of the year, right through the holidays. Preparing your online store for Black Friday is about more than discounts: you need a clear offer, payments that work, orders that arrive on time and a store that doesn't slow down when traffic spikes. Here's what to check, plus a week-by-week checklist.

When is Black Friday 2026?

Black Friday is Friday, November 27, 2026, the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday is Monday, November 30.

Many stores now start their sales earlier in the week and keep them running through Cyber Monday. Decide now how long yours will last, because those dates need to be written into the offer.

The stakes are real: according to Shopify, merchants on its platform sold US$14.6 billion between Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025, up 27% from the year before.

1. Write a clear, honest offer

A good offer fits in one line: which products, how much off, and when it starts and ends.

In many countries this is also a legal requirement, so check the consumer protection rules where you sell. In Colombia, for example, the law requires every promotion to state its full terms, and in 2025 the consumer protection authority fined ten companies over their 2024 Black Friday promotions, partly for not saying whether discounts could be combined or whether there was a limit per customer.

On the offer page, make these visible:

• Start and end date and time.
• Which products are included. A dedicated collection beats "selected items."
• Limits: units per customer and whether the discount stacks with other codes.
• How many units are available, if the offer is limited.

Pick a few products with healthy margins and enough stock instead of discounting the whole catalog. And use the price you actually charged as the "before" price: shoppers compare.

2. Check inventory and product pages

Before you announce a discount, make sure you can deliver.

• Count your real stock and update it in the store, so you don't sell what you don't have.
• Reorder now. Suppliers get slower during the season.
• Check variants: a sold-out size or color inside a discounted product leads to messages and complaints.
• Complete your product pages: clear photos, measurements, materials and delivery time. Every question the page doesn't answer lands in your inbox right when you're busiest.

If your photos or descriptions need work, our guide to preparing your website content applies just as well to a store.

Also create a Black Friday collection, so every ad and post links straight to the products on sale instead of your homepage.

3. Test payments and shipping

Place at least one full test order with every payment method, on a phone, before you announce the offer.

Payment options depend on your country. Shopify Payments isn't available everywhere (in Colombia, for instance, stores use local gateways such as Mercado Pago, Wompi or PayU). Whatever you use, check that:

• The discount applies correctly and the total matches what you advertised.
• Every payment method you offer goes through, including any local or cash-on-delivery option.
• The confirmation email arrives and the order shows up complete in your admin.

With shipping, only promise what you can keep. Ask your carrier about their November and December timelines, publish delivery times by region and, if you sell gifts, state the last day to order for delivery before the holidays.

4. Make sure your store can handle the traffic

A slow store loses sales on the day it gets the most visits, and most shoppers buy from their phones.

On Shopify you don't have to worry about servers: the platform handles capacity. What's up to you is your theme, your apps and your images.

• Buy something start to finish on a mid-range phone, on mobile data rather than office Wi-Fi.
• Uninstall apps you don't use. Some load code on every page even if you never see them.
• Export seasonal banners at a reasonable size. A multi-megabyte image delays the first thing shoppers see.
• Use a single pop-up at most, and make sure it doesn't cover the product on mobile.

5. Prepare support and returns

You'll get more questions than ever on sale day, so have your answers ready.

• Saved replies in WhatsApp, chat or email for the top questions: shipping, sizes, payment methods, exchanges and order status.
• Announce the offer a few days early by email and social media, with the start date and time.
• Decide who answers and when during those days.
• Have a plan B: a second payment method turned on and a message ready in case a gateway goes down.

Publish your exchange and returns policy before the season, too, and check what your country requires. In Colombia, for example, online shoppers can cancel within five business days of delivery, discounted items included.

On Black Friday, the biggest discount doesn't win. The store that keeps its promises does.

Week-by-week checklist for your online store

• Week of November 2: define the offer, its dates and terms. Count stock and reorder.
• Week of November 9: complete product pages and photos, build the Black Friday collection, and prepare banners plus the email and social announcement.
• Week of November 16: set up the discounts and place test orders with every payment method. Confirm timelines with your carrier, check speed and uninstall unused apps.
• Week of November 23: freeze changes, publish your returns policy, load your saved replies and announce the offer.
• November 27 to 30: check orders and stock several times a day and answer quickly.
• First week of December: thank your buyers, review what sold and adjust your offer for the holidays.

Frequently asked questions

Can I launch an online store in time for Black Friday?

If you don't have a store yet, it's tight. At Zofesto, a Shopify store with a small or mid-size catalog takes 15 to 20 business days once we have the products, photos and an approved design. It's better to launch properly in early December and reach the holidays with tested payments and shipping. If you only want to promote one offer and take orders by message, a landing page is quicker to build.

Do return rules apply to discounted products?

It depends on where you sell. In Colombia, yes: the law makes no distinction between full-price and discounted items, so the five-business-day cancellation right applies to both. Check the rules in your country and state them clearly before the season.

Is a discount code or an automatic discount better?

For Black Friday, don't make shoppers remember anything. Show the sale price on the product page with the original price crossed out (on Shopify, that's the "compare-at price"), or use an automatic discount that applies in the cart. Save codes for something exclusive, like a gift for your subscribers.

What should I do after Black Friday?

Review what sold, what ran out and where sales came from. Then reach out to first-time buyers: Shopify suggests sending a thank-you email five to seven days after the event. It's the best moment to invite them back for the holidays.

In short

Getting your online store ready for Black Friday comes down to order: an offer with clear terms, real stock, tested payments and shipping, a light store on mobile and answers ready to go. Start this week and freeze changes on Monday, November 23.