Black Friday Checklist: Preparing your Shopify store for whopping sales in 2021

Black Friday Checklist: Preparing your Shopify store for whopping sales in 2021

It’s that time of the year again when online retailers start preparing for the two biggest shopping days of the year, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With shoppers preferring to shop online to avoid crowds, there has been a significant increase in Black Friday sales from $7.4 billion in 2019 to $9 billion in 2020.

Hence, given the accelerating pace of e-commerce business and consumer’s inclination towards digital shopping, Black Friday this year is also expected to see a big surge in sales.

For the unversed, this year Black Friday falls on 26th November 2021.

Hence, as an online retailer, you will also need to prepare your Shopify store for driving more traffic to your site and convert them into sales.

So, here is a preparation checklist that may come in handy for you to review Black Friday sale preparations. Take a look-

Site Speed Check

Speed of the site matters most for keeping shoppers staying on your site. Almost 90% of the shoppers leave the site if it takes a long time to load. So to make sure your site speed is good, here are some quick fixes-

  • Run a website speed performance test
  • Deploy a Content Delivery Network
  • Optimize the images on your website
  • If you are on a shared server, upgrade the hosting plan to a Virtual private server or a dedicated server.
Black Friday Checklist

Site Security and performance on all devices Check

Site security is crucial not just for big sale days but for every day to protect hacking attempts and prevent spam. You may install a security plug-in and ensure that you have a valid SSL certificate.

It is also important that your store is accessible on all devices such as desktops, tablets, mobiles, and all leading browsers. Last year around 73% of online shoppers visited retail websites through their mobile devices and over 56% of the conversions happened on mobile. Also, make sure all the functionalities of your site, such as navigation, adding to cart, or check process, work properly.

Promotional strategies Check

You would like to tease your customer with discounts, coupons, and offers to build interest and engagement among customers by sketching out the promotional strategies. Here are few options to choose the right promotional strategy for your store-

  • Email marketing
  • Social media Campaign
  • Paid Advertising
  • Remarketing
Check out Process Check

A smooth shopping journey offers a delightful shopping experience that earns customer loyalty. A simple yet efficient Checkout process encourages customers to complete their purchase or else there will be an increase in the abandoned carts. Some of the things you can check-

  • Remove visual clutter
  • Remove unnecessary fields
  • Provide multi-payment options
  • Allow Guest Check out
Inventory Management Check

Inventory management is very important to make sure that you do not oversell products or run out of stock during peak time. Syncing your Shopify store’s Inventory with Salesforce CRM will help you to track the status of your products, shipments, and returns. 

Install Shopify made easy for smooth Shopify to Salesforce integration and manage your inventory in real-time. It’s a free work order and inventory management app that integrates your Shopify store’s data with Salesforce CRM in real-time so that you can check the status of your inventory instantly. Working as a connector app, this app saves your precious time from multiple software management, allowing you to concentrate on sales. You can download the app from  Salesforce AppExchange.

Final Thoughts

We hope with these tips and checklists, you will stay prepared to stay beat the competition and drive whopping sales on Black Friday 2021.

Also, if you need help with the installation of Shopify Made Easy app, schedule a demo here and our Salesforce experts will be happy to help you!

About the Author

Piyush Singhal

Co-Founder, Director | HIC Global Solutions | Salesforce Consultant | AppExchange Strategist

An outcome-oriented technology leader with a global outlook, Piyush has over 8 years of experience in Project Execution, SDLC Planning, Salesforce, CRM, Salesforce Mobile, and Force.com.... Piyush, a seasoned Salesforce professional started HIC Global Solutions in 2015 after filling senior development positions at front-running company names in the Salesforce development industry. He looks forward to challenging Salesforce development tasks, delivering novel apps for AppExchange listings, and forging global partnerships through working with passionate people.