The eCommerce prep checklist to get your Shopify store, email marketing and customer journey ready to sell.

Black Friday might still feel a little way off.

But if you run an eCommerce brand, now is the time to start preparing for it.

Because a successful Black Friday campaign isn't something you pull together a week before your sale goes live.

Your Black Friday sale is only as good as the prep behind it.

Your offer matters, of course. But so does the experience surrounding it.

Your Shopify store needs to make it ridiculously easy for customers to find what they want and buy it. Your email marketing needs to reach the right people at the right time. Your list needs to be growing before you have something to sell them.

And all those little jobs you've been meaning to get around to?

Black Friday has a wonderful way of shining a very bright light on them.

So, rather than waiting until November and hoping a discount does all the heavy lifting, here are the things I'd be getting sorted now.

1. Start with your offer

Before you design a single Black Friday banner or email, decide what you're actually offering.

And no, it doesn't automatically need to be 30% OFF EVERYTHING!!!

Think about what makes sense for your brand, your margins and your customers.

That could be:

• A sitewide discount
  
• Selected products or collections on sale
• Bundles
• Spend-and-save offers
• A gift with purchase
• Free shipping
• VIP or subscriber early access
• Different offers across the Black Friday period

The important part is knowing what you're trying to achieve.

Are you looking to acquire new customers? Move particular inventory? Increase average order value? Reward existing customers? Generate as much revenue as possible over the weekend?

Your offer should support the goal — not just exist because everyone else is having a sale.

2. Get your Shopify store ready for the traffic

More traffic is fantastic.

Unless your website is making it difficult for that traffic to buy.

Before Black Friday, I'd be looking at your store through the eyes of someone who has never shopped with you before.

Can they immediately understand what you sell?

Can they easily find the products they're looking for?

Are your collection pages easy to browse and filter?

Do your product pages give customers enough information to confidently make a decision?

Is your shipping and returns information easy to find?

Are your calls to action obvious?

And perhaps most importantly: what's the experience like on mobile?

Your Black Friday traffic isn't going to patiently hunt around for information, pinch-and-zoom their way through your website or click through six pages to find the right product.

There will be plenty of other tabs open.

Make buying from you the easy choice.

3. Look for the leaks in your customer journey

You don't necessarily need to completely redesign your Shopify store before Black Friday.

But this is a very good time to work out where customers are getting stuck.

Look at your analytics.

Where are people dropping off?

Are you getting plenty of sessions but very few add-to-carts?

Are customers adding products to cart but not making it to checkout?

Are certain high-traffic product pages converting significantly better than others?

This is where your Shopify analytics and behaviour-tracking tools can become incredibly useful.

Instead of making random changes because something feels wrong, use the information you already have to identify where improvements could make the biggest difference.

Even small improvements to your conversion rate can become much more significant when you're sending a larger volume of Black Friday traffic through your store.

4. Grow your email list BEFORE Black Friday

One of the biggest Black Friday opportunities isn't actually in November.

It's the audience you build before November arrives.

If someone visits your website today but isn't ready to purchase, you want another way to continue that relationship.

That's where your email signup becomes incredibly valuable.

Take a look at your current signup form.

Is it live?

Is the offer compelling?

Does the design feel aligned with your brand?

Does it give someone a genuine reason to hand over their email address?

Then think about how you can intentionally grow that list over the coming months.

Because when Black Friday arrives, you'll have a warmer audience of people who already know your brand — rather than relying entirely on increasingly expensive paid traffic to bring people through the door.

5. Make sure your Klaviyo flows are doing their job

Black Friday isn't just about campaign emails.

Your automated flows are working in the background throughout the entire sales period — and they can capture revenue you might otherwise lose.

At minimum, I'd be checking your:

• Welcome Flow
• Browse Abandonment Flow
• Added to Cart Flow
• Abandoned Checkout Flow
• Post-Purchase messaging

Are they all live?

Are the emails still accurate?

Are the designs on-brand?

Are your links working?

Are your delays and filters appropriate?

And importantly, are your Black Friday offers going to clash with anything already running?

You don't want someone receiving a welcome discount that makes no sense during your sale, or an abandoned checkout email promoting an outdated offer.

Get the foundations right now so you're not frantically switching things off and rewriting automations when your campaign goes live.

6. Start planning your Black Friday email strategy

You don't need every email written and designed in September.

But you do want a plan.

Think about the journey rather than individual sends.

Will subscribers get early access?

Will you tease the sale beforehand?

When will you announce the offer?

Will different customer segments receive different messaging?

How will you communicate best sellers, low stock or particular product categories?

What happens on Cyber Monday?

And what happens when the sale ends?

Mapping this out early also gives you time to work out what assets you'll need — photography, graphics, landing pages, copy, discount codes and anything else — rather than discovering three days before launch that half of it doesn't exist.

7. Test the tech

Please don't make Black Friday the first time you test your Black Friday setup.

If you're introducing discount codes, automatic discounts, bundles, gifts with purchase, free shipping thresholds, new apps or anything else outside your normal setup, test it properly.

Check different products.

Different cart values.

Different devices.

Different customer scenarios.

And go all the way through checkout.

The more complicated your promotion becomes, the more important this is.

A clever offer isn't particularly clever if your customer can't get it to work.

8. Know your numbers before the sale

Before Black Friday begins, get clear on what normal looks like for your store.

Depending on your business, that might include:

• Revenue
• Conversion rate
• Average order value
• SessionsAdd-to-cart rate
• Returning customer rate
• Email revenue
• Campaign open and click rates
• Flow performance

This gives you something meaningful to compare your Black Friday results against.

Otherwise, it's very easy to finish the weekend with a big revenue number and assume the campaign was a roaring success — without considering how much traffic you needed, what happened to conversion, whether your AOV changed or how heavily you discounted to get there.

Revenue matters.

But context matters too.

And finally... don't forget what happens AFTER Black Friday

Black Friday can bring a huge number of new customers into your world.

The sale shouldn't be the end of your relationship with them.

Think about what happens next.

How are you welcoming first-time customers?

Are you encouraging a second purchase?

Are you introducing complementary products?

Are you continuing to provide useful, interesting communication once the discounts disappear?

Because the real value of acquiring a new customer during Black Friday isn't necessarily their Black Friday order.

It's what that relationship becomes afterwards.

Black Friday starts now

You don't need to have every email written, every graphic designed and every discount configured today.

But you do need a plan.

Use the next few months to strengthen the foundations: your offer, your Shopify experience, your customer journey, your email list and your Klaviyo automations.

Then when Black Friday arrives, you're not scrambling to fix things.

You're ready to sell.

And just imagine it now...

Black Friday morning arrives. Your emails are scheduled. Your website is ready. Your automations are doing their thing. You've tested the offer. You know your numbers.

And you can actually enjoy watching those orders come in.

Want to make sure your Shopify store is ready before Black Friday?

My Shopify Success Blueprint gives you a strategic review of your store and a clear, prioritised roadmap of what to improve — so you can stop guessing at what needs fixing and focus on the changes that can make the biggest difference.

Learn more about the Shopify Success Blueprint →