How to prepare for Black Friday in 2025? 3 tips from marketing specialists at Tradedoubler
Black Friday is an annual online shopping holiday during which e-commerce stores break sales records. Is your company ready for Black Friday 2025? Medium and large e-commerce stores should develop a strategy now to maximize the potential of this hot period. Based on the Tradedoubler team's experience and 2024 trends, here are three key tips to help you prepare for success on Black Friday 2025.
1. Start preparing now - valuable content and building your customer base
Although there's plenty of time left until Black Friday 2025, it's a good idea to start planning well in advance. A calendar of marketing activities, campaigns and promotions should be planned as early as mid-year. Starting preparations early gives you an advantage; in recent years, many brands have been starting Black Friday campaigns much earlier than traditionally, and extending the sales period beyond Friday itself. This means that the battle for consumers' attention starts earlier, and those open to novelty - so-called early buyers - are already hunting for bargains weeks before Black Friday. Affiliates and marketers should therefore plan and promote offers to early shoppers to get their attention ahead of time.
Bet on valuable content that will engage your audience in the run-up to Black Friday. Content is key to building interest in your offerings, so prepare high-quality blog articles, tutorials, video reviews or social media content that is related to your industry and products. For example, “How to choose the perfect gift for Christmas” shopping guides or “Top 10 products on Black Friday” rankings can attract organic traffic to your site and warm up interest before the big sale. This type of content marketing also builds trust in the brand and positions the store as an expert, which will pay off during the actual sale day.
In parallel, build a base of potential customers (leads) that you will reach with your Black Friday offer.
2. Leverage affiliate marketing and performance partnerships
Affiliate programs and affiliate marketing is Tradedoubler's core offering and one of the most effective tools for increasing e-commerce sales. In the affiliate model, you work with a network of publishers, from theme site owners to bloggers and influencers, mailing databases to price comparison sites, who promote your products in exchange for a commission on sales. Such a performance marketing model allows you to reach a wide audience with minimal financial risk, since you pay mainly for results (products sold). For example, Google CSS (Comparison Shopping Services) are partners that promote product listings in Google's shopping results. Working with publishers that specialize in Google CSS through Tradedoubler, can increase the visibility of your products and generate additional traffic and sales during Black Friday.
Tip: Make sure your affiliate program is attractive to publishers during the peak season, consider raising commission rates in time for the Black Friday campaign, update your advertising materials, and optimize your product feed (up-to-date product data, competitive pricing and prominence of bestsellers). Such measures will help affiliates generate maximum traffic and sales for your store at a crucial time.
Affiliate marketing, however, is not only about advertising channels, but also about the people and content your customers trust. In 2024, there has been an increase in the collaboration of brands with micro-influencers, i.e. creators with specialized, loyal communities. These influencers provide brands with authentic promotion and effective reach, which translates into increased sales. In practice, this means that it is worthwhile to establish partnerships with bloggers, YouTubers or opinion leaders who reach your target audience. Their recommendations and product reviews can significantly influence their fans' purchasing decisions through the trust effect. On the other hand, publishers running niche themed sites can help you reach customer segments that are difficult to reach with mass advertising. An example is the affiliate program of a dietary supplement store targeting vegans; focusing on a narrow audience (the vegan community) brought as much as a 30% increase in conversions in this segment. Such results show that selecting the right partners and tailoring the message to a specific niche can achieve above-average results.
Tip: Review your current publisher base and identify what partners may be missing. You may want to acquire new content publishers, CSS partners or smart shopping sites before Black Friday. Ensure communication with your key partners, and provide them with advance information about planned promotions, provide materials (banners, links, discount codes) and set common goals. The better prepared your partners are, the more sales they will generate for your store on the day of the big sale.
Important: Take care to prepare attractive promotional offers for products that are most popular with consumers during this period. It is worth analyzing sales data from previous Black Friday editions to identify bestsellers and effectively adjust your promotional strategy.
3. Fine-tune the user experience and back office of the store
Even the best-planned promotional campaign won't work if the website can't handle the increased traffic or discourages users with UX problems. Black Friday means a spike in visitors in a short period of time, so the performance and stability of your online store should be a priority. Make sure your servers and infrastructure can handle the heavy load, consider implementing a CDN, optimizing database queries or increasing server resources for the duration of the campaign. It's worth conducting load tests to identify and eliminate potential bottlenecks before the peak of traffic arrives. Every second of delay in loading a page can mean losing an impatient customer, so page load time, product search engine speed and smooth order finalization must stand at the highest level.
It is equally important to refine the user experience (UX) and path to purchase. On Black Friday, customers often make quick, impulsive decisions, and if they encounter difficulties on the site, they are likely to immediately abandon the shopping cart and move on to competitors. Make sure the store navigation is intuitive and the most important categories and promotions are prominently displayed. The process of adding to the shopping cart and finalizing the transaction should be simplified as much as possible, so limit the number of steps needed to purchase, and introduce clear messages about the status of the order and available payment methods. Take care of mobile UX, too: more and more consumers are making purchases via smartphones, so your mobile site or app must work flawlessly. Check your site's responsiveness, loading speed on phones and the convenience of the touch interface. Everything from the size of buttons to the way promotions are presented on a small screen should be thought out for the mobile user.
Personalization and consistency of experience are other elements that can give you an edge on Black Friday. Consumers are bombarded with hundreds of offers, so hitting their individual needs significantly increases the chance of a sale. Use customer behavior data to personalize product recommendations and offers. For example, show visitors personalized sections like “Products selected for you” based on their previous purchases or items viewed. Brands and affiliates that skillfully use personalization report higher user engagement and conversions. Also, make sure communication is consistent across all channels; the customer should have a similar, positive feeling whether they are viewing an offer on a website, mobile app or social profiles. A multi-channel omnichannel approach, with consistent promotions and information, makes it easier for customers to buy and builds trust. If you also sell offline, make sure to integrate the experience, such as the ability to book online and pick up at a stationary store, which many people appreciate.
Finally, don't forget logistics and customer service, which complement the shopping experience. During the Black Friday period, consumers pay a lot of attention to the convenience of delivery, fast and free delivery is sometimes the deciding factor in choosing an offer. If possible, prepare special delivery options (e.g., free shipping from a certain price threshold, guaranteed delivery before Christmas) and clearly communicate them on the website. Also plan for after-sales support: make sure your customer service department is ready for an increased number of inquiries, and your return and complaint procedures are clear and convenient for buyers. A positive customer experience during this hectic period will pay off in loyalty and customers returning for more purchases.
Preparing for Black Friday 2025 requires a holistic approach, from planning your strategy early, to leveraging the power of affiliate marketing, to fine-tuning every aspect of the shopping experience. We hope you find the above tips from the Tradedoubler team helpful. With them, your business can enter the selling season more confidently and turn increased traffic into real sales growth and long-term relationships with newly acquired customers. Good luck!
< Wszystkie posty