There are a bunch of shopping holidays clustered around Thanksgiving. Blackout Wednesday, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Sofa Sunday, Cyber Monday, and Matt’s Tuesday. The last one is still in development but it’s coming soon to a Facebook ad near you.

Of all these shopping holidays, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest. 2022 saw Americans spend $9.12 billion in online purchases on Black Friday. The Cyber Monday expenditure was an even larger $11.3 billion. So, how do you capture a slice of this tsunami of spending for yourself?

Promote, promote, promote

If you are offering deals on Black Friday, you need to make sure your customers are aware of them and are anticipating them. Use your email list, on-site notifications, and social media ads. Promote early, promote often, and promote hard.

Start your promotion at least a week in advance but you can do it as early as a month before Thanksgiving. If you are offering deals on Black Friday, you need to create anticipation for those deals.

People start shopping around for Black Friday deals very early so you can’t just decide to announce your deals the day before Black Friday. Your customers may have their eyes on deals elsewhere and pay little attention to you. They need to know you’re offering deals early enough so they can prepare.

Stock up

There’s nothing worse than running out of inventory mid-promotion. On top of disappointing your customers, you’re leaving money on the table. Make sure your inventory is enough to meet the expected demand.

Anticipating demand itself is usually the hard part. If you have done it before, historical sales are the best barometer for gauging future sales. If you don’t have historical data to rely upon, you can organize your Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions as events. Check the open rate on your emails and ask customers to check a box so they receive a notification once the promotion starts. This way, you will have a rough idea of how many people are interested and manage your inventory accordingly.

Staff up

More sales mean more packages to ship. If you aren’t adequately staffed before the day comes, you’re going to suffer delays— something your customers will not appreciate. Get more hands. If you outsource your fulfillment to a third-party provider, check to ensure they’re prepared to handle the sales surge.

Set a clear start and end date

We don’t need to dwell on this. Put a timer at the top of the screen on Black Friday and Cyber Monday so customers know exactly how much time they have left to take advantage of available deals. You can also have a countdown timer before the sale just to up that anticipation.