Black Friday is almost here and we are all getting ready for one of the biggest days for eCommerce this year. On Black Friday, shoppers from around the world head to their favourite sites and see what kind of deals they can find. Of course, for the stores hosting these sales, traffic can increase a lot which is great but can also come with some issues. Did you have any issues last year?
Now is the time to make some changes and get yourself ready for the oncoming traffic that is going to make or break your business. Here, we are going to give you some of our tips to help you to prepare for your Black Friday sale on your Magento store. Keep reading to find out more.
Look At Last Year
Our first tip for those who want to prepare their Magento store for Black Friday is to spend some time looking back at last year. When did you have the largest spike in traffic? Which pages did people spend the most time on? If you can use your analytics then you can make sure that you are putting the focus on the right things for this Black Friday. If you had any notable issues last year then you must put measures in place now before this happens again. Last year’s insights are your most valuable asset at this time of the year. Do not forget this.
Handling Traffic
On this big day, you are going to have an increase in traffic, especially if you have been promoting your discounts. If your server is not working to its full capacity then it might be time to make some changes before things go wrong. Try to review your server instances and upgrade them if you think this could help. This will ensure that you are able to handle the sudden increase in traffic and you can increase the stability of your site. You can also consider integrating a CDN for serving media as this can help to handle requests. With a reduced risk of your site crashing, you can make those conversions on Black Friday.
Change Your Look
If you have frequent visitors to your site, they’ll already know what it looks like on a regular day. This is why Black Friday is the perfect time to change the look of your Magento site and put different elements into the forefront. A Black Friday banner with details of your sales or featured products is a must. It might also help to throw on some more graphics and eye-catching details that will bring your site to life. Realistically, this is the least that you can do on this big day.
Focus on Support
While it can be tempting to focus your resources on new development projects, it might actually be more useful to increase your resources for website support during this time. The last thing you want is to lose customers who are there to buy your products, you need to be able to handle their requests and support them in their purchases. Take a look at your current support network before Black Friday to ensure this is the case.
Continued Monitoring
Our next tip for those who want to prepare their Magento store for Black Friday is to make sure that you are continuously monitoring your store. If you know how your store is performing throughout this period then you can make changes accordingly. Things might not go how you expect them to, you might get a rush, you might not. Try to adjust your settings and this should help you to handle the rush.
Manage Your Security
With an increase in traffic on Black Friday, you are likely to come across some issues with security. This is why you should make sure that your Magento store is secured and that no one is going to be able to get in. For this reason, you should make sure that you spend some time reviewing your Sucuri configuration ahead of the traffic spikes. You’ll be protected and there will be a reduced risk of anyone getting any unauthorised access.
Think About Your Mobile Store
While some of your customers will be accessing your site using their desktop computers, you’ll find that a large chunk of your Black Friday traffic will be from mobile devices. People like to shop Black Friday sales on their way to work or on their lunch break, and mobile sites are the best way to achieve this. For this reason, you should make sure that your mobile site is perfectly optimised and that it can handle the traffic. Try to make your sales appear on the first page and promote what you can. Don’t forget about your mobile traffic as this is so important.
Final Thoughts
Black Friday is set to be massive this year and so it makes sense that you would want your Magento site to be ready for any new and returning traffic. Make sure that your servers are going to be able to handle this traffic and make any upgrades that you can, where you can.
You should also consider the look of your site and the security that you currently have in place. It is important that you protect your store on this busy day and don’t let any issues slip through. Make sure to follow our advice and you should be able to have a successful and profitable Black Friday.