Download the playbook: Black Friday starts on November 1

Most webshops start their Black Friday campaign on November 23. By then, I've been at it for three weeks.

One more month and the Black Friday craze starts again. I know the skepticism. Still, last year 6.3 million iDEAL payments went through on Black Friday in the Netherlands. And in 2024, Black Friday wasn't even the busiest iDEAL day: that was the Monday before.

Black Friday is no longer a day. It's a month.

In 7 years on the agency side, I've run Black Friday in every shape and form. This is what works best for my webshop clients:

• Start on November 1 with early access. Plant the seed before your customer starts looking elsewhere.
• One discount code, and it doesn't change. No was/now prices: people want to see the discount drop in the checkout themselves.
• Don't raise your prices beforehand. Your customers are already keeping an eye on your webshop.
• Make the most of the 'fake' Black Friday on November 20. Often your first peak.
• On Black Friday itself, you change nothing. After that, you count down four days.
• I skip Cyber Monday. Rebuilding everything for a single day is a waste and sends your campaigns back into the learning phase.

The result: multiple revenue peaks in November instead of one. And campaigns that are already up to speed when the bidding war breaks out.

It's all in my Black Friday playbook:

• 10 steps, from early access to countdown
• The day-by-day timeline
• An example email flow
• The approach per channel
• A checklist for October

Want it? Download it above and I'll email you the PDF. The playbook is written in Dutch.

PS. This is built for e-commerce. I mostly apply it in home & living, so check whether it fits your product.