Table of contents

1. Introduction: Why Black Friday is a key sales opportunity for SMMEs

2. Launch a simple marketing strategy

3. Get your tech and website ready

4. Double-check payment gateway and shipping options

5. Smooth out the checkout process

6. Prepare your team for Black Friday success

Some say Black Friday could be the single biggest sales opportunity for small business owners next to the festive period. Use these practical tips to get your business Black Friday-ready.

Black Friday – observed on the last Friday of November every year, with a build up lasting all month long – has the potential to be one of your business’ biggest sales opportunities of the year. Whether you’re an entrepreneur running a brick-and-mortar business, an e-commerce enterprise, or a one-person service-orientated hustle, a little planning ahead of time can set you up for a glitch-free and profitable Black Friday sales period.

These sales tips are practical enough to put into action straight away and should help you boost sales – whether you’re working solo or have a team to delegate to.

1. Launch a simple marketing strategy

Don’t overthink your offering this Black Friday. Have an aim in mind – to move old stock by bundling, make a set number of sales, offer a special discount to Black Friday visitors, or free shipping with every order. Then, punt the beans out of it using email and social media.

A simple and direct SMS or email blast can highlight your special offers, while a social media series of sneak peeks or a must-have countdown can help you build hype. Check out Telkom’s Smart SMS marketing plans.

Pro tip: Schedule your posts, SMSes, and emails to go out consistently leading up to and during Black Friday. A special #BlackFridaySA hashtag and/or discount code related to your offering can also help draw customers.

2. Get your tech, website (or profile) ready for the rush

It all begins with a laptop or smartphone and WiFi that’s in good working order, which you can browse here. If you sell online – and by that we don’t mean those who sell on socials – make sure your website can handle a traffic surge without crashing. You don’t want your site to fall over with customers in the queue – it can do huge damage to your brand.

Even if you think your site is good to go, double-check its capabilities. Give your web host or developer a heads-up of your plan – sometimes the quick solution is a little extra server space or adding a content delivery network (CDN) to share the load.

Alternatively, if you’re a side-hustler who doesn’t have a website but has stock and/or a service to sell, ideally in an online space that’s a little more savvy than social media, check out Telkom Yep! - South Africa’s digital marketplace that provides a scalable solution to help grow and enhance the reach of local businesses. It houses an all-in-one website builder and can help you do digital marketing and an online suite for reputation management.

Pro tip: Do a ‘load test’ on your site ahead of time as a dry run to spot any issues you can fix before the big deal day. And keep your back-up power supply – an inverter or UPS – fully charged and ready to go. If you don’t have one of these, Telkom has several deals you can take advantage of here.

3. Double check payment gateway and shipping options

For both online and in-store, payment needs to be super-easy – and in the Black Friday frenzy, you don’t want to find out about a problem after your customers do!

Test all your payment gateways, like handheld point of sale (POS) machines that can accept cash, credit cards, eBucks, EFT, Apple Pay, or online options like PayFast, SnapScan or PayPal (for international shoppers) to make sure they can handle the load.

Make sure you have a clear plan, the right shipping partner who offers the best deals, and then stick to realistic delivery timelines.

Pro tip: Put all your Black Friday delivery specials (like a discount code for checkout) and delivery timelines in a prominent spot above the fold on your site to manage future customers’ expectations.

4. Smooth out the checkout process

Whether in-store or online, fast, simple checkouts keep money in the till. Ahead of Black Friday, pretend you’re a customer and go through your own checking out system to test its efficiency. If there are too many steps to achieve payment, cut it down! And make sure to check that your discounts are applied correctly.

Pro tip: On a site, one of the biggest barriers on sale day is the requirement for users to register a profile before they shop – test out the idea for a guest checkout option. If it works for you and simplifies things, consider using it for your Black Friday specials.

5. Prep your team for Black Friday success

Whether it’s just you or a full team, make sure everyone is on the same page. Go through the plan for the day and confirm that everyone knows who’s doing what.

Make sure you have enough stock to honour any potential purchases and that someone is always keeping an eye on customer service, answering queries, and updating stock levels.

Pro tip: Keep all those important ‘in case of emergency’ contacts close by. It’s going to be a long haul and things may go wrong – you don’t want to waste time (and lose money) by looking for a number on a scrap of paper.

This Black Friday, give your business a boost with the help of our website bundle offer and explore our Telkom Black Friday deals.

Here’s hoping your Black Friday is profitable and stress-free!