Top 5 Ecommerce Mistakes to Avoid During BFCM

Infinity Nation has guided clients through 20 Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays. As a result, we like to think we can tell the difference between a Black Friday plan primed to make a profit from a sale strategy that will miss the mark and leave return on investment (ROI) under question.  With that in mind, what are the key mistakes you should avoid this peak season?

During Black Friday 2024, British shoppers spent £3.63 billion ($4.6 billion) online over the Black Friday/Cyber Monday (Nov. 29 – Dec. 2) period, according to data from Adobe Analytics. With the UK’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday spend showing a 5.2% increase year-on-year, it’s understandable that brands are looking to cash in on the retail holiday.

When well-planned and prepared, a Black Friday Campaign can see your business hit record sales and beat revenue targets. However, when rushed and unprepared, a peak season sale can leave your offerings falling behind competitors, leaving your brand out of pocket and lost in the noise as we enter the new year.

To help prevent a good sales opportunity from turning into a business nightmare, here are our top 5 ecommerce mistakes to avoid during peak season.

1) Not Considering Promotions Against Business Targets 

Your business’s long-term strategy should always be considered when planning promotions. Failing to consider wider business goals when planning a sale can lead to misalignment between internal teams and has the potential to negatively impact overall business revenue.

How to Avoid it

• To avoid the pitfalls of misaligned goals, retailers must first identify the primary objective of each promotion. Is the sale’s purpose to clear leftover stock? To grow brand loyalty with regular customers? Or does your sale have a different aim? 
• Once you have a clear goal, you can tailor each decision made regarding the promotion to the end goal
• Before the promotion is launched, create a cohesive strategy with key performance indicators (KPIs), a budget, and a timeline
• Ensure your promotion plan aligns with your overall business objectives, regularly measure metrics and use data from tests or other analyses to understand what worked and what didn’t. Change your strategy based on performance to ensure the budget is not wasted
• Look at ulterior offerings such as bundles

2) Making a Last-Minute Decision to Run a BFCM Campaign

Sometimes in business, taking risks can pay off. However, deciding to run a last-minute Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) sale, is not an example of this. Similar to other retail promotions, BFCM campaigns need to be planned alongside wider business goals, and preparation should begin in early May to late June. A rushed promotion plan can lead to:

• Poor ROI
• Poor quality creative 
• Unoptimised PPC campaigns 
• Ineffective and unoptimised SEO pages 
• In-effective testing 
• Your campaigns becoming lost amongst prepared competitors 
• Suboptimal setup 
• A cold audience

How to Avoid It

• Plan early, start planning and setting up your promotional strategy months in advance.
• Use past data to optimise your promotion
• Give yourself or your team enough time to run the necessary tests to ensure an optimal BFCM Sale
• Ensure inventory, campaign audiences, creatives and website adjustments are made well in advance of your sale launch date

3) Poor Website Page Speed and Mobile Optimisation

During Black Friday weekend, the difference between a conversion and an abandoned cart can be as little as one second. Research indicates that conversion rates can drop by 7% with a 100ms load time delay.

However, it’s not just website speed you need to be concerned about. In 2024 research revealed that mobile devices accounted for 69.9% of sales and 61% of revenue on Black Friday 2024. With this data considered, website page and mobile optimisation is vital when preparing a Black Friday promotion.

How to Avoid it

• Page speed is a major aspect of search engine optimisation (SEO)
• Run a website speed test and optimise your website performance. It’s ideal to load a page in less than 3 seconds
• Create a page load strategy. This will directly affect how fast, reliable, and user-friendly your website is
• Lazy-load images outside the user’s initial viewport to increase your page loading speed. 
• Implement a mobile-friendly design on your website

4) Not Doing Enough Creative Testing Ahead of Time

Neglecting to test ad creatives will undoubtedly impact your BFCM campaigns ROI. You could have a great deal and a perfect strategy, but your creative assets need to capture attention and resonate with your target audience. By testing ad creatives, you’re able to know which types of creatives encourage the most engagement and set your ad campaign up for success.

Poor choice of creatives can lead to lower click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates (CVR), driving your cost per acquisition (CPA) up during a highly competitive period.

How to Avoid it

• Start testing early, at least 3-7 days of testing time
• Test specific creative variables with audience data and campaign objectives in mind
• Use the testing data to pick the most effective creative for your campaign

5) Focusing Only on Acquisition

With 79% of the UK planning to shop on Black Friday 2025, it’s understandable that brands will want to use the holiday to acquire new customers. For many online retailers, this is the most vital time of year for generating sales.

However, studies suggest that in some industries, acquiring a new customer can cost five to seven times more than retaining an old one. Consequently, it’s important not to overlook the power of nurturing the customers you already have.

With the highly competitive nature of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, acquisition costs for paid ads on platforms such as Meta and Google can skyrocket. For brands with smaller budgets, focusing on customer retention can mean building long-term value for your business while still participating in BFCM.

How to Avoid It

• Build a retention-first strategy
• Focus on maximising repeat purchases, reactivations and upsells from your existing customer base
• Use the customer data you have to optimise an irresistible offer for your existing customers

6) (Bonus) Not Testing Tracking Set-up Before launch

Failing to test the tracking set-up before launching your Black Friday campaign can lead to missing data, wasted budget and leave you without the ability to optimise your budget in real-time.

How to Avoid It

• Ensure all your tracking tools (i.e. Meta pixel and Google Analytics) are set up, synced and tracking campaign data correctly

Conclusion

Overall, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are incredible opportunities to boost revenue but only if you plan ahead. Avoiding common mistakes like rushing campaigns or neglecting your existing customers can make the difference between record-breaking sales and missed potential. Through preparation and planning, you’ll set your business up for a smooth sailing Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Looking to achieve business growth in 2026? Contact us to learn how our services can help take your business to the next level.