Black Friday and seasonal campaigns: preparing the store technically

During campaigns such as Black Friday or Christmas, a store can multiply its visits within hours. If something fails, it fails at the worst moment. Preparation starts weeks before.

4 weeks before

• Change freeze: no updates, new modules or theme changes after a set date. Anything not tested waits until January.
• Load test or, at least, a review of the hosting capacity with the provider.
• Performance: caches properly configured, images optimised, third-party scripts reviewed.

2 weeks before

• Stock synchronised and with safety margins on marketplaces.
• Promotions configured and tested on a copy: price rules, coupons, start and end dates.
• Previous price correct (the lowest of the last 30 days) on discounted products.
• Payments: all gateways tested; talk to your bank if you expect unusual volume.

Campaign week

• Backup right before.
• Monitoring: alerts for downtime, 500 errors and failed payments.
• Someone on call with access and a plan: what to do if the server goes down, a gateway fails or a product sells out.
• Customer service reinforced.

Afterwards

Disable the promotions on time, review what failed and write it down for next time. Next year's campaign starts with this analysis.