How Founders Can Prepare for Black Friday

Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are pivotal events for consumer brands. For founders, BFCM isn’t just about discounts or flashy promotions. It’s a strategic opportunity to scale your customer base, turn over inventory, and capture new market share when consumer attention is at its peak. The excitement is real, but so is the risk: miss a key preparation step, and you could face stockouts, a cash crisis, or wasted ad spend right as customers are ready to buy.

The founders who turn BFCM into a growth engine are those who treat it as a marathon, with intense sprints. The preparation you put in now will pay dividends well beyond a single weekend. Whether you’re gearing up for your first major BFCM or optimising a mature operation, these five actionable pillars will help you plan, execute, and capitalise on this crucial sales period.

1. Take a calculated approach

The most common BFCM pitfall? Underestimating how much you’ll need to invest before a single sale drops.

• Map your cash flow with precision: Build a day-by-day cash calendar for the eight weeks leading into, and through, BFCM. Include every outflow: purchase orders, down payments, freight, marketing commitments, and recurring SaaS fees that your business depends upon. Overlay this with expected inflows from normal trade and expect a slow-down in the weeks running up to BFCM. Identify crunch points, in particular, the awkward lag between when advertising bills come due and when your payment processor clears BFCM funds.
• Stress-test your credit lines: Well before the season, review your available credit: corporate cards, lines of credit, and trade finance solutions. Reach out to your bank manager or lenders to temporarily increase spending limits where it counts. There’s nothing worse than running sales and suddenly getting a declined ad purchase because you tripped a daily limit.
• Proactively engage your suppliers: Secure production slots for your most critical SKUs well in advance, even 3–6 months out. Don’t just order more; coordinate when each batch should land in your warehouse. Build a timing cushion into every handoff. Consider staggering deliveries: prioritise fast-moving inventory and account for delays in global supply chains, especially if you’re shipping across borders or dealing with unstable freight markets.
• Utilise trade finance and payment solutions: Investigate options beyond basic credit cards. Trade finance, purchase order financing, or even factoring can unlock working capital, empowering you to buy, market, and sell inventory well before repayment is due. - Take a peek at Triffin Credit

2. Plan what you’ll sell and how/when you’ll pay for it

“Buy more inventory for BFCM” is easy advice. Making it profitable and low-risk requires data and negotiation.

• Start with data, not hope: Dive deeply into last year’s BFCM and holiday sales. Compare those with October’s “normal” sales. Did discounts just shift volume earlier, or actually increase your total customer base? Which products moved at full price, and which needed markdowns? AI-driven analytics now make this rapid and nuanced. Use cohort analysis to understand repeat customer habits and which SKUs drive repeat business.
• Mix fast/slow sellers intelligently: Don’t just stock up on past winners. Maybe a lower-volume SKU wins on margin or is key to bundle offers. Commit heavily to proven sellers but set aside a smaller test budget for new products or BFCM-exclusive bundles. Bundle slow movers with top sellers to turn dead stock into cash.
• Forecast and align inventory across channels: List your sales by channel last BFCM, direct-to-consumer, marketplaces, physical retail. Are some channels more discount sensitive? Do they spike on different days? Does Amazon require FBA inventory earlier? Synchronise stock allocation so you’re not overstocked on your slowest platforms.
• Negotiate payment terms in your favour: Suppliers are your partners, and as your volumes grow, so should your terms. After a few successful trade cycles, push for net terms: a 30% deposit on PO can shift to net 30 after delivery with the right trust and structure. Offer to provide a letter of credit via your commercial bank, or use receivables insurance, to reduce your suppliers’ risk, a move that can unlock more favourable credit. The more runway you have before payment is due, the less likely you’ll face a cash crunch after the BFCM rush.
• Monitor FX and global sourcing risks: If sourcing internationally, hedge your currency risk ahead of large overseas purchases. The savings can be significant and prevent nasty surprises during the season.

3. Build momentum early

Great BFCM performance starts long before November.

• Start marketing 4–8 weeks before: Begin teasing your BFCM offers and products in early October, if not sooner. Use paid social and email to “warm up” your audience, educate, entertain, and build anticipation. Drop hints around product scarcity or exclusive access.
• Segment and reward your best customers: Make your loyal customer base your first priority. Invite them to exclusive early-access sales or VIP promotions. These customers have the highest conversion, lowest acquisition cost, and generate positive buzz, treat them like insiders. Creating “waitlist” hype will also drive anticipation among your wider audience.
• Leverage influencers and affiliates early: Reach out to partners, influencers, and affiliates with early previews so they can schedule content around your campaign. Provide clear messaging, key creatives, and personalised codes to track impact.
• Retarget and upsell after BFCM: Don’t burn your budget all at once on customer acquisition. Save a solid slice for December’s secondary push, including last-minute shoppers and Boxing Day offers. Build post-purchase email flows now to maximise repeat orders.
• Utilise first-party data: With ad targeting getting tougher, focus on building your own lists. Run contests, giveaways, and content marketing to capture emails and SMS subscribers well before BFCM. This list becomes your highest-ROI audience when the noise peaks.

4. Protect your margins

Sales spikes are exhilarating but margin erosion is real. Don’t sacrifice profitability for vanity metrics.

• Track every cost in advance: Beyond obvious fees, consider: payment processing (especially for international cards), return/refund rates, flash shipping surcharges, increased cost-per-acquisition, and temporary labor or customer service coverage. Build all these into your forecast and profit calculators.
• Set a clear discount & offer strategy: Are you using flat discounts, bundles, free gifts, or exclusive limited-edition products? Understand the true profit per item after all costs, not just on paper, but in your commerce and analytics systems. Utilise contribution margin, not just gross margin, to measure campaign success.
• Model the impact on brand and behaviour : Heavy, repeated discounting can damage long-term brand equity and teach customers to wait for sales. Consider alternative campaigns, such as value-added bundles or early-access exclusives to drive urgency without undermining your brand.
• Real-time adjustments: Set margin “guardrails” for your team. Establish rules for minimum acceptable margin per order, and empower your operations or e-commerce managers to pause campaigns if costs spike unexpectedly. Monitor marketing channels in real time; shift budget quickly from underperforming platforms to those delivering strong ROI.
• Use post-purchase flows for upsell: BFCM is also an ideal moment to increase average order value with upsells or cross-sells, both through your commerce platform and post-purchase emails.