Every year during Black Friday, consumers expect discounts and merchants expect increased sales. Many Serbian merchants say that their sales during this period are up to five times higher than on an average day. In Europe, online sales during Black Friday last year (2024) grew by about 8%, and on the Monday after Black Friday by 10% compared to an average day, with a significant jump in the number of orders.
Because of this trend – more visits, orders and transactions, and higher customer expectations – it’s important that you, as a merchant, are prepared.
In this blog post, we will walk you through the key steps you need to take to make sure your online store can handle Black Friday 2025 – from preparing your payment system, through your marketing strategy, to operational readiness and preventive measures against fraud risks.
How to Prepare for Black Friday 2025 – Step by Step
Black Friday isn’t planned at the last minute. Successful campaigns start at least six weeks in advance. In the first weeks, focus on your discount plan, updating offers and checking that everything works on the site (that the cart and payment work flawlessly, that discount coupons are applied correctly and that prices are accurate).
Checking the Payment Process
On high-traffic days such as Black Friday, it’s important that the payment process runs quickly and flawlessly. Even the slightest delay in the cart or at payment can mean a lost sale. That’s why it’s crucial to check and test all payment methods in advance – from card payments and IPS to wallets and installment payments.
Check that all systems are active and that payments go through without extra steps that could confuse the customer. The goal is for the customer to buy quickly – without waiting, unnecessary confirmations or going back to previous pages.
If you have the option of one-click payment for registered users, be sure to activate it – it significantly increases the chances that the purchase will be completed.
In addition, have a backup plan in place. If, for example, a technical issue occurs with one bank or payment method, the system should automatically reroute the payment through another route without the customer noticing anything. This is enabled through the AllSecure system, since we work with almost all banks on the market.
Customers are increasingly using their phones to shop, so also check that the payment process looks and works perfectly on mobile devices.
Site Capacity and Readiness for Higher Traffic
Black Friday is a day when the number of visits and orders can be several times higher than usual. That’s why it’s important to check whether your site and payment system can withstand that pressure.
In practice, this means testing how quickly the payment page loads and whether everything works when multiple customers are in the cart at the same time. If the payment process is slow, customers will give up, so site speed is critical.
Also check that the images and files on your site (especially high-resolution ones) aren’t too heavy, as this can slow down page loading.
It’s also important to have a simple “system check page” (a so-called health check), where your IT team can see whether the payment system is running without interruption.
If you notice that the number of failed payments is increasing during the day, that 3D Secure (card transaction verification) is taking too long, or that customers are reporting payment errors – these are signs that the system is overloaded and that you need to react immediately.
The better you prepare, the faster and simpler the shopping experience will be, and the more successful your sales.
Security During Black Friday: A Shared Responsibility
During Black Friday, the number of transactions rises sharply — and this doesn’t go unnoticed by fraudsters either. Although AllSecure and banks have advanced systems for detecting suspicious activity, it’s important that you, as a merchant, also take additional protective measures.
The most common problems that arise during this period are:
• fraudulent refunds (when a customer requests a refund for a product that was delivered),
• account takeover (when someone takes over a registered customer’s user profile),
• real-time fraud in instant payments.
That’s why it’s useful to set, before Black Friday, stricter rules and limits. For example, additionally review suspicious orders (large amounts, multiple purchases from the same IP address, unusual locations).
If you have a team that handles orders, it’s important that everyone knows how to recognize potentially suspicious situations and whom to report them to.
Security is a joint effort between you, the bank and us, your payment partner.
With good preparation, you can protect both your business and your customers, and Black Friday shopping stays stress-free and free of unpleasant surprises.
Marketing and Commercial Preparation: How to Stand Out and Build Trust
Black Friday isn’t just a day of discounts – it’s a campaign that lasts at least a month. The most successful brands start preparing as early as October, with so-called teaser campaigns that announce big discounts or limited-time offers.
What a sample plan looks like:
• 4–6 weeks before – launch announcements and start collecting emails from interested customers.
• 2 weeks before – activate “early access” offers for loyal customers.
• During Black Friday – clearly communicate delivery times, product availability and payment security.
• After Black Friday – extend the offer with a “Cyber Monday” or “After Black Friday” mini campaign.
What to emphasize in your communication:
During this period, customers aren’t just looking for discounts, but also for security, speed and trust.
That’s why you should highlight the following in your ads and on your site:
• “Secure online payment” (especially if you use AllSecure as a trusted system),
• “Easy product exchanges and returns”,
• “Transparent and fast delivery”.
How to measure success:
Track not only sales, but also your cart abandonment rate, number of failed payments and repeat purchases – because these show how easy and reliable the payment process really was.
Operations, Logistics and Customer Support: Key Success Factors During Black Friday
Even the best campaign and the fastest payment system are worthless if delivery is late or if the customer can’t get a quick answer to their question. That’s why operations, logistics and customer support are just as important as marketing and payments.
Delivery and expectations
Set clear delivery rules and deadlines and communicate them in advance. Customers want to know when and how they will receive their order. Make sure accurate information about stock, delivery times and product availability is clearly displayed on product pages and throughout the checkout process.
Support during peak traffic
During Black Friday, increase the availability of customer support – strengthen the team working on chat, email or phone, and prepare scripts for the most common questions, such as:
• “My payment didn’t go through – what should I do?”
• “I was charged twice by mistake.”
• “How do I request a refund?”
This speeds up responses and reduces stress for both customers and your team.
Plan resources in advance
Define an SLA (service level agreement) – standards for delivery and customer response times. If you expect a higher volume of orders, set up additional communication channels in advance, along with clear internal procedures for escalations and complaints.
Customers don’t just remember the price of a product, but also how they felt during the purchase, which is why good support and organization during this period can be your brand’s biggest advantage.
Organize your team and run an analysis
Define who is responsible for monitoring sales in real time, for communicating with customers and for reacting if something goes wrong.
During Black Friday itself, monitor in real time how many payments are approved, how many are declined and for what reason. This data helps you react immediately if something goes wrong – and prevent lost sales during the busiest part of the year.
Once the most intense period is over, set aside time for analysis. Look at which products sold best, where errors occurred and how customers responded to the discounts.
This kind of preparation not only prevents problems on the busiest days, but also helps make every subsequent campaign more successful.
A Quick Checklist for a Stress-Free Black Friday
Black Friday can bring a big influx of revenue, but only if your store is ready in every area: from marketing and payments to logistics and customer support. Good preparation means less stress, less risk and more successfully completed purchases.
That’s why we’re leaving you a short reminder – a list of steps worth checking before the first Black Friday orders start coming in:
• Check all payment routes and methods – make sure every option (cards, wallets, IPS…) works flawlessly.
• Test coupons and discounts – in both the test and live environments.
• Turn on alerts and monitoring – decline rate, 3DS timeouts and all possible errors in real time.
• Have an organized team and a clear division of work – a larger contact center and a plan for different scenarios
• Communicate clearly – your customers deserve a good shopping experience, and that means transparent communication
Preparing for Black Friday doesn’t have to be stressful when you have a good plan, a reliable payment system with the ability to process payments through multiple banks, and a clear communication flow.