Black Friday lands on Friday 27 November this year, with Cyber Monday following on 30 November. If you sell anything online in Australia, this is no longer a nice-to-have promotion. It's the main event.

Last year, Australians were forecast to spend a record $6.8 billion across the Black Friday to Cyber Monday weekend, according to the Australian Retailers Association and Roy Morgan. CommBank's card data showed $23.8 billion spent across the two-week Black Friday period, with almost all of the growth coming from online. Boxing Day used to be the big one. Not anymore.

Here's the catch. Everyone else knows this too. Ad costs climb, inboxes overflow, and shoppers arrive with their lists already written. Australia Post research found half of shoppers now prepare in advance, comparing prices, tracking discounts and even using AI tools, rather than buying on impulse.

So winning Black Friday isn't about shouting the biggest discount on the day. It's about being on the list before the sale starts, and making it ridiculously easy to buy once they arrive. Here's how we approach it with our eCommerce clients.

1. Build your audience in October, not November

The brands that win Black Friday do the hard work before anyone is in buying mode. Through October, CPMs on Meta and Google are still relatively sane. That's your window to put prospecting spend behind engaging content: product videos, reviews, behind-the-scenes, gift guides.

You're not trying to sell yet. You're building warm audiences: video viewers, site visitors, Instagram engagers, add-to-carts. When Black Friday arrives and costs spike, you retarget people who already know you, rather than paying peak prices to introduce yourself to strangers.

2. Grow a VIP early-access list

Your email and SMS list is the one channel where you don't pay more per click in November. Use October to grow it with a simple hook: "Join the VIP list for early access to our Black Friday sale."

Run it as a pop-up on site, a lead ad on Meta and a pinned post on socials. Then reward the list properly with 24 to 48 hours of early access. Shoppers feel looked after, and you bank sales before the noise of the weekend itself.

3. Protect your margin with smarter offers

A sitewide 40% off is easy to announce and painful to absorb. Before you set your discount, work out your real margin after shipping, payment fees and ad costs. Then choose offers that lift order value instead of just cutting price:

Pro tip: If you have a product that never goes on sale, Black Friday is a great moment to say so. "Our prices are already fair" can be a brand position in its own right.

4. Get your email and SMS flows ready early

Set up your Klaviyo (or equivalent) campaigns and flows well before the week. A typical send plan looks like this:

  1. Teaser: "Something's coming. VIPs get in first."
  2. VIP early access opens.
  3. Black Friday launch to the full list.
  4. Saturday reminder with best sellers.
  5. "Last chance" on Sunday night.
  6. Cyber Monday extension or final offer.

Alongside the campaigns, check your automated flows are switched on and up to date. Abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post-purchase flows do a lot of quiet heavy lifting over the weekend. Segment where you can. Past purchasers, VIPs and window-shoppers should not get identical emails.

5. Make sure the website can take the traffic

The most expensive Black Friday mistake is paying for traffic that lands on a slow or broken site. Two weeks out, run a proper pre-flight check:

Then put a code freeze in place. No theme updates, new apps or big changes during sale week.

6. Plan your ad structure, not just your budget

Don't just flip your existing campaigns to a bigger budget on the Friday. Plan the shape of your spend:

Increase budgets gradually through the week rather than all at once, so the algorithms aren't thrown into a fresh learning phase on the busiest day of the year.

7. Don't stop on Monday night

Once Cyber Monday wraps up, the season isn't over. The window between Black Friday and Christmas is full of people who missed your sale or still have gifts to buy. Keep gift guides, gift cards and shipping-deadline messages running.

The customers you just won are your biggest opportunity. A thoughtful post-purchase sequence, a thank-you, a review request and a well-timed second offer, turns one-off bargain hunters into repeat customers in the new year.

Your Black Friday countdown

WhenWhat to have done
Early OctoberOffer strategy and margins locked in. Prospecting campaigns running. VIP list sign-up live.
Late OctoberEmail and SMS sequence written and designed. Ad creative briefed and in production.
Early NovemberWebsite pre-flight check complete. Google Shopping feed and PMax assets ready for sale pricing.
Week beforeTeaser emails out. Code freeze on the website. Budgets stepping up gradually.
25–26 NovemberVIP early access opens.
27–30 NovemberSale live. Retargeting at full strength. Daily check-ins on stock, spend and site.
DecemberGift guides, gift cards and shipping deadlines. Post-purchase flows nurturing new customers.

The bottom line

Black Friday rewards preparation, not panic. The brands that do best have built their audience before the sale, protected their margin with smart offers, and made sure their site and checkout run smoothly when the traffic arrives.

If you want a hand planning your Black Friday campaigns, from Meta and Google Ads to email flows and landing pages, get in touch with the Base Digital team. The earlier we start, the more we can do.