By Ellie-Rose Davies, Content Executive at IMRG
Black Friday is fast approaching, and many retailers are completing their final tests in the hope of success.
We’ve spoken to our community of industry experts, who shared advice on which tests retailers can complete ahead of the peak trading season, helping improve the customer experience while reducing risk.
Experts cover areas such as pricing, promotions, traffic, the checkout, and delivery.
Testing pricing and up/cross-selling
A core, if not the top, element of Black Friday is pricing. Ahead of Black Friday, retailers can test different price points for their products, ensuring that prices are not too high or too low, but competitively right.
Industry expert Prisync explores this, stating that ‘Peak seasons are a great way for online merchants to generate revenue, but they also put significant pressure on merchants to step up their eCommerce presence.’
‘To improve conversion, testing your prices and finding the optimal price point where your products perform best without risking a stock-out is key.’
Prisync say, ‘Once those essentials are in place, one test could be to explore which items are suitable for upselling and cross-selling.’
‘Test a version with product recommendations and another without. Then decide which products are successful together and when it is logical to show them to customers.’
‘Remember, the more you test across various subjects with different versions, the more outcomes you will get, which will give you deeper insights.’
Testing promotions
Black Friday is saturated with online promotions across hundreds, if not thousands, of retail stores. With this intensified competition, it makes sense to test promotions ahead of time to ensure that your offering is enticing enough for consumers to convert.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Dan Bond, VP of Marketing at RevLifter, whose promotions expertise means he has ample testing advice for Black Friday.
Dan encourages retailers to ‘Test your promotions before peak season hits. Run different discount types against each other—percentage off versus free shipping versus buy-one-get-one—and see which drives better conversion and margin.’
He continues, ‘Test your promotional messaging too. Does “Save 20%” work better than “Get 20% off”? Does adding urgency like “Today only” actually change behaviour?’
Further advice is to ‘Set up control groups so you know what’s incremental versus what would have happened anyway.’
Also, Dan says retailers can ‘Test how their offers perform across different customer segments—new visitors may need incentives that are different from those for returning customers.’
Retailers will find value in ‘testing their promotional rules under pressure. Can your system handle multiple offers on one order? What happens when someone tries to stack codes? Peak season will find every loophole in your promotional setup, so find them yourself.’
Hemang Nathwani, Sales Director at Price Trakker, echoes the value of testing areas such as pricing and promotions, voicing that ‘Peak trading exposes every weakness in a retailer’s operation, so testing should mirror real-world demand.’
‘Retailers can stress-test price updates, promotions, and stock feeds daily, ensuring site speed and pricing accuracy hold up under traffic spikes.’
Hemang continues, ‘Test end-to-end checkout journeys across devices and payment types, including failed-order recovery and promotional code handling. Finally, monitor competitors during these tests, as price changes elsewhere can alter performance more than any internal tweak.’
Testing based on traffic
Testing ahead of Black Friday can be informed by website traffic performance, pinpointing areas that would most likely capture customers’ attention and using tactics to inspire customers to move smoothly through the purchasing funnel.
Head of Optimisation Luke McDermott at ASK BOSCO reflects on this. He starts by saying ‘Depending on when they’re planning to go live for Black Friday, all priority tests should be completed by the 1st day of the Black Friday schedule to maintain performance.’
‘In terms of what tests to prioritise, it depends on where traffic is coming from on the website.’
Luke recommends tests such as:
‘Higher % PPC traffic = test PDPs (product detail page). Retailers can make sure their CTAs are above the fold, test pricing and discounting.
Higher % SEO traffic = test collection pages. Retailers can ensure that their filters and quick links are optimised.’
‘For all websites, retailers can test delivery messages, pricing, and even fake door testing for things like Apple Pay and Klarna to make sure they have what’s needed before black Friday starts,’ says Luke.
Emily Pick, Head of Data, at 26PMX further reflects on how ‘Testing ahead of peak season means you’ll capitalise on high-intent traffic when it arrives, rather than scrambling mid-season.’
‘Get ahead of the game.’
Retailers may choose to test on ‘key pages, such as product pages, first. Small changes here drive significant volume through to checkout.’
Emily says, ‘If you’re more advanced, you can focus on personalisation by aligning your off-site campaigns – paid search and social media – with the on-site experience through consistent copy and creative.’
Testing the checkout
The checkout is another core element to test ahead of Black Friday. A strong checkout can make all the difference in building trust in consumers that leads to a purchase.
As said by Simon Dyer, Regional Vice President, UK & Nordics at Mirakl, ‘Peak readiness demands testing the entire customer promise, not just site infrastructure.’
Simon says, ‘The biggest risk I see is not a slow site but a broken promise at checkout, caused by inconsistent product data from retailers’ seller network. Retailers can focus tests on data integrity and consistency across all channels to ensure promotions are accurate and stock levels are reliable.’
Lucy Wilsdon, Strategic Account Director at Feedonomics, also shares that ‘testing key areas such as checkout flows, promotional accuracy, and profit margins is valuable.’
‘Prioritise what most influences conversion, such as mobile experience and delivery options, and use A/B and load testing to ensure systems perform under pressure.’
Nikhita Hyett, EMEA General Manager at Signifyd agrees that ‘This is the time to stress test the foundations, from checkout and payment journeys to fulfilment and fraud prevention, ensuring every system performs reliably when demand peaks.’
‘As agentic commerce reshapes how people discover and buy, testing can be adapted so retailers understand how their technology interacts with AI-driven shopping experiences.’
Nikhita says, ‘Those who start early and take a considered approach will turn peak readiness into a real advantage.’
Testing delivery
Testing the Black Friday post-purchase experience is a fantastic way to inspire customers to shop with your brand after the peak season has come to a close.
Garth Stapleton, Head of Sales Northern Europe at parcelperform notes how retailers may be ‘testing the wrong things.’
‘They stress-test their websites for success but may be blind to the real-time cost of failure. A test retailers can complete before peak is the “Echo Test.”’
‘The next time a single package gets delayed, see how long it takes for the echo of that event to reach customer service. But the real test is seeing its financial echo instantly: the direct hit to that order’s profit margin and the erosion of that customer’s lifetime value.’
‘Most retailers can’t see this, because their logistics data and customer data live in different universes. Bridging that gap isn’t just about preparing for peak—it’s about protecting your bottom line,’ says Garth.
Conclusion
Throughout this blog, industry experts have provided over 25 recommended tests for retailers to complete ahead of Black Friday. Through testing, retailers have the potential to identify opportunities – and perhaps even more importantly, setbacks – helping to grow conversion at a time when competition is at its fiercest.
While your tests may be complete, or your campaigns live (some went live as early as mid-October!), we hope this blog proves helpful for planning the next big trading seasons.
Want to read more? Here are the recent IMRG blogs that may take your interest:
Why website performance defines digital success – IMRG
Managing multi-channel price consistency without losing margin – IMRG
When legacy meets discount – IMRG
How competitor price movements signal market shifts before sales data does – IMRG
Can AI make your eCommerce activities more human, not less? – IMRG
Retailers can also explore how their online metrics are performing against industry averages with IMRG’s Online Retail Index data, enabling them to see which areas to test ahead of Peak. Our members have access to our Digital Dashboard that provides the exclusive opportunity to see their ranking against their retail peers. Learn more here.
Published 29/10/25
