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How to make sure your Web site is ready for Black Friday


Johannesburg, 22 Nov 2019

Black Friday has become a great tool for South African businesses to leverage enhanced sales. Followed by Cyber Monday, a lot of retailers are making a weekend of it too.

Customers aren’t limited to wrestling shoulder-to-shoulder for deals in-store, but can shop limited-time deals from the comfort of their computers on smart devices. This offers small online stores the opportunity to get exposure and sales as well.

With Black Friday around the corner, here are our top tips to help your online store get ready:

Talk to your hosting company

How’s the loading speed on your site? If you are spending time and money on promotion of Black Friday deals, make sure you don’t alienate an interested customer with a Web site and products that take too long to load.

Talk to your hosting company about upgrading to the following package or discuss temporary options.

Update your Web site

Make sure your Black Friday promotions are visible on your Web site. Your regular customers will drop by looking for a deal and new visitors want confirmation of the deal that lead them there.

Important: Double-check stock levels and make sure this is updated correctly online. Black Friday could be great exposure for your company, but wrong prices or inconsistent deals could do a lot of harm to your reputation going forward.

Take your site’s security seriously

Online cyber attacks increase during the holiday season as criminals know that retailers have their hands full and customers might not be as vigilant as usual. It is your role as an online store to create a safe environment for your customers. Secure your customers' data by installing an SSL certificate. Is your Web site backed up? Talk to us about Code Guard.

Domains.co.za top tips to keep online customers safe

As mentioned, online cyber attacks are prevalent during the holidays. Shoppers should be more vigilant than usual. Protect yourself with these tips:

  • Stick to familiar Web sites – The Internet will be ripe with deals, but be cautious. If you’ve never heard about a company, don’t just click and “add to cart”. Do further homework about the company or play it safe and stick to the brands you know and trust.
  • Double-check URLs – Just because it says its a 'Takealot' deal, it doesn’t mean the ad will take you to Takealot’s Web site. Double-check the URLs you are directed to.
  • Look for the padlock – If the online store doesn’t have the little padlock icon in the URL, don’t risk it!
  • Trust your gut – If the deal sounds too good to be true, perhaps it is. Before trusting a deal, browse the Internet to see if a similar scam isn’t doing the rounds. If you are still unsure, call the company’s customer service number.
  • Read the fine print – It is never a good idea to skim over the terms and conditions section of any online store you do business with. When you are buying limited offer deals, the fine print is even more important! The last thing you want to do is to purchase a great deal only to later learn delivery of your purchase is scheduled for after the holidays.

At Domains.co.za, we are here to make your Web site’s hosting perform at its best this festive season. Talk to our support or sales teams today to upgrade to or sign up for one of our powerful and fast hosting plans.

Happy selling and shopping!

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