Hi there,

Happy Tuesday! In today’s edition, we’ll dive into the six essential things you need to test before the Black Friday/Cyber Monday rush. 

Pre-Black Friday 2023 testing checklist

Black Friday is a huge sales opportunity for Shopify merchants.

The last thing you want is a technical glitch messing things up.

That’s why I had my team interview a Quality Assurance expert, Reema Singh, for her advice on what to test before the big BFCM weekend.

Here’s her pre-Black Friday QA checklist: 

• Stress test your checkout process
• Make sure all payment options are working flawlessly;
  • Guest checkout options
  • Trust signals (like security badges)
• Continuously conduct A/B tests on elements like:
  • product descriptions,
  • images,
  • pricing,
  • and CTAs
• Confirm personalized discounts or recommendations display accurately across sites and apps
• Test your website's mobile responsiveness
  • on various mobile devices
  • and different browsers
• Leverage automation to
  • validate key user journeys
  • and handle varying load volumes.  

By testing these elements before BFCM weekend, you can ensure a seamless experience for your customers. 

This week's reading list

Stay in the loop by reading this week's latest news & resources👇

💡 10 Black Friday/Cyber Monday tips from CRO experts 

💸 Ergo’s Shopify app gives online retailers the joy of bartering 

📈 Retail sales data points to happy holidays for online retailers

🎁 7 things you need to know about this year's holiday shoppers

🤖 On Amazon, eBay, and Shopify, AI is the new third-party seller

📱 Introducing the Shopify Mobile Checkout SDKs for iOS and Android

Stats of the week

Tis the season to start spending! 💸 The average consumer will spend $825 on holiday shopping this year. 

Here's where they will shop: 

Source: National Retail Federation

What I’m up to

📘 What I'm reading: The 33 Laws of Business and Life by Steven Bartlett. Something that stood out to me was his simple 5 step formula for reaching your potential:

1. Expand your knowledge.

2. Develop a valuable skill with your knowledge.

3. The value you provide will be repaid in a growing network.

4. A growing network results in abundant resources.

5. All things together result in a robust reputation.

🎙️ Topics on my mind: To go hybrid, stay remote, or come back to the office - which is best? This week, Coen and I discussed how start-ups can make this choice.

That's all for this edition.  Thanks for reading - let me know what book I should read next by replying to this email. 

See you next week! ⚡

Sam van Hees

Founder & COO at Instant