Black Friday isn’t just another date in the calendar anymore – it’s one of the biggest revenue opportunities of the year for UK eCommerce brands. Every year we see sellers experiencing huge spikes, and the way the market is shaping up, 2025 is expected to be even stronger.
PwC forecasts showed that UK consumers were set to spend £7.1 billion during Black Friday 2024 – up from £5.2 billion the year before. Online spending alone reached £1.12 billion in a single day. That level of growth shows exactly why brands can’t afford to walk into Black Friday unprepared.
At PackPro, we work closely with online sellers throughout the year, but Black Friday brings a different kind of pressure. Higher order volume, tighter expectations, and customers who want products quickly – with delivery promises that need to be kept. Here’s how we help our clients prepare, and the steps we recommend every eCommerce brand should be taking well before November arrives.
Table of Contents
Start With the Trends That Will Drive Demand
If you’ve already looked at our breakdown of Black Friday trending products, you’ll know how strongly trends shape buying decisions. Whether it’s tech, homeware, health and beauty, gifting lines or the latest TikTok-driven favourites, demand is following clearer patterns than ever.
This is the stage where you should be reviewing:
Which of your SKUs tie into these 2025 trends
Whether you need to increase safety stock
Whether certain items need early reordering
How long your suppliers take to deliver
The mistake many brands make is waiting until November to react – by that point, couriers are heavily stretched, suppliers face delays, and warehousing becomes chaotic. That’s why we spend the earlier part of Q4 working with sellers to plan stock-arrival timing, expected demand, and order flows.
If your main catalogue includes trending categories, it’s worth checking our insights on popular online marketplaces too, such as Top Selling Products on Amazon 2025 or Trending TikTok Shop Products to Sell in 2025.
Review Your Stock Levels Before the Rush Begins
Stock management becomes make-or-break during Black Friday. Overselling leads to cancellations, refunds and negative reviews, while underselling means missing out on revenue you could have secured with better planning.
Even this late in November, it’s still worth taking a moment to check that everything is in order. A quick review now can prevent headaches when the surge hits. Make sure you’ve:
– Looked at last year’s performance for quick reference
– Checked which products are trending right now
– Topped up any low-stock items where suppliers can still deliver
– Confirmed that inbound deliveries have been received and booked in
– Double-checked that all stock is correctly reflected across your channels
Black Friday exposes gaps in stock control more than any other time of year, and even small discrepancies can lead to overselling. Ensuring that your fulfilment team has accurate, up-to-date stock levels gives you the confidence to push sales without worrying about what’s happening behind the scenes.
Get Your Listings in Order Before Traffic Arrives
Black Friday brings traffic – lots of it. But traffic alone won’t convert unless your product pages are set up properly.
Ahead of the event, take time to:
– Update product descriptions
– Refresh photography
– Add clear delivery estimates
– Make returns information easy to find
– Optimise bundles for trending items
Customers shop quickly during Black Friday, and most will decide within seconds whether to trust a store. Clear delivery details make a huge difference here, especially if you offer fast courier options. Because PackPro integrates with multiple UK couriers, our clients can offer quicker delivery windows without adding operational stress.
If you’re selling on platforms like Shopify or TikTok Shop, make sure your listings are aligned with your website too – especially if you’re also selling through Amazon and want to avoid stock discrepancies.
Check That Your Fulfilment Can Handle the Pressure
This is the part of Black Friday that catches sellers out the most.
Marketing brings the orders in, but fulfilment is what keeps customers happy. Once the surge begins, orders move quickly, courier networks get busy, and any operational gaps become very visible. A delay early in the day can snowball into missed cut-offs, slow dispatch and frustrated customers.
In the lead-up to the event, we make sure our clients have:
– Stock fully checked in and accurate
– Courier options set up correctly
– Orders routing properly across every sales channel
– A tidy, reliable pick and pack flow
– Both next-day and economy services ready to go
– A backup courier available if the main network experiences delays
If you’re handling fulfilment yourself, Black Friday can be challenging. There’s order syncing, label generation, cut-off times, marketplace rules, courier choices and the simple reality that manual processes can’t always keep up with high volumes.
The right fulfilment partner makes a noticeable difference here. Whether you sell on Amazon, eBay, Shopify, TikTok Shop or across all of them, you need a team that can keep pace with the channel you rely on most. Consistent picking, fast dispatch and correct courier allocation are what keep customers returning long after Black Friday is over.
Expect Higher Returns and Plan for Them
A lot of sellers focus only on outbound orders during Black Friday, but the reality is that returns form a major part of the entire cycle. Customers buy in a hurry, order multiple sizes, double up on gifts, and often change their mind – which means December brings a noticeable flow of products coming back.
Instead of viewing returns as an interruption, the most successful brands treat them as a normal extension of peak demand. The goal isn’t to avoid returns entirely; it’s to handle them quickly enough that they don’t disrupt the rest of your sales period.
At PackPro, we support sellers by:
– Managing your returns and processing them as soon as they arrive.
– Keeping stock levels up to date so you always know what’s actually available
– Repacking items where appropriate
– Flagging repeat return reasons to help reduce them in future
– Making sure recoverable stock gets back into circulation rather than sitting idle
A tidy returns process prevents good stock from being tied up for days, protects margins, and keeps December running smoothly. When you treat returns as part of your Black Friday planning, not an afterthought, the whole peak period becomes far easier to manage.
Prepare Customer Service for Higher Contact Volumes
More orders always mean more questions. Delivery updates, tracking queries, return requests, and payment checks all increase at once during Black Friday.
The best way to stay ahead is to:
– Update your FAQs
– Pre-write responses for common issues
– Make delivery expectations visible
– Ensure customer service messaging matches your fulfilment timings
– Enable order-tracking notifications
One of the biggest mistakes sellers make is promising fast delivery without checking whether their fulfilment team can meet that promise during surge periods. Aligning these two areas early prevents misunderstandings and reduces pressure on support teams.
Test Everything Before It Counts
We always tell sellers: don’t wait for Black Friday to discover a problem.
A full test run helps avoid issues on the day. In the week leading up to the event, test:
– Checkout
– Discount codes
– Product bundles
– Marketplace listings
– Order flow into your fulfilment system
– Courier label generation
– Email and SMS notifications
– Stock sync across platforms
At PackPro, we run live test orders for clients to make sure labels print correctly, scanners read everything properly, and orders move through the warehouse without friction. A small check can prevent hundreds of failed orders on the day.
Final Thoughts
Black Friday isn’t just about discounts – it’s about preparation. With spending on the rise and customer expectations growing, brands that take time to set up their stock, listings, delivery options, returns process and fulfilment are the ones that outperform their competitors year after year.
At PackPro, we help sellers across the UK handle everything from pick and pack to multi-courier shipping, Amazon fulfilment, TikTok Shop orders, storage, returns management and scalable Q4 operations. When the biggest weekend of the year arrives, our clients can focus on growth while we take care of the logistics.
Get the preparation right now, and Black Friday 2025 can be your strongest peak season yet – with momentum that carries straight into Christmas and the year beyond.
FAQs: Black Friday Trends 2025
When should I start preparing my eCommerce business for Black Friday?
Ideally, planning should begin in September or early October. That gives you enough time to sort stock levels, check courier options, review your fulfilment setup and fix any issues before peak demand hits. Even if you’re reading this late in the season, getting your fulfilment in order still makes a noticeable difference.
How much do sales usually increase on Black Friday?
Most UK eCommerce brands see order spikes anywhere from 100% to over 200%, depending on the niche. Some see 5-7x their normal daily volume. This is exactly why fulfilment errors, stock mismatches and courier delays become more common – demand explodes in a very short window.
What’s the most common reason brands struggle during Black Friday?
Poor fulfilment preparation. Marketing brings in the traffic, but inaccurate stock levels, slow pick-and-pack workflows, and courier bottlenecks are what cause negative reviews and customer complaints. When your fulfilment setup is organised, everything else becomes much easier.
What should I check before Black Friday to avoid overselling?
At a minimum:
Confirm stock is correctly checked in
Make sure all inbound deliveries have been received
Sync your inventory across every sales channel
Review your historic sales so you know which SKUs move fastest
A good fulfilment team will help with this so you’re not second-guessing your numbers.
How do I keep orders moving quickly when courier networks slow down?
Have more than one courier option ready so you can switch if needed. This is something PackPro handles for clients – we make sure every courier is configured properly and provide a fallback route if one network gets congested. It keeps orders flowing even when the industry gets busy.
Should I prepare for higher returns after Black Friday?
Yes. Returns typically increase in early December. A clear returns process helps protect your margins and stops your warehouse from slowing down while you’re still handling peak sales. Fast processing, accurate stock updates and clear reporting make a huge difference.
How important is next-day delivery during Black Friday?
Very. Customer expectations get higher during peak season, and slow delivery is one of the biggest reasons shoppers abandon their carts. If your fulfilment setup allows for same-day dispatch and reliable next-day services, you’ll convert more sales and avoid unnecessary issues.
When should brands start preparing for Black Friday?
Ideally from late summer to early autumn. This ensures stock is in the UK, listings are optimised, bundles are built, and fulfilment is ready for peak demand.