Black Friday analytics checklist: What to track (and when)

You've got three weeks until Black Friday and your analytics setup is... questionable. Maybe you're tracking something, but you're not sure if it's the right thing. Or worse—you're tracking everything, drowning in data, and still can't answer the simple question: "Are we ready?"

Here's the problem: Black Friday isn't the time to figure out your analytics. When traffic spikes 10x and your checkout starts acting weird at 2 AM, you need answers immediately. Not "let me pull up GA4 and figure out what report shows this" answers. Instant, clear, actionable answers.

According to Adobe Analytics data from previous Black Friday events, stores with comprehensive pre-event tracking preparation achieve 23% higher conversion rates during the event compared to stores setting up tracking reactively. The difference? They knew exactly what to watch and when to watch it.

This checklist gives you a week-by-week timeline for Black Friday analytics preparation. Follow it, and you'll know exactly what's happening during the event—and more importantly, you'll know what to do about it.

📋 6 weeks before: Baseline establishment

Start here. You can't measure Black Friday success without knowing what "normal" looks like.

Track these baseline metrics now:

• Current daily revenue (average and by day of week)

• Standard conversion rate by device and traffic source

• Average order value by customer type

• Checkout completion rate for each step

• Cart abandonment rate and timing

• Peak traffic hours and capacity limits

Why six weeks? Because you need enough data to establish statistical stability. Two weeks isn't enough—one slow week can skew everything. Six weeks captures typical variation giving you a reliable baseline for comparison.

⚠️ Common mistake: Stores use last year's Black Friday as the baseline. Wrong. You need this year's normal performance as your comparison point. Your business has grown (or changed) since last year. Last year's Black Friday tells you nothing about this year's lift.

Set up these tools now:

• Google Analytics 4 e-commerce tracking (verify it's capturing revenue correctly)

• Heatmap tools for checkout flow visualization

• Error tracking for payment gateway issues

• Server monitoring for capacity alerts

According to Shopify's merchant research, 67% of stores discover tracking gaps during Black Friday itself when it's too late to fix them. Find your gaps now.

📊 4 weeks before: Goal setting and forecasting

Now that you have baseline data, set realistic yet ambitious targets.

Calculate your forecasts:

1. Review last year's Black Friday performance vs normal daily performance (calculate the multiplier)

2. Apply conservative version of that multiplier to current baseline (if last year was 8x normal and you've grown 30%, expect 9-10x this year)

3. Segment forecasts by traffic source (email typically shows highest lift, paid search more moderate)

4. Build range forecasts—best case, expected case, minimum acceptable case

💡 Pro tip: Don't just forecast revenue. Forecast the metrics that create revenue: traffic by source, conversion rate by device, average order value by customer type. This lets you diagnose problems during the event instead of just watching total revenue and panicking.

Set up tracking for:

• Hourly revenue vs forecast (lets you spot problems early)

• Traffic by source compared to expectations

• Conversion rate by segment vs baseline

• Checkout abandonment vs normal rates

🔧 3 weeks before: Technical tracking verification

Test everything. Twice.

Complete these verification steps:

1. Make test purchases on desktop, mobile, and tablet

2. Verify revenue appears correctly in GA4 within 24 hours

3. Test purchases with different payment methods

4. Confirm discount codes tracked properly

5. Check international transaction tracking if relevant

6. Verify email tracking links properly tagged with UTM parameters

If you discover tracking issues now, you have time to fix them. Discover them on Black Friday morning and you're flying blind.

Create a tracking documentation sheet including:

• What's tracked and how

• Where to find each metric quickly

• Known limitations or gaps

• Backup tracking methods if primary fails

🎯 Reality check: At least 40% of stores have some form of tracking gap they don't know about. Most common: mobile app purchases not properly attributed, discount codes breaking tracking parameters, international transactions missing currency conversion. Test specifically for these.

📈 2 weeks before: Dashboard and alert setup

Build your Black Friday command center.

Your real-time dashboard should show:

• Current revenue vs forecast (updated every 5 minutes)

• Hourly revenue chart comparing to expectations

• Conversion rate by device (updating every 15 minutes)

• Traffic by source vs forecast

• Checkout completion rate

• Top 10 products by revenue and units

• Alert indicators for critical thresholds

Keep it to one screen. If you need to scroll or switch views, you're tracking too much.

Set up automated alerts for:

• Revenue dropping 30%+ below hourly forecast

• Conversion rate declining 20%+ from baseline

• Checkout completion rate below critical threshold

• Traffic significantly exceeding capacity

• Payment gateway errors spiking

• Shipping calculation failures

Tools like Peasy automate this alert setup by connecting to your store and monitoring critical thresholds automatically, sending notifications when human attention is needed rather than making you watch dashboards all day.

⚠️ Alert threshold mistake: Stores set alerts too sensitive (getting notified every 10 minutes about normal variation) or too insensitive (only alerted after major problems persist for hours). Test your thresholds with historical data to find the sweet spot that catches real problems without crying wolf.

📅 1 week before: Team coordination and dry run

Get everyone aligned on what to watch and who does what.

Hold a pre-event meeting covering:

• Where is the real-time dashboard and who has access

• What alerts are set up and who receives them

• Decision-making authority (who can adjust ad spend, who handles technical issues, who manages inventory)

• Communication channels during event (dedicated Slack channel, phone numbers)

• Escalation procedures for major issues

• Backup plans if primary systems fail

Conduct a Black Friday dry run:

• Have someone simulate placing orders while others watch tracking

• Verify alerts trigger correctly

• Practice pulling key reports quickly

• Test communication channels

• Identify what takes longer than expected to check

Think of this as a fire drill. You don't want the first time using your emergency procedures to be during the actual emergency.

🎯 Black Friday week: Final checks and monitoring

This is it. Run through your pre-flight checklist.

Monday-Wednesday final verification:

• Confirm all tracking still functioning (things break unexpectedly)

• Verify dashboard accessible from all locations team will monitor from

• Double-check alert settings and recipient lists

• Review forecasts and thresholds one last time

• Ensure backup tracking methods ready

• Test mobile dashboard access (you'll check on your phone more than you think)

Thursday Thanksgiving day prep:

• Take final baseline measurements

• Set up hourly check-in schedule for team

• Confirm everyone knows their responsibilities

• Get good sleep (seriously—tired decision-making costs money)

Black Friday monitoring schedule: Start checking at midnight (or whenever your promotion begins):

• First hour: Check every 10 minutes

• Hours 2-6: Check every 30 minutes

• Peak hours (usually 8 AM - 2 PM): Check every 15 minutes

• Evening: Check every hour

• Overnight: Automated alerts only unless critical

💡 Energy management: You can't intensely monitor for 48+ hours straight. Schedule explicit breaks. Assign shifts if you have team members. Decide in advance what problems justify interrupting breaks and what can wait.

🚨 What to do when alerts trigger

Having alerts is useless if you don't know what to do when they fire.

If revenue drops below forecast:

• Check if traffic dropped or conversion dropped (different fixes)

• If traffic: increase ad spend or send additional email if list remaining

• If conversion: check checkout for errors, look for site slowdowns

• Compare device performance (often mobile-specific issues)

If conversion rate drops:

• Check page load times (often the culprit during high traffic)

• Look for payment gateway errors

• Verify checkout flow still functioning properly

• Check for out-of-stock issues on popular items

If checkout completion drops:

• Immediately check for technical errors in checkout

• Verify payment processing working

• Look for shipping calculation failures

• Check for unexpected tax or fee issues

If traffic exceeds capacity:

• Consider temporarily increasing server resources

• Implement queue system if available

• Communicate wait times to customers

• Focus on keeping checkout functioning above all else

The key: predefined responses. Don't figure out what to do during the crisis. Decide now, implement fast during the event.

📊 Post-event analysis preparation

Your Black Friday doesn't end when sales stop. Plan your post-event analysis now.

Schedule these reports to run Saturday morning:

• Total revenue vs forecast with variance analysis

• Hourly revenue patterns identifying peak times

• Conversion rate by device and traffic source

• Product performance ranking

• Traffic source ROI calculation

• Checkout funnel completion rates

• Customer acquisition cost by channel

Key questions your post-event analysis must answer:

• Which traffic sources delivered best ROI?

• What time did peak sales occur and why?

• Where did checkout abandonment spike and what caused it?

• Which products performed above/below expectations?

• What technical issues occurred and what was their revenue impact?

• How did mobile vs desktop performance compare?

• What would we do differently next year?

Schedule a team debrief meeting for the following Monday while everything is fresh. Don't wait two weeks—you'll forget critical details.

Black Friday analytics preparation isn't about tracking everything—it's about tracking the right things at the right time. Six weeks before, you're establishing baselines. Four weeks before, you're setting goals. Three weeks before, you're verifying technical tracking. Two weeks before, you're building dashboards and alerts. One week before, you're coordinating your team. Black Friday itself, you're monitoring and responding. And immediately after, you're analyzing and learning.

The stores that execute this timeline don't just survive Black Friday—they dominate it. They know what's happening in real-time, respond to problems immediately, and extract every learning for next year.

Want the metrics from this checklist delivered automatically every morning? Try Peasy for free at peasy.nu and get daily reports showing sales, orders, conversion, and traffic with week-over-week comparisons—track your Black Friday prep without manual reporting.