The Ultimate Guide to BFCM 2025 eCommerce Preparation

Overview

• Marketplaces take weeks to pay sellers, but customer orders need to be fulfilled immediately — a pressure that only intensifies during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
• CrediLinq helps you fund the fast pace of BFCM so you can cover stage deposits, mid-event restocks, and protect your customers’ experience.
• Sellers must lock in funding, stage inventory, pre-fund ads, and protect margins to comfortably outcompete other vendors.

Why this matters to you

• Sales do not equal immediate cash flow. You register high sales volume, but payouts lag, leaving you to lose your customers due to stockouts or unfulfilled orders.
• With cash not in place, delays quickly become costly. You miss ad campaigns, fail to stock products on time, or lose customers — all of which are hard to win back in a competitive market. Even small timing gaps hurt performance and ranking.

What to Expect from Black Friday 2025

Holidays are always a clear winner for sellers.

In 2024, shoppers spent $41.1 billion online during Cyber Week, up more than 8% from the year before. Black Friday alone pulled in $10.8 billion in sales revenue.

Shoppers react to triggers like scarcity, urgency, and discounts. That is why Black Friday always feels like a frenzy on the buyer side.

For you, the seller, this means that demand is inevitable.

1. Changing consumer behavior

This year, though, the backdrop is colder. Deloitte and PwC both forecast more cautious holiday spending. Shoppers plan to prioritize essentials, hunt for deeper discounts, and cut back on discretionary buys.

This means, as a seller, you should expect tougher comparisons, longer consideration periods, and find a margin plan that enables you to compete on discount depth without depleting your cash.

2. The growing role of AI

Salesforce reported that AI influenced a massive slice of 2024 holiday sales globally, to the tune of $60 billion during Cyber Week alone.

Rufus, Amazon’s shopping assistant, and new AI shopping guides help customers discover better deals, which could boost conversion for sellers who show up with well-structured data, clear product attributes, and competitive prices.

You should expect algorithmic discovery to reward in-stock, well-priced items with strong recent sales momentum. And the surest way to feed that velocity is having the capital to stock deep and fulfill every order the moment demand hits.

3. Staying ahead of the Black Friday curve

The sales window is stretching forward.

Amazon just had its second Prime Day of the year, on October 7th and 8th. This means shoppers have already started locking in their carts weeks before Thanksgiving.

If you sell on Amazon, the fight for rank and visibility begins early, and if you sell elsewhere, know that your customers will be conditioned to shop earlier across multiple channels.

Without enough capital for the early ramp, you risk higher ad costs, lost rankings, and missed sales.

When you put these pieces together—cautious shoppers, earlier promotions, and algorithm-driven discovery—the common denominator is capital.

To compete, you need the flexibility to place deposits earlier, stock deep, and keep ads live without waiting for marketplace payouts.

8 Essential Tips/Actions for Ecommerce Sellers this Black Friday/Cyber Monday

Planning with your average budget does not work well for shopping events like this. Instead, you need to budget by category and adjust based on what happens leading up to and during the sale.

1. Forecasting demand and avoiding stockouts/overstock

Forecasting by gut feel is risky in shopping events like these; instead, break it down.

• Last year’s daily or hourly sales, traffic growth since then, your planned discount depth, and the current shipping cut-off dates. From this, you can build best-, base-, and worst-case curves.
• Run those curves against your current inventory and lead times. It does not have to be perfect; you just need to know your “danger zones” (the date SKUs will tip into stockout or into dead stock).

Now, you have to align your forecast with Amazon’s FBA deadlines for 2025: October 20 for minimal shipment splits and October 30 for optimized splits.

If you miss these, even the best demand model will not matter much if your inventory is not in fulfillment centers on time.

💡Tip: Keep a small reorder budget aside, even if minimum order quantities (MOQs) make it costly, so you are not frozen when sales trend outside your base case.

2.   Inventory planning and procurement

Suppliers expect deposits and MOQs to secure production and freight slots for October or November. Cash goes out before revenue comes in, and over-investing in slow-moving SKUs can trap capital.

• Do not tie up all your cash in one shipment. Stage orders in tranches to respond to higher or lower demand.
• Double down on proven SKUs. For long-tail or experimental products, use smaller runs or short-term airlifts.

💡Tip: Buy the winners and rent the rest. Double down on proven SKUs with strong velocity. For long-tail or experimental products, consider using smaller runs or short-term airlifts to cover demand without locking all your capital.

📖Suggested read: Inventory Financing 101

3.   Operations and logistics

Peak surcharges raise the per-order cost just as you are discounting. USPS, FedEx, and UPS all layer peak-season fees onto standard rates. Meanwhile, returns always climb in December.

• USPS has just announced this year’s seasonal surcharge, bumping rates as high as 5.6% for postal delivery from October 5th to January 18th, 2026.
• Salesforce reported that holiday return values shot over 28% year-over-year in 2024, and the National Retail Federation noted return rates in the winter averaged 17% higher during the holiday period that year.

This double hit, higher outbound costs, plus even more inbound returns, compresses your margins even further.

• Keep operational spending flexible. If pick-and-pack times slip, have a reserve ready to bring in temporary labor or pay for priority shipping to protect customer experience.
• Deal with sizing, accuracy, and customer expectations before the surge so you can reduce preventable returns and service issues:
  • Tighten your product detail pages with better sizing charts, clear shipping cutoffs, and strong post-purchase and policy communications.
  • Offer exchange-first flows to keep revenue in-house rather than losing it outright.

💡Tip: Plan for higher outbound costs and returns to protect margins and keep momentum. How to do that: Monitor return reports in Seller Central to see reasons and frequency. Join Amazon’s FBA New Selection Program for free return processing on new ASINs if eligible.

4. Managing ads and media spend

Tinuiti’s 2024 recap showed Meta Ads CPMs climbing up 12% during the Cyber Week in 2024, and Amazon’s sponsored placements follow the same trajectory.

• If you include Google Shopping, TikTok, and other omnichannel retail media networks, you will find that your ad budget may need to stretch much further, much earlier.
• Ad auctions heat up weeks before Thanksgiving as brands front-load budgets to secure early clicks and retargeting pools. Platforms know it, and so do your competitors.

The better move is to tighten focus. Shift a portion of your budget into high-intent terms and retargeting pools so every dollar works harder.

💡Tip: Pre-book minimum daily budgets for your top stock-keeping units (SKUs) two weeks before Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM). Allow incremental spend to scale only when the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and Advertising Cost of Sale (ACoS) rules are met (this is so that higher CPMs do not erase your margins).

5. Site responsiveness and hygiene

Your storefront is the last, most important stop before the sale closes. Even a one-second delay can drag conversion rates by double digits during high-traffic peaks. Before BFCM, stress-test your site:

• Run load tests to simulate peak traffic
• Audit checkout flows for errors or friction (payment declines, coupon code bugs, mobile UX gaps)
• Ensure pages are optimized for speed (use compressed images, enable CDN caching, and focus on a mobile-first design)

💡Tip: Don’t launch blind. Run a rehearsal sale in October to catch bottlenecks before Black Friday traffic causes them.

6. Email and SMS capture

Paid media gets you traffic, but owned lists let you keep it. With CPCs surging, use every visit as a capture opportunity:

• Pop-ups and exit-intent offers with real incentives (early access, bundle discounts)
• Post-purchase opt-ins for shipping updates via SMS
• Segmentation by SKU interest or cart behavior to retarget with precision

💡Tip: Warm up your lists in the two weeks before BFCM with value-driven content (guides, bundles, lookbooks). Then go live with urgency emails and SMS reminders as cut-off dates approach.

7. Balancing discounts and profitability

Discounts move product these days, but it could also drain your margins. Do not set them in isolation.

Here is what you could do:

• For each SKU, calculate the landed cost—cost of goods sold, fulfillment, shipping surcharges, customs and duties, and insurance.
• Then model what happens to the contribution margin at 10%, 20%, and 30% discounts.

This way, you know exactly how far you can push a promotion without burning cash. You can also tier your offers:

• Deeper cuts on slow movers
• Lighter deals on bestsellers

💡Tip: Remember, profit does not just come from the sale but from keeping repeat customers. Use bundles, thresholds for free shipping, and store-credit incentives so your discounts can also help you build longer-term value.

8.   Managing cash flow gaps from marketplaces

On Amazon, funds are typically reserved until delivery +7 days, with disbursements about every 14 days plus bank clearing time.

That lag hits hard when you need to reorder stock and keep ads live, especially with this year’s October deal days that will pull spend earlier, even before Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

This means your BFCM eCommerce funding sales won’t put cash back in your hands fast enough to cover the next round of costs.

Without having a buffer or credit line, you risk being unable to reorder fast enough or keep ad campaigns active through Cyber Week.

💡Tip: Map financing draws to your biggest pre-BFCM expenses (deposits about 6 weeks before, freight about 1 month before, and ad budgets about 3 weeks before). Use a revolving credit line that matches 30-, 60-, or 90-day cycles so that inventory and media are not held hostage to payout timing.

📖Suggested read: Amazon Seller Payouts: How to Manage Delays in 2025

Funding Options for eCommerce Sellers

How fast can I get cash in preparation for Black Friday/Cyber Monday? How much will it really cost?

Your options are:

1. Traditional bank loans

On paper, bank loans look attractive. Rates can be lower than almost anything else, and repayment schedules are predictable. The problem is speed and flexibility.

Approvals take weeks, and by the time the funds get to you, the window of opportunity is gone. Also, unsecured bank loans to small firms are rare.

Using large-bank regulatory data, only 3.6% of small-business bank loans are unsecured; most require collateral you may not have as an online seller.

Even if you secured a loan earlier in the year, once the money is disbursed, it comes with rigid repayment terms that don’t bend with your sales cycle.

When is a bank loan better?

For long-term, asset-backed projects (e.g., buying a warehouse, big equipment). Banks dominate in long-maturity, collateralized lending, where they can offer lower secured rates if you can pledge assets and wait longer.

For eCommerce and on rush days, you don’t have such time.

2. Credit cards

Credit cards feel like the fastest option, and in some cases, they actually are.

If you already have a card with headroom, you can use it instantly to book last-minute ads or pay for a small inventory funding.

But the catch comes quickly. APRs on credit cards hover around 20.12% or more, and if you’re selling cross-border, FX markups and late payment penalties add up. Even worse, most cards require a personal guarantee, so if sales don’t pan out, you’re on the hook.

During Black Friday/Cyber Monday, cards could work as a quick solution, but relying on them for major inventory purchases is not advisable.

3. Revenue-based financing platforms

With this, you get cash quickly, often in days, and repayments happen automatically as a percentage of your sales. That flexibility can feel like a lifesaver during seasonal peaks, such as Black Fridays.

The trade-off is that repayments rise in step with your sales. For sellers with clear margins, that alignment feels fair; you pay more only when you’re making more.

However, when annualized, APR can reach 40% to 350%—turning what looks like a small charge into a pricey, tedious repayment process.

📖Suggested read: Best 2025 Financing Options for eCommerce Marketing

Here is a practical checklist you can use to test whether you are all prepared for a scintillating sale season this BFCM!

 

How to Stay Funded for Black Friday Sales with CrediLinq

Black Friday and Cyber Monday compress your cash cycle: ads, inventory, and operations all need funding upfront while revenue arrives later. To stay ready, you need flexible capital that moves with your sales.

CrediLinq connects directly to your eCommerce stores (Amazon, eBay, TikTok Shop, Lazada) or lets you upload sales data for Shopify and Shopee and provides in-principle approvals in as little as one business day. You do not need to submit extensive tax records or bank statements for assessment – just connect your store or upload your store data.

Credit limits scale up to $2M and can be disbursed in multiple currencies (USD, GBP, AUD, SGD, HKD), so you are covered across markets.

Flexible repayment

You only pay for what you draw, with a flat service fee starting from 1.5% per month. You can choose repayment terms that line up with your sales push (2, 3, or 4 months) and clear the balance early with no penalties.

Case examples

You can take draws from CrediLinq if you want to:

• Stage inventory buys without overcommitting: Break deposits into tranches across production, pre-shipment, and warehouse delivery. Keep a reserve for last-minute freight or larger-than-expected MOQs, then repay in monthly installments.
• Fund cross-border restocks and ad surges: Restock multiple marketplaces at once while running ad bursts at peak windows. Multi-currency disbursement means you do not lose time or money on FX.
• Cushion your operations for speed and customer experience: Cover 3PL surcharges, hire temp staff, or pay for priority labels to keep customer promises even when order volume doubles during Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

All you need is 3+ months of selling history in any of our supported marketplaces and generate $100K+ in combined annual sales, and you are ready to grow with us.

Get started right now with CrediLinq to finance your ambitions for the coming peak holiday shopping season.

Get Funded

Stay liquid to stay ahead on Black Friday

Liquidity during peak demand beats higher profit figures when the chance to sell has already slipped by. What makes you stand out to buyers is your unwavering ability to always deliver, and those who plan cash like they plan ads will walk away with more revenue.

CrediLinq gives you the capital agility to seize Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales and outsell your competitors. Check your eligibility now and get funded before the holiday rush.

Final Takeaways

• Cash is as important as ads: Don’t just plan ad spend. Plan your cash for your stock too. Forecast sales in best, base, and worst cases and set aside money for quick reorders.
• Split your inventory orders: Avoid putting all your money in one big shipment. Instead, try to order in stages. Focus most cash on proven bestsellers and keep small runs for new items.
• Budget for higher costs: Shipping surcharges, returns, and extra labor always rise during Black Friday. Keep a reserve fund ready and improve product pages to prevent avoidable returns.
• Pick the right funding option: Marketplace payouts take weeks. Choose financing that is fast (1–2 days to approve), flexible (draw only what you need), and transparent with no hidden charges.
• Start preparing earlier: Shoppers begin buying in October now, not just Thanksgiving week. Have cash, stock, and ads ready early to build momentum before your competitors.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Where do I get loans for Black Friday?

To get loan funding for Black Friday, businesses can secure a line of credit from services like CrediLinq or other financial institutions. This funding provides the capital needed to increase inventory and prepare for the sales rush.

Should I get a fixed-term loan or a line of credit for my eCommerce store?

Lines of credit are preferable for eCommerce sellers. You can choose a fixed-term loan for large, one-time purchases with a predictable repayment timeline.

A business line of credit (LoC), on the other hand, is better for ongoing, unpredictable, or short-term expenses and emergencies, as is common in eCommerce.

A loan offers a fixed interest rate and structured payments, while a line of credit provides flexible access to funds with variable rates, making it suitable for managing cash flow fluctuations.