Shopxare Team
Short answer: Black Friday falls on 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday on 30 November, so you have about four weeks. Prepare your customer service in this order: measure your busiest hours and most common questions now, write the answers to those questions before mid-November (delivery cut-offs, returns, discount rules), staff the peak hours with a simple formula based on your own numbers, and let customers check "where is my order" themselves. Below you'll find the timeline, the formula with a worked example, a table of who should answer which question, and 8 replies to copy.
How big the peak gets
- US shoppers spent $11.8 billion online on Black Friday 2025, up 9.1% on the year before, and $14.25 billion on Cyber Monday. The busiest stretch on Cyber Monday was 8 to 10 pm (Adobe, December 2025).
- Salesforce counted $79 billion in global Black Friday sales in 2025, and AI-handled customer service conversations grew 55% week over week during Cyber Week (Salesforce, December 2025).
Those are market totals. Your peak is your own: a store running 40% off sitewide may get five times its usual orders, while a store that skips the sale may see an ordinary Friday. That's why this plan starts with your numbers, not industry averages.
The plan, week by week
By 1 November: measure
- Take four normal weeks and write down conversations per day and your busiest hour. In Shopxare, Reports has a Busiest hours grid by weekday and hour (reports).
- If you ran a sale last year, pull the same numbers for that week. The ratio between the sale week and a normal week is the best multiplier you have.
- List the 10 questions that came in most often, with a count next to each. No tags yet? Read the last 50 conversations and tally them by hand. It takes an hour and it decides everything below.
- Measure how many conversations one person closes in a busy hour. Team performance in Reports shows conversations per teammate; divide by the hours they were online.
By 13 November: prepare the answers
Decide the awkward policies before customers ask about them:
- the last order date for Christmas delivery, per carrier and country;
- whether Black Friday orders get a longer return window;
- whether you refund the difference if a price drops after purchase;
- what happens when an item oversells.
Then write each answer once and put it everywhere. Save them as saved replies your team inserts with /, publish them on one help center page, and add that page to Are AI's knowledge (teach Are AI). Test your 10 questions in Are AI → Try it: you see each answer, its source and whether it would hand over, and nothing reaches customers.
Connect your shop under Settings → Stores & marketplaces and keep Order tracking switched on. Customers then check their order status in the Messenger with their order number and email, and Are AI answers "where is my order" from live order data (stores and orders). For most stores this is the single biggest reduction in Black Friday chats.
By 24 November: staff and test
- Shifts and office hours. In Settings → Teams & assignment, give each teammate a weekly schedule and set Max open per teammate, for example 3, so nobody drowns while someone else is idle. Set Response-time targets (SLA) so the inbox shows a countdown and marks late conversations Overdue (teams and assignment).
- Banner. In Outbound, create a banner with your delivery cut-offs and set Starts and Ends dates so it switches itself on and off (banners and messages).
- Dry run. One teammate plays the customer on a phone and sends the 10 questions. Fix every answer that took longer than a minute to find.
27–30 November: run
Check four things every hour: how many conversations are waiting, how long the oldest one has waited, whether a new question has come in three times or more, and whether codes or payments are failing. A question that repeats gets a saved reply and a line in the banner within the hour. A broken code gets one announcement to the whole team, so five people don't investigate it separately.
1–15 December: follow up
The return requests arrive a week or two after delivery. Keep your returns replies ready (our return and refund templates cover the legal deadlines). Then look at Missed targets and ratings in Reports, and answer the questions listed as unanswered in Are AI → Overview so the next sale starts with fewer gaps.
How many people you need: the formula
- Peak-hour conversations = your busiest normal hour × (expected Black Friday orders ÷ normal daily orders)
- Conversations that need a person = step 1 × (1 − share answered without a person)
- People at the peak = step 2 ÷ conversations one person closes per hour, rounded up. If the result is 3 or more, add one person: breaks and bursts are real.
Use your own evidence for the share answered without a person: the result of your Are AI test, how many customers used order tracking last month. If you have no data, use zero. A plan that assumes the bot takes half the chats, when it takes a fifth, falls apart at 8 pm.
Worked example
A skincare store on Shopify with two people. On a normal day: 60 orders, 35 conversations, busiest hour 5 conversations (Tuesday, 8 to 9 pm). The Black Friday plan: 240 orders, four times normal.
- Peak hour: 5 × 4 = 20 conversations
- In the test, Are AI answered 9 of the 30 test questions with confidence, and order tracking takes most "where is my order" questions. They plan for 30% answered without a person: 20 × 0.7 = 14
- One person closes 5 conversations an hour with two chats open: 14 ÷ 5 = 2.8, so 3, plus one = 4 people from 7 to 11 pm
They have two. The options are to bring in help for the evenings, to cut the number of questions (a clearer banner, the order tracking card at the top of the Messenger home), or to show honest wait times. They add one person for the evenings, briefed on the saved replies, put the banner live, and accept waits of around ten minutes at the top of the hour.
At 21:14 on Black Friday a customer writes: "Your BLACK30 code says invalid on the gift set." The extra teammate types /code, checks the cart and replies: "Sorry about that. BLACK30 covers single products, not the gift sets, which are already 25% off. I've applied 30% to the serum in your cart by hand, so you get the better of the two." Forty seconds, and the next chat is already waiting.
Who answers what on Black Friday
| Question | Best first answer | What to prepare |
|---|---|---|
| Where is my order? | Order tracking in the Messenger, Are AI with live order data | Store connected, current carrier delays |
| Will it arrive before Christmas? | Banner, help page, Are AI | Cut-off date per carrier and country |
| My discount code doesn't work | A person | Every code with its rules, exclusions and end time |
| It was cheaper last month | A person with a saved reply | Your lowest price in the 30 days before the sale (EU) |
| Out of stock after I paid | A person | Refund or alternative decided in advance |
| Charged twice, no confirmation | A person | How your payment provider handles pending authorisations |
| Change or cancel my order | A person, until it ships | Until when an order can still change |
| Return policy | Help page, Are AI | Holiday return window in writing |
In Are AI → Settings, put discount codes, payment problems and complaints under Always hand over these topics. Those need someone who can look at the order and act (Are AI).
8 replies to copy
Replace the parts in brackets. Keep them short: on Black Friday most customers read on a phone.
1. Where is my order (peak week)
Hi [Name], your order [#1234] left us on [date] with [carrier]: [tracking link]. Carriers are moving far more parcels than usual this week, so it can take a day or two longer than our normal [2–3] days. If it hasn't moved by [date], reply here and I'll chase it.
2. Christmas delivery
Order by [date] for delivery in [country] before 24 December with standard shipping, or by [date] with express. We keep shipping after that, but we can't promise it arrives before Christmas.
3. Discount code doesn't work
Sorry about that, [Name]. [CODE] works on [what it covers] until [time] and can't be combined with [exclusion]. I've checked your cart: [what happened]. [I've applied the discount by hand / I've refunded the difference to your card.]
4. Price dropped after purchase
You bought [product] on [date] for [price], and it's now [price]. [We refund the difference for purchases made in the last 14 days, so I've sent [amount] back to your card / We don't adjust prices after purchase, but you can return it unused within [X] days and order again at the new price.]
5. "Was that a real discount?" (EU customers)
The crossed-out price is the lowest price we charged for this item in the 30 days before the sale: [price] on [date]. The [x]% discount is calculated from that price.
Selling to the EU? That 30-day rule is the law: a price reduction must be calculated from the lowest price in the 30 days before it, as the EU Court of Justice confirmed in 2024 (CJEU, case C-330/23, September 2024). Your support team should know where to look up that price.
6. Oversold item
I'm sorry, [Name]. We sold more [product] than we had in stock, and your order is one we can't fill. You can choose: a full refund today, or [alternative] at the same price, sent tomorrow. Just tell me which you prefer.
7. Charged twice
Only one payment for order [#] reached us. The second amount is most likely a pending authorisation from your bank, which disappears on its own, usually within [X] working days depending on the bank. If you still see two charges on [date], send me a screenshot and we'll sort it out with our payment provider.
8. Busy-hour wait
Thanks for your message. We're answering in order and it's taking about [15] minutes right now. You don't need to keep this page open: our reply will be waiting in this chat when you come back.
More everyday replies are in 24 canned responses for online stores and where is my order templates.
What not to do in Black Friday week
- Don't switch on an AI agent for the first time. If your Are AI test isn't done by around 20 November, set When to Only outside office hours, so it answers at night while your team covers the day.
- Don't add a new channel. A new email address or chat app in the busiest week means answers in two places and nobody watching one of them.
- Don't run proactive chats on the checkout page at the peak. Each one opens a conversation you then have to staff. Save them for quiet hours.
- Don't measure the week by average response time alone. Look at the oldest waiting conversation; one customer waiting two hours does more damage than the average shows. Our customer service KPIs post explains which numbers to watch.
Shopxare is free, with no credit card. Install the Messenger, connect your store for order tracking and set up your shifts before 13 November, so you still have time for the dry run.
FAQ
When is Black Friday 2026?
Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026, the day after US Thanksgiving. Cyber Monday is 30 November 2026.
How do I prepare customer service for Black Friday?
Measure your busiest hours and top 10 questions, write and publish the answers (delivery cut-offs, returns, discount rules) by mid-November, let customers track orders themselves, staff your peak hours, and do a dry run a few days before.
How many customer service agents do I need for Black Friday?
Multiply your busiest normal hour by your expected order increase, subtract the share you can answer without a person, and divide by how many conversations one person closes per hour. Round up and add one person if the result is 3 or more.
Should I use a chatbot on Black Friday?
Yes for repeat questions like order status, delivery dates and returns, if it answers from your own content and you've tested it before mid-November. Send discount code, payment and complaint conversations straight to a person.
How fast should I reply to customers during Black Friday?
Keep your normal live chat target if you can staff for it. If you can't, show customers an honest wait time and keep the oldest waiting conversation under your limit. Our first response time guide has sourced benchmarks.
