How to run a Black Friday sale on WhatsApp and Instagram: a 10-day plan

TL;DR

• • One code, one collection, one link. Everything you post points at the same page.
• • Set the store up on day one, before the first post: coupon with an expiry, the collection, the announcement text.
• • Days 1–3 tease without prices. Days 4–7 collect early-access replies. Days 8–10 count down.
• • Early access is the same code, sent earlier, to people who replied YES.
• • Friday is one day. The code expires at the end of it. Cyber Monday gets a different, smaller offer.
• • Have six replies ready before Friday. Speed on sale day is the whole game.

Set the store up before you post anything

The mistake most sellers make is to announce first and set up later. Then the first person who taps the link finds full prices and no code box, and does not come back. Do the setup on Tuesday 17 November, in this order, and only then open Instagram.

The coupon. On SitesPlaced, open Settings → Discounts, stay on Coupon codes and add one. Give it a name people can type from a story in three seconds: BF27. Choose a percentage or a flat amount, then open More rules: set Expires to 27 November (the code works through the end of that day and shows as invalid after it), a Minimum order value so it only fires on carts worth packing, a Max discount so a 20% code on a ₹4,999 cart does not give away ₹1,000, and Applies to → A category, pointed at the sale collection. Leave Active ticked. There is no total-uses cap, so the expiry and the minimum are your limits. Coupons are free on every plan. Check the percentage in the discount calculator first; Black Friday discount ideas that don’t lose money shows which offers keep your margin.

The collection. A sale collection is just a category. Add one called Black Friday and put the sale products in it. Every category on a SitesPlaced store has its own short address, so the collection lives at yourname.sitesplaced.site/black-friday. That address is what goes in the link sticker, the bio and every WhatsApp message. Put the products in on day two at normal prices, so the page is live a week before the code is.

The announcement bar. Write the line now and keep it in a note until Thursday evening: Black Friday: 20% off the sale collection with code BF27. Friday 27 only, ends midnight. It goes in under Settings → Branding → Announcement bar, one line, on every page. There is no countdown timer or sale scheduler on SitesPlaced, and no stock-counter widget; a timed sale is a coupon with an expiry, a price you set and remove by hand, and this bar for the end time.

Checkout and delivery. Under Settings → Checkout, tick Show WhatsApp checkout so a buyer who would rather talk can send the cart to your WhatsApp as an order; your number sits under Settings → Store details with the country code. Under Settings → Shipping, set a Delivery charge and a Free delivery above amount; the cart then shows a bar saying how much more to add for free delivery, which on sale day turns a ₹749 cart into a ₹999 one. Both are free.

The ten days, day by day

Read the table across. Each row is one day; each column is one place. Nothing in it takes more than twenty minutes a day until Friday.

BF27 and 20% are examples. Use your own code and the discount your margin allows.

Days 1–3: tease, no prices

The first three days say that something is coming, show what, and never say how much. A story poll on Tuesday (“which of these should go on sale?”) does two jobs: it tells people a sale exists, and it tells you which product to lead with on Friday. Wednesday’s reel is the products being used, with the date on the last frame. Thursday is the first time the link appears: a story with the link sticker pointing at the collection page, already live at full price so people can look and plan.

On WhatsApp, a status is seen only by people who have your number saved and lasts 24 hours, which makes it the right place for the same poll in a gentler form. Thursday’s broadcast is the one message of the week that interrupts anyone, so make it earn it: the date, the link, and a reason to reply. “Reply YES and you get the code on Thursday night, before anyone else.” How to sell on WhatsApp status covers what a status should look like; this post only tells you when.

Days 4–7: collect the early-access list

Every YES goes into a separate broadcast list in the WhatsApp Business app. A broadcast reaches each person privately, holds up to 256 contacts, and only lands with people who have saved your number, so a reply is also proof that your later messages will arrive. Friday’s feed post shows the full collection at normal prices; Saturday’s question sticker on Instagram answers the doubts (sizes, delivery time, cash on delivery) in public so you answer them once. Sunday is a rest day with a single customer photo.

Monday’s reel explains the mechanics in fifteen seconds: one code, this collection, Friday from 8 am, ends at midnight. Say the minimum order out loud; people do not mind a minimum, they mind finding out about it in the cart. Use the quiet days to check stock and put your six replies into WhatsApp’s quick replies so Friday is taps, not typing.

Days 8–10: count down by hand, then open early access

“3 days”, “2 days”, “tomorrow”: one story and one status a day, each with a different product close-up and the same link. This is a countdown you post, not a widget, and each one is a fresh photo. Tuesday’s second broadcast goes only to the early-access list and promises the code for Thursday 8 pm. Wednesday, place a test order on your own phone with the code and watch the cart apply it; if it says “This coupon needs a minimum order”, your minimum is higher than your test cart, and that is the message your buyers will see too.

Thursday 26 November at 8 pm is the quiet opening. The code goes to the early-access list, the announcement bar goes on, and nothing is posted publicly until the morning. The code is identical to Friday’s; the only thing early is the message. The people who asked for it buy first and give you a few orders to pack on Thursday night. If you would rather shoppers see the cut price on the product page than type a code, set a sale price on each product on Friday morning instead (the original shows struck through when it is higher than the price) and remove it on Saturday. If you run both, set the coupon’s Sale items rule to Not valid on sale items so nobody is discounted twice.

Friday 27: post four times, reply in minutes

8 am: a story with the code and the link sticker, a reel, and a feed post, all at once. 9 am: the third and last broadcast, to everyone, with the code and the link. 1 pm: a status showing what has sold (“the blue one is down to two”). 8 pm: a story and a status saying the code ends at midnight. That is the whole day’s posting. The rest of the day is replying.

Speed is what sells on Friday. A question answered in two minutes becomes an order; the same question answered in two hours finds the buyer has moved on. In the store, every order lands in the Orders tab. Razorpay payments show as paid on their own; direct-UPI and cash-on-delivery orders carry an Unpaid badge, so check your UPI app before you pack and mark them delivered when they go. If you take UPI directly rather than through a payment gateway, the order-placed screen shows a UPI QR with the exact amount filled in, so the buyer scans and pays without typing. Cash on delivery is fine, but prepaid orders go out first, and say so: how to get customers to pay online instead of COD has the exact lines. If a product sells out, archive it rather than leaving it to disappoint; pause ordering only if the whole collection is gone.

Six replies to have ready

Save these as quick replies in the WhatsApp Business app and use the same wording in Instagram DMs. Swap in your code, your minimum and your store link. More ready-to-send messages, grouped by moment, are in Black Friday WhatsApp messages for customers.

• “Is there a discount?” — Yes, on Friday 27 November. Code BF27 gives 20% off everything in our Black Friday collection, till midnight Friday: yourname.sitesplaced.site/black-friday
• “Can I get it early?” — Reply YES and I’ll send you the code on Thursday night, before it goes public.
• “The code isn’t working.” — It works on items in the Black Friday collection, on orders above ₹999, till the end of Friday. Send me a screenshot of your cart and I’ll sort it in a minute.
• “Is cash on delivery available?” — Yes. UPI and cards too, and prepaid orders ship first on Monday.
• “Is the blue one still there?” — That one sold out this morning. The green is in the sale at the same price, here’s the link.
• After the order — Got your order, thank you. It ships Monday and I’ll send the tracking here.

Which store setting does each step

Everything in the plan itself is on the free plan: ₹0, 0% commission, unlimited products and orders, UPI and cards through your own Razorpay, PhonePe or Cashfree account, cash on delivery, WhatsApp checkout. The cart shows live prices, so a price changed mid-sale updates in carts already open. Starter (₹199 a month, or ₹199 once for 30 days with no autopay) adds your own domain, removes the badge, adds analytics so you can see whether the Thursday broadcast or the Friday reel brought the orders, and makes your store’s pages answer about 4× faster than on the free plan: about 75 ms instead of about 330 ms, measured on live paid stores on 28 September 2026. “Answer” means how soon the page starts arriving, before the photos load. Growth (₹499 a month, or ₹499 once for 30 days) adds the welcome popup that reveals the code, the WhatsApp chat bubble and Buy 2 Get 1; see sales boosters. The code FREE7 gives 7 days free on Starter or Growth with autopay; cancel before the first charge and pay nothing.

Saturday to Cyber Monday: close it properly

The code expired on its own at the end of Friday. On Saturday morning, take the announcement bar down, remove any sale prices you set by hand, and send one status: “thank you, that was our biggest day”, with a photo of the packed orders. Ship on Monday and send every tracking link personally. Cyber Monday, 30 November, gets its own small offer if you want one, on what is left, with a different code; Cyber Monday in India: what to sell online covers it. Then move the same ten-day shape to December: Christmas and New Year sale ideas is the next calendar, and how to plan a year of sales shows how to reuse the posts, the codes and the list every time.

Frequently asked questions