Black Friday 2026 is Friday 27 November. Small Business Saturday follows on 28 November and Cyber Monday on 30 November. That gives you four weeks to get your photos and sale posts ready, without a photoshoot and without a designer.
Big brands start planning in summer. You don't need to. What you need is a short list of things to fix, done in the right order. Here it is.
Part 1: Fix the photos you already have (this week)
Shoppers scroll fast on Black Friday. The photo decides whether they stop, long before they read your discount.
1. Pick your 5–10 deal products first. Don't try to improve every listing. Choose the products you'll actually discount, plus one or two best sellers. Those are the photos that will be seen most.
2. Check the first photo of each listing. The first photo is the one in search results, the thumbnail and the share preview. If it's dark, cluttered or tilted, fix that one before anything else.
3. Clean background for the main image. A plain white or light grey background works on every platform, and Amazon requires pure white for the main image (Amazon rules). Your living room floor, a garage or a bedsheet backdrop makes even good products look second-hand.
4. Add one styled photo. A styled photo shows the product in use: the chair in a living room, the hoodie on a person, the mug on a breakfast table. It helps buyers picture owning it, and it's the photo that works best on Instagram and TikTok.
5. Check the size for each shop. Small photos look blurry when buyers zoom in. Quick reference:
- Etsy listing: at least 2000 px on the shortest side (Etsy guide)
- Shopify product: 2048 × 2048 px, square (Shopify guide)
- Amazon main image: 1,000 px or more on the longest side, for zoom
- Most other shops: 1200 × 1200 px
Part 2: Make the sale posts (the week before)
6. Make every post in four sizes. One photo, four shapes. Cropping by hand at the last minute is where most small shops lose an evening.
- Instagram feed: 1080 × 1350 (4:5)
- Stories, Reels and TikTok: 1080 × 1920 (9:16)
- Facebook: 1080 × 1080
- Your shop banner or listing: 1200 × 1200
7. Put the deal on the image, in five words or fewer. "30% off this weekend" beats "Huge Black Friday savings on our entire collection". People see the image before the caption, often without reading the caption at all.
8. Use the same look on every post. Same font, same colour, same place for the discount. When your posts look like a set, followers recognise them in a busy feed.
9. Write the caption once, then trim it. One version for Instagram and Facebook (what it is, the deal, when it ends, where to buy). A shorter one for TikTok. Put the end date in every caption: "ends Monday night" sells better than "limited time".
Part 3: Plan the posting (Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday)
10. Tease in early November. Many shoppers make their lists early. A "something's coming on the 27th" post in the first two weeks of November tells your followers to wait for you instead of buying elsewhere.
11. Post every day from 26 to 30 November. Thanksgiving (26 Nov), Black Friday (27), Small Business Saturday (28), Sunday (29) and Cyber Monday (30). Small Business Saturday is your day: shoppers are looking for small shops on purpose, so say that you are one.
12. Have your Christmas photos ready before Cyber Monday ends. On 1 December, people switch from deals to gifts. If your Christmas photos are ready (Christmas product photos), you can keep posting without a gap.
The 10-minute version
If you only have one evening:
- Pick your 5 deal products.
- Give each one a clean main photo and one styled photo.
- Make one sale post per product in the four sizes, with the deal on the image.
- Schedule one post a day from 26 to 30 November.
How SnapStudioAI helps
SnapStudioAI turns the phone photos you already have into studio, styled and Christmas photos, then into sale posts with your discount on the image, in every size above, with a caption written for you. No photoshoot, no design app. Images start from 20¢ each.
Make your Black Friday posts →
Questions
When is Black Friday 2026? Friday 27 November 2026, the day after Thanksgiving (26 November). Small Business Saturday is 28 November and Cyber Monday is 30 November.
When should I start posting Black Friday deals? Tease in the first or second week of November, announce the deal the week before, then post every day from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday.
Do I need new photos for Black Friday? No. Start with the photos you have. Fix the main photo, add one styled photo, and turn those into sale posts.