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Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are the championship rounds of ecommerce.
For merchants, it’s when customer expectations, traffic spikes, and razor-thin margins collide.

Marketing teams are optimizing discounts.
Operations teams are securing stock and delivery schedules.
But one thing often gets overlooked: payments.

If your checkout can’t perform under pressure, you lose sales you’ve already won.
In Europe, card failures and missing local payment methods remain among the top reasons for cart abandonment. Add a surge in fraud attempts during holiday shopping, and payments become as critical as marketing and logistics.

Here’s your step-by-step guide to winning the payments game this BFCM.

1. Anticipate customer behavior before the weekend starts

Customer expectations evolve every year. Shoppers want faster checkout, more ways to pay, and zero friction. Smart merchants prepare by:

• Studying trends: Which local methods (iDEAL, Bancontact, BLIK) surged this year? Where is Open Banking adoption strongest?
• Identifying weak points: Did you lose sales last year because a payment method was missing, or because of system downtime?
• Building a playbook: Know which countries and payment methods deliver your highest conversions.

👉 Pro move: Selling into Europe? One integration with DPMax, our Open Banking platform, gives you 100% EU bank coverage - less guesswork, fewer gaps.

2. Prepare your checkout for record traffic

Black Friday traffic isn’t “a little more.” For many merchants, it’s 5-10x higher than average. If your checkout buckles, the weekend is lost.

• Load test payments across desktop and mobile.
• Check routing resilience: What happens if a bank goes down?
  • *Pro tip: with DPMax your customers will guaranteed have a way to pay.
• Cut every extra step: Fewer clicks = higher conversion.

👉 With DPMax’s smart routing and fallback systems, no single bank outage can stop your sales - and we guarantee 100% approval coverage.

3. Rethink your payment mix

Cards still dominate, but in Europe, local methods and Pay by Bank are winning the checkout battle. Here’s why:

• Customers trust familiar, local payment options.
• Card payments bring higher fees (2-4%) and greater fraud exposure.
• Open Banking payments are instant, secure, and chargeback-free.

Merchants who rely solely on cards during BFCM risk higher declines and lower margins. Offering multiple trusted options keeps carts moving and customers happy.

4. Secure your revenue against fraud and chargebacks

Holiday promotions attract fraudsters. Card fraud and chargebacks spike in November and December.

• Tighten fraud rules ahead of the weekend.
• Ensure 3DS/SCA compliance is bulletproof.
• Encourage Pay by Bank as a “recommended” checkout option

👉 Every Open Banking transaction is SCA-secured, reducing fraud risk without adding friction for the shopper.

5. Plan for cash flow in real time

High order volumes are great - until your money takes days to arrive.

• Card settlements can take 2–3 days, sometimes longer during peak season.
• Bank transfers settle instantly or same-day, helping you restock and ship faster.

The faster your funds arrive, the faster you can reinvest in campaigns and keep momentum.
👉 DPMax merchants enjoy near-instant settlements, turning revenue into liquidity when it matters most.

6. Keep refunds and returns simple

During BFCM, trust matters. A confusing returns policy can cost you conversions.

• Make refund details easy to find.
• Communicate refund times clearly at checkout.
• Automate refunds where possible for speed.
  
  

👉 A transparent return policy isn’t just compliance, it’s confidence for your customers.

7. Monitor live data, not post-mortems

Too many merchants only review payment performance after the season. By then, it’s too late.

• Set up real-time dashboards for approval rates, drop-offs, and settlement speeds.
• Track performance by method, geography, and device.
• Assign staff to react to anomalies as they happen.

👉 With DPMax’s merchant tools, you get full visibility over sales and settlements - so you can respond instantly, not weeks later.

8. Don’t stop at Monday: plan your debrief

Once the dust settles, your insights will shape your success next year.

Ask yourself:

• Which payment methods delivered the best results?
• Where did failures or fraud occur?
• How can these insights power your 2026 strategy?

The merchants who analyze and adapt early set the tone for next season’s success.

The bottom line

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are about speed, trust, and scale.
Merchants who strengthen their payment infrastructure—not just their discounts—will:

• Keep more revenue
• Serve more customers
• Build loyalty long after the weekend ends

With 2000Charge, you can:
✔ Cover 100% of EU banks with one integration
✔ Reduce fees compared to cards
✔ Eliminate chargebacks with Pay by Bank (DPMax)

This BFCM, don’t let payments be your weak spot.
Turn your checkout into your competitive advantage.