Black Friday falls on 27 November 2026, with Cyber Monday on 30 November and Small Business Saturday on 5 December. For an independent shop that is a busy stretch just before Christmas, and your window does a lot of the selling. If you have a TV in the window or behind the till, now is a good time to plan what it will show, and to make sure every offer on it is clear, honest and easy to read.
This guide covers what to show, how to schedule it, and the pricing points to check before you write a single "was" price.
Plan your Black Friday screens early
Stock orders, staff rotas and Christmas planning all arrive at once, so a short plan now saves a late-night scramble:
- Decide what is genuinely on offer: which lines, which prices, and the exact start and end dates.
- Keep to one message per slide. People glancing through a window take in a headline and a price, not a paragraph.
- Plan three phases: a short teaser, the live offers, then a warm Small Business Saturday or Christmas message afterwards.
- Check your screen and player still power on and connect, well before the busiest morning of the month.
What to show on a shop screen
Mix offers with helpful information:
- Headline offers, with the price large and any conditions right next to it.
- Gift ideas by budget, such as under £10 or under £25.
- Opening hours, especially late nights and any changes over the weekend.
- Your local story for Small Business Saturday: who you are, what you make or source, and why shopping local matters to you.
- Where to find you online, so window shoppers can come back later.
Keep your offers clear and fair
A few points from official UK guidance are worth knowing:
- Make prices easy to read. The Price Marking Order guidance says price indications should be unambiguous, easy to spot, clearly legible in a clear font of reasonable size, and close to the product, so customers do not have to ask. A screen is great for promoting offers, but treat it as an addition to the price tickets on or near your products, not a replacement.
- Use genuine "was" prices. The CMA has warned that a comparison price should be a real price you actually charged, not a figure set briefly to make a saving look bigger. Keep a note of when each item sold at its previous price.
- Make deadlines real. Saying an offer ends on Monday when it carries on, or restarting a countdown, can be unlawful. If your screen says the deal ends on Monday, end it on Monday.
- Be upfront about limited stock. If you only have a handful of an item at the headline price, say so on screen.
- Treat member prices fairly. Where you show a loyalty price alongside the standard price, the guidance says neither set of prices should be given more prominence than the other.
This is general information, correct at the time of writing (October 2026), and not legal advice. Rules can change, so check the government's Price Marking Order guidance and the CMA's advice on urgency and price reduction claims, or ask your local Trading Standards service. Northern Ireland has its own price marking rules.
Schedule it once and let it switch itself
The simplest way to keep screens honest is to make sure offers come down when they end. In OrbiSignage, schedules (part of the paid plans) let you set a start date and an end date, plus the days and times each playlist runs. Outside those dates, the screen goes back to its usual playlist on its own.
That means you can build your Black Friday playlist this week, set it to start on the morning your offers begin and finish on the last day, and leave it. You can also add an evening window for late-night shopping. Once you hit publish, your screens update over the air.
Your Black Friday screen checklist
- Write your offer list with dates, current prices and genuine previous prices.
- Design slides in landscape at full HD (1920 by 1080 pixels), with the price as the largest thing on the slide.
- Add them to a playlist, giving each slide long enough to be read twice.
- Create a schedule with a start date and end date that match your offers exactly.
- Publish, then check the screen in the shop itself.
- Stand on the pavement and read the screen as a passer-by would.
- The day after your offers end, check the screen has switched back.
Tip: take a photo of your window screen from the pavement on a bright afternoon. If you cannot read the price in the photo, neither can someone walking past.
Make it readable for everyone
Good signage is accessible signage. Use strong contrast between text and background, keep text large and short, and do not rely on colour alone to show a sale price. Avoid fast flashing or rapid movement, which can be uncomfortable for some people. The government guidance points retailers towards the RNIB's Clear Print guidelines, a useful check for any sign.
Getting started before the rush
If you are new to digital signage, our guide to setting up a Fire TV or Android TV screen walks through it step by step, and you can order pre-configured players if you would rather skip the setup. The knowledge base covers playlists and schedules in more detail.
You can try OrbiSignage with the Free trial on up to 3 screens for 7 days, with 250MB of storage and no card required. Because the trial runs for a week, it makes sense to start it once your slides are ready. See per-screen pricing for the paid plans.