black friday marketing strategies for shopify stores

Black Friday Marketing used to be simple. Give discounts, and watch the orders roll in. But times have changed, with growing competition; Shopify store owners need to up their game.

In 2025, Shopify merchants processed $14.6 billion in sales over Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend. This number was up 27% from last year. Over 94,900 merchants had their single best-selling day ever.

Deals are already live in October (for Halloween), which means the season has started. Shoppers compare offers across tabs, social feeds, and AI shopping assistants before they ever land on your store. That makes Black Friday marketing as much about being easy to find and trust as about price.

All About Black Friday Marketing, Under 30 Seconds…

  • Treat Black Friday as a month-long themed event; waiting until Thanksgiving week to launch means missing the massive wave of early shoppers who plan budgets by October.
  • Deploy AI-driven product recommendation blocks on your store.
  • Integrate alternative financing structures like “Buy Now, Pay Later” at checkout to lower the barrier to entry for high-ticket items.
  • Value-adds like guaranteed free shipping and easy returns can influence checkouts more than high discount percentages.
  • Direct email marketing influences 59% of holiday buying choices, outperforming cold social advertisements.
  • Over 50% of consumers begin tracking holiday promotions and researching products by October.

Considering this is one of the “best-selling” days, your Black Friday marketing campaigns should already be underway. Some have prepared early, kept their sites fast, and put the right Black Friday marketing strategies in place before the traffic arrived.

But if you’re someone who has not started yet, or you are confused about where to start, you have landed in the correct place.

8 Black Friday Marketing Strategies for Shopify Stores

Whether you run WooCommerce, Shopify, eCommerce, or BigCommerce, use these Black Friday marketing strategies to tick off each step, and you’ll go into Cyber Week with fewer surprises.

You will find many articles covering strategies relevant to both Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Want to know the reason?

Black Friday is the main deals day, and Cyber Monday is the biggest online-first shopping day. Most stores should run strong offers on both. In 2026, Black Friday falls on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30. The right Black Friday marketing tips treat them as two parts of one five-day campaign, not as competing events.

So, now that we have this important clarity, let’s dive right in –

black friday strategies

1. Prepare Your Store for a Black Friday Traffic Surge

Why is it important to prepare your store for Black Friday early?

Black Friday and Cyber Monday can bring a significant traffic surge, which slows down your website and leads to frustrated shoppers, abandoned carts, and missed sales opportunities. This makes website performance and mobile optimization essential. Start by conducting a detailed website performance audit to identify potential bottlenecks. Address issues like large image files, excessive plugins, and outdated scripts that may slow down your store.

But handling increased traffic is only half the battle. What happens when more visitors arrive but don’t complete their purchases?

black friday store optimization

During Black Friday, shoppers often browse multiple products, compare prices, and add items to their carts before deciding whether to buy. Some may leave simply because they aren’t ready to commit yet. Without a way to save their shopping preferences, you risk losing those potential customers.

The Solution? CXS Wishlist Manager is particularly useful for stores selling products that require more consideration, such as fashion, electronics, furniture, or higher-priced items. A Shopify wishlist app gives shoppers a convenient way to save products they like and return to them when they’re ready to purchase.

This way, merchants can make the most of increased Black Friday traffic by not only accommodating more visitors but also giving interested shoppers a reason to return and complete their purchases.

2. Create Irresistible Bundles and BOGO Deals

Black Friday Marketing means creating irresistible bundles and Buy-One-Get-One deals that your seasonal shoppers can not ignore.

In this section, we will individually talk about BOGO offers and Product Bundles –

  • Buy-One-Get-One Free Offers

Everyone loves BOGO offers. It is an excellent way to collect hot leads and earn lots of money. Without any effort, until it comes under your margin. This straightforward Black Friday marketing strategy has worked for years. Once you implement BOGO offers in your Shopify store, you get more visits and more clicks. Your customers will be more interested in buying from you rather than your competitors. And that’s natural.

Buy-One-Get-One gently nudges customers to buy more, hits the target audience, and creates urgency. You will see more fabulous sales, bigger orders, and improved conversion rates. But only if it is executed correctly in your store.

  • Holiday Product Bundling

Holiday Product bundling is an effective Black Friday Marketing strategy to sell products in bulk. It also simplifies the purchasing decision. During busy shopping seasons, customers want quick and convenient purchasing decisions. Bundles remove the guesswork by presenting a complete solution instead of individual products.

They also increase perceived value. Rather than seeing a simple discount, shoppers feel they’re getting more for their money, which can lead to higher conversion rates and larger orders. A well-designed Shopify bundle makes purchasing easier while encouraging customers to buy more products in a single order.

Many merchants use Shopify bundles during BFCM because shoppers are actively looking for the best value and complete solutions rather than individual products.

SPECIAL BLACK FRIDAY MARKETING TIP!

CXS Upsell Fusion helps Shopify merchants automate these offers and create different upsell campaigns based on products, cart contents, and customer behavior.upsell fusion

This allows merchants to focus on their Black Friday marketing strategy instead of manually managing every offer. The goal isn’t to push customers into buying something they don’t need. It’s to make the next relevant purchase easier, increasing order value while improving the overall shopping experience.

3. Use AI to Help Shoppers Find the Right Products

Agentic Commerce is reshaping online shopping, and during Black Friday, shoppers expect instant, personalized help. This becomes a challenge for Shopify merchants, who are already overwhelmed with higher traffic and growing catalogs.

A Shopify AI agent solves this by understanding shopper intent, guiding product discovery, and supporting sales through upselling, cart recovery, and lead qualification, unlike scripted traditional chatbots.

ai shopping experience

Solutions like CXS AI Sales Agent bring this conversational commerce directly into Shopify stores, pairing AI-driven assistance with human handoff to help merchants convert more shoppers during peak sales periods.

Unlike traditional chatbots that rely on predefined scripts, a Shopify AI sales agent can provide more contextual and personalized conversations based on what shoppers are looking for. This Black Friday marketing strategy could be your biggest winning move.

How Does a Shopify AI Sales Agent Work?

Instead of simply responding to predefined commands, it can understand customer questions, identify their intent, retrieve relevant information, and guide shoppers toward products that match their needs.

While the exact capabilities vary between Shopify AI agent solutions, the overall process typically follows three steps:

  • Understand the Shopper: The AI analyzes the customer’s message to identify what they need and why they are looking for it.
  • Analyze Available Information: It uses relevant product data, store information, and conversation context to determine which information or products are most useful.
  • Provide Assistance: The AI responds with an answer, recommendation, follow-up question, or relevant product suggestion to help the shopper move forward.

4. Increase Average Order Value With Product Recommendations

Product recommendations are an effective Black Friday marketing strategy to encourage shoppers to explore more products and add additional items to their carts. By suggesting relevant products based on customers’ interests, budgets, and shopping behavior, you can make their shopping experience more personalized while increasing your average order value (AOV).

For example, if you sell yoga mats, you can recommend complementary products such as workout wear, resistance bands, or protein shakes. These relevant suggestions help shoppers discover products that complement their original purchase, creating more opportunities for additional sales.

Pro Tip: Use a Shopify upselling and cross-selling app like CXS Upsell Fusion to display relevant product recommendations and encourage shoppers to add more to their carts during Black Friday sales.

5. Use Social Media and Influencer Marketing

Social media and influencer collaborations can give your Black Friday marketing campaigns greater visibility and help you reach shoppers where they already spend their time. Start building excitement by sharing deal teasers, product highlights, countdown posts, and exclusive discount announcements across platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

You can also partner with influencers and niche content creators to showcase your products, share honest reviews, and introduce your Black Friday offers to relevant audiences. Encourage customers to share their purchases, product experiences, and unboxing videos to generate user-generated content (UGC) and build trust with potential buyers.

The key is to combine engaging social content with compelling offers that give shoppers a reason to visit your Shopify store and make a purchase.

6. Launch Personalized Black Friday Email Campaigns

Email Marketing, is one of the oldest and most efficient ways to reach customers on every occasion and event. You can run your Black Friday marketing email campaigns and harness their benefits. It cuts through all the other holiday buzz and provides a personal touch for the user.

  • When you have any announcements to make or promotional emails, you can’t just send text and expect conversion.
  • Plan and start your BFCM email campaigns early. Send VIP emails to your best customers.
  • Re-capture the user’s attention by sending follow-up emails. Moreover, after your BFCM sale is over, send another email inviting users to revisit your store off-season too. You can also include surveys.

You can adjust ad spending based on your budget. Just remember, spending on social media targeting has more chances of amplifying reach. However, investing in search engine ads will target users who are already hunting for products. Therefore, these are closer to conversion.

7. Improve the Post-Purchase Experience With Order Tracking

I’ll just say this one last time: “Developing Black Friday marketing strategies for the customer’s post-purchase experience is important”. Imagine a customer buys a product from your Shopify store. At that moment, you might think your job is done—the sale is complete, right?

But here’s the truth: your customer’s journey is just getting started. What happens after their purchase is just as important as everything you did to get them to buy in the first place.

Order tracking is essential for your business growth, especially during the busy hours of the festive season. But you need to implement a purchase order tracking system that provides a better post-purchase experience. This can even be a huge, profitable marketing channel for your business.

track orders for better post-purchase experience

With CXS Track Order, deliver a smooth post-purchase journey with real-time order tracking for your customers. Shoppers can effortlessly monitor their shipment status, access the latest delivery updates, and stay informed at every stage of the order journey, without reaching out to support.

8. Reward Black Friday Shoppers to Encourage Repeat Purchases

Black Friday is a great opportunity to attract new customers, but the real value lies in getting them to shop with you again after the sale. Make your Black Friday marketing efforts count beyond the BFCM weekend by introducing loyalty rewards that give shoppers a reason to return.

For example, reward customers with loyalty points for every purchase, referrals, product reviews, or other engagement activities. They can redeem these points on their next order, giving them an incentive to shop again. You can also offer bonus points during Black Friday to make your loyalty program more appealing.

With the CXS Loyalty Program and Reward app, Shopify merchants can create reward-based experiences that encourage customer engagement, repeat purchases, and long-term loyalty.

We are almost done with the article, but here’s a little something for all our overwhelmed Shopify owners!

Black Friday Marketing Challenges CXSnippets Can Solve

Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring exciting sales opportunities, but they also come with challenges like abandoned carts, low average order value, increased customer queries, and difficulty retaining first-time shoppers. The right Shopify apps can help merchants tackle these issues, streamline the shopping experience, and make the most of their Black Friday marketing campaigns.

Here’s how CX Snippets apps can help Shopify merchants address common BFCM challenges:

Black Friday Marketing Challenge How It Affects Your Shopify Store? CX Snippets Solution
Shoppers leave without completing purchases Potential customers browse products but leave without buying, resulting in missed sales opportunities. CXS Wishlist Manager: Lets shoppers save their favorite products and revisit them when they’re ready to purchase.
Low average order value Customers purchase individual products instead of exploring complementary items or additional offers. CXS Upsell Fusion: Helps merchants promote upsells, cross-sells, BOGO deals, and relevant product offers.
Shoppers struggle to find the right products Too many product choices and unanswered questions can delay purchase decisions. CXS AI Sales Agent: Assists shoppers with product discovery and answers their queries.
Low customer retention after BFCM First-time buyers may not return once the Black Friday discounts end. CXS Loyalty Program and Rewards: Encourages repeat purchases through loyalty points and rewards.
Increased order-status queries Customers frequently contact support to check shipment updates during the post-sale rush. CXS Track Orders: Gives customers access to shipment tracking information and order updates.
Limited recurring revenue Merchants rely heavily on one-time purchases instead of building consistent revenue streams. CXS Subscriptions: Enables recurring purchase options to turn one-time buyers into subscribers.
Delayed customer assistance Shoppers may leave when they cannot get timely answers to product-related questions. CXS AI Sales Agent: Provides AI-powered assistance to help shoppers get relevant answers while browsing.

Conclusion

Black Friday is on November 27, and Cyber Monday is on November 30, so the best time to act on your Black Friday marketing is now. Start with the basics: prepare your store for order spikes, create irresistible offers, and launch personalised email marketing campaigns.

Finally, use Agentic commerce to help shoppers find the right products.

You don’t need to do everything at once. Pick the strategies that fit your team, set your site-change freeze date, and work through them one step at a time.

If we have missed something, tell us in the comments…

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How to prepare for Black Friday?

The best way to prepare for Black Friday is by starting with the basics: prepare your store for order spikes, create irresistible offers, and launch personalised email marketing campaigns. Finally, use Agentic commerce to help shoppers find the right products. You don’t need to do everything at once. Pick the strategies that fit your team, set your site-change freeze date, and work through them one step at a time.

2. When do Black Friday ads come out?

Black Friday ads and other holiday ads start rolling out from late October through early November, while major sales events begin weeks ahead of the actual holiday.

3. What Are Some Effective Marketing Ideas for the Holidays?

Some effective marketing ideas for the holidays include planning ahead of the festive season, building engaging loyalty programs, creating exclusive product bundles, and launching targeted email campaigns for price-conscious consumers.

4. Are product bundles better than discounts for BFCM?

Product bundles can be more valuable than blanket discounts because they encourage customers to purchase multiple products while giving them a clear value proposition. A well-designed Shopify bundle can increase order size without requiring you to discount every product in your store.

About the Author: Muskaan Sabarwal

Muskaan Sabarwal is a content marketer passionate about WooCommerce, WordPress, Shopify, customer loyalty, and eCommerce growth strategies. She creates educational content to help businesses enhance customer experiences, increase conversions, and achieve sustainable online growth.

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