Black Friday and Cyber Monday on Shopify Plus: your preparation checklist

To make the most of Black Friday and Cyber Monday on Shopify Plus, get four things right: a fast site, a sale that launches and ends automatically, a checkout with as little friction as possible, and offers that raise your average order without wiping out your margin. In 2026, Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November and Cyber Monday on Monday 30 November.

The stakes are high. Shopify merchants took a record $14.6 billion over the 2025 Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, 27% more than the year before. At the peak, just after midday US Eastern time on Black Friday, sales hit $5.1 million a minute, and the UK was Shopify’s third-biggest selling country. Here’s the checklist we work through with clients.

1. Get the site fast and stable

Shopify handles the servers, but your theme and apps decide how quickly your pages load.

• Run your top product pages, collections and checkout through PageSpeed Insights, paying most attention to the mobile results.
• Remove apps you no longer use. Each one can add code to every page.
• Compress large banner and product images before the sale goes live.
• Freeze big theme changes at least a week before Black Friday, so you’re not fixing bugs on the busiest day of the year.

2. Plan the launch in Launchpad

Launchpad, part of Shopify Plus, lets you schedule theme changes, discounts, price changes, product releases and sales channel updates to go live together, and end together.

• Schedule the sale’s start and finish, including any early access for VIP customers.
• Prepare your sale theme in advance and schedule it to publish.
• Test the whole sequence on a duplicate theme so there are no surprises at midnight.

3. Make checkout as smooth as possible

Every extra step at checkout costs sales on a busy day.

• Turn on Shop Pay and display it prominently. In 2025, sales through Shop Pay grew 39% over the BFCM weekend.
• Offer Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal for shoppers who don’t use Shop Pay.
• If you offer buy now, pay later, make sure the terms are clear and shown before checkout.
• Test the checkout on several phones before the sale starts.

4. Raise order values without giving away the shop

Blanket sitewide discounts eat into margin. Try:

• Tiered offers: for example, 20% off orders over £150 and 30% off orders over £250.
• Gift with purchase once customers spend over a set amount. People often value a free gift more than the same amount off.
• Bundles: “Black Friday sets” of products that go together, priced below buying them separately.
• Post-purchase offers: a relevant add-on, such as an accessory or a travel size, offered on the thank-you page with one click.

5. Look after your best customers first

• Segment customers by lifetime value and send your best ones early access, by email or text, 24 to 48 hours before the public sale.
• Use a unique discount code for text messages, so you can see exactly what that channel brings in.
• Exclude people who have already bought from later reminder emails. Nobody wants five “last chance” emails after placing an order.

6. Build a dedicated sale page

Don’t rely on your home page alone. Create one landing page that sets out every offer clearly, with strong calls to action, and send all your paid ads and emails there. Keep it live after the weekend with a “sale has ended” message and links to your bestsellers, so links from emails and social posts don’t hit a dead end.

7. Keep urgency honest

Countdown timers and stock messages work because they’re believable. They must also be true.

• Only use a countdown timer if the offer really ends when the timer says.
• Only show low-stock or “people viewing” messages if they reflect live data.
• Make sure any “was” price is one you genuinely charged.

Since April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has let the Competition and Markets Authority decide for itself whether consumer law has been broken and fine businesses up to 10% of their global turnover. The Act also bans fake reviews and drip pricing, where extra fees appear late in the checkout. The CMA has warned online sellers before about misleading urgency and price claims.

8. Protect your stock

• Check stock levels and confirm restock dates with suppliers.
• Set up automatic low-stock alerts for your fulfilment team.
• Show items as “Out of stock” with a “Tell me when it’s back” option, rather than hiding them, so you keep the page and capture interest.

9. Prepare customer service

Expect a big jump in “Where’s my order?” questions, plus questions about delivery and returns.

• Publish an FAQ page covering delivery times, Christmas cut-off dates, discount exclusions and returns.
• Use Shopify Inbox or a chat tool to answer common questions automatically, with a clear route to a person.
• Brief your team on the offers and the policies before the sale starts.

10. Be clear about delivery and returns

Show your last order dates for Christmas delivery and your extended returns window in the announcement bar and at the basket. Clear answers reduce worry and abandoned baskets, and they’re exactly the kind of facts that AI shopping assistants pick up when shoppers ask about you. Our worked example for online shops shows how to write them.

A tip for homeware and lifestyle brands

Homeware sells on feeling. Use photos that show products in real, finished rooms: a dining table set for Christmas, a reading chair by the fire. Frame offers around the result, not just the discount. “Refresh your living room for less, with 20% off cushions and throws” works harder than “20% off cushions”.

After the weekend

• Send a thank-you email to new customers, with care tips or a how-to rather than another offer.
• Compare results with last year by channel, product and customer type.
• Note what broke, what sold out and what didn’t sell, while it’s fresh.

Need a hand?

If you’d like help planning your Black Friday campaign, your emails or your ads, book a free chat or call us on 07921 866754. Our digital marketing service covers email, paid search and social campaigns.