The BFCM Playbook: 5 Steps to Maximise Your Revenue This Peak Season

With the biggest sales period of the year just around the corner, we have pulled together the top BFCM tips from our partners to help you prepare and make the most of this opportunity. If you would like to know more about any of our partners and how you can optimise your Shopify platform using their services, please get in touch with our team.

To ensure maximum success for clients during BFCM and beyond, Webprofits follow a proven five-step BFCM playbook, and don’t stop until Valentine’s Day.

1. Foundations (July) – They begin by setting goals, analysing key metrics, and crafting revenue-driving offers.
2. Ramp Up (Aug-Oct) – List building is key. They test offers, refine strategies, and acquire customers across every possible channel.
3. Hype & Tease (Nov) – Build excitement, create VIP lists and strategic messaging to drive FOMO and engagement.
4. Lift Off (BFCM) – The long awaited launch. Execute 4-6 offers, track performance closely, and adapt quickly to maximise results.
5. Q5 (Post BFCM) – Clear stock, repackage winning offers, and offer something new to keep sales strong through the holiday season and into Valentine’s Day.

Q4 is not the time to try new things, your success will be based upon proof of concept and validation so come Black Friday - the guns are loaded and ready to fire.

If you’re interested to learn more watch their full BFCM Playbook.

Offering fresh, daily deals, can be a good way to mix things up and keep shoppers hooked over the discounting period. Give shoppers the opportunity to ‘sign up’ to your daily deals campaign, and set up a flow that sends each daily deal straight to their inbox.

This is a sure-fire way to drive repeat visits to your store (and thus repeat purchases). Plus, it’s always wise to incentivise email subscriptions at a time you’ll be swarmed with new, first-time visitors.

Get personal. Got a personalisation solution? Then take your daily deals one step further and have them powered by product recommendations. By this, we mean having each item you promote be a personalised recommendation to a specific shopper, filtered so only discounted items show.

Get more tips from Nosto in the guide 13 Ecommerce Tips for Peak Season.

During the sales season, ticket volumes can spike by 22% across all channels, leaving businesses swamped by manual tasks. Gorgias Automate reduces workload by over 50% and improves the customer experience. With automated FAQs and key queries handled through live chat, chat volume is cut by 65%. The AI Agent, customised to your brand’s tone, can respond in 50 seconds and even perform actions like updating shipping details or answering product questions.

Top tip: Turn Automate and your live chat into a revenue channel by guiding customers to relevant products via a quick response flow. Businesses using this strategy have seen a 10% conversion increase on certain products. Spending just 10 minutes a day training your AI Agent can automate over 50% of queries, saving time and costs.

Want to learn more? Check out our AI in eCommerce report or book a call with the Process team!

SEO is the key to ranking your website above your competitors on Google. This ensures you'll be seen by potential customers first, giving you the best chance to make the sale.

One of the main strategies Megantic recommend for clients around Black Friday is to create targeted selling pages. This will provide you with more opportunities to rank in Google’s search results. How do you know if your business has enough products to warrant opening multiple pages? As a rough guide, you need 10 or more high-selling products in each category for optimum results. If you have less than four products, don't create a specific page.

When opening these pages, ensure the URL is evergreen so it can be reused every year. For example, /blackfriday/ instead of /blackfriday/2024/. Any "link juice" that is made this year will remain for next year. So instead of starting from zero every year you'll start a few steps ahead.

To turn one-time BFCM shoppers into repeat customers this holiday season, a well-crafted loyalty program is key. Offering exclusive rewards and member-only perks can keep first-time buyers engaged long after the holidays. Here's how:

Focus on attracting new customers into your loyalty program early, and keep existing members engaged with tiered rewards. Doing this will convert holiday shoppers into lifelong Superfans, maximising your BFCM efforts.

- Attract New Members with Exclusive Rewards

Promote your loyalty program 1-2 months before BFCM, emphasising member-only perks like “double points” or early access to your sale. Highlighting these benefits early ensures new customers see the value of joining before they shop.

- Engage Existing Members Beyond the Holidays

Maintain excitement post-BFCM with a tiered loyalty program that offers enticing rewards with each tier level. Offer experiences like VIP events or convenience perks like free shipping. This approach keeps members engaged and builds long-term loyalty.

By strategically promoting your loyalty program early and offering enticing rewards, you turn BFCM shoppers into dedicated Superfans, ensuring long-term, sustainable success.

Install Okendo before October 30th for 3 months free (Growth plan or above).

While acquisition is typically top of mind during BFCM, it’s also a time to treat those existing Loyals like Royals while setting the stage for your future loyalists. What do your return buyers love more than your product? The ability to secure product before anyone else!

Early access coupled with communicating on their preferred channel, whether it's SMS or Email, can mean all the difference. Brands get a 60-70% better chance of purchase with an existing customer versus 5-20% with a potential customer. On the other hand, if you haven’t formalised a program yet, don’t fear. You can start with a simple, non-transactional program and begin collecting that first-party data gold.

With BFCM bringing peak traffic to your site, it’s the perfect time to grow your membership base and set up post-purchase flows to engage that first-time shopper segment and communicate broader loyalty perks, especially as you expand your program. As some of our partners put it (and we tend to agree), the best customers are the ones you already have!

Recharge is helping DTC brands turn one-time holiday shoppers into loyal subscribers with their proven BFCM strategies. Last year, Recharge merchants gained 1.3 million new subscribers over Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM), but subscriptions accounted for only 5% of total checkouts, showing a significant opportunity for growth.

Their approach focuses on making subscriptions a prominent feature across all channels, offering exclusive perks like loyalty rewards, and using customer feedback to continually refine the subscriber experience. By implementing these tactics, Recharge helps brands build stronger, longer-lasting relationships with customers beyond the holiday season.

With clear strategies in place, businesses can increase subscription rates, improve customer retention, and create a loyal base that drives ongoing revenue. Recharge’s method has been tried and tested by hundreds of subscription brands, making it an ideal partner for growing your subscriber base this BFCM season and setting up long-term success.

Brands looking to attract more new customers this BFCM should consider Status Accounts, which helped businesses achieve 2.5x more new customers on average during last year’s peak season. To make onboarding seamless, Status offers an extended 60-day free trial with no contracts required.

With a quick 60-minute onboarding process, the Status team manages all the setup, ensuring brands are up and running before the BFCM cutoff date of November 15th.

For businesses looking to capitalise on BFCM and drive customer growth, it’s worth taking a few minutes to explore this tactic designed specifically for acquiring new customers.

We don't need to remind you that Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are the biggest opportunities of the year to drive massive sales through your ecommerce store. In 2023, Shopify merchants set a new record with $9.3 billion in sales over the BFCM weekend.

With more traffic and increased competition expected this year, it’s essential to start preparing early. Taking a strategic approach and refining your plans based on previous years can make all the difference. The earlier you get your team ready and your campaigns in place, the higher your chances of success.

Check out our top tips for a successful BFCM season and learn how to make the most of this years' Black Friday, Cyber Monday.