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The Ultimate Guide to BFCM Prep
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Black Friday / Cyber Monday is the Super Bowl for eCommerce brands.
Every year, the brands that prepare early crush it — and the ones that “wing it” end up burning ad spend, losing customers to competitors, or running out of stock halfway through the weekend.
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The good news? BFCM success isn’t about luck — it’s about preparation. This guide will walk you through the exact steps you need to take now to ensure you’re ready to capitalize on the biggest shopping days of the year.
Why Early Prep Wins BFCM
Ad costs spike
Competition is fierce
Consumer attention is harder to grab than ever.
If you’re testing ads, writing emails, or negotiating offers during BFCM week, you’re already behind. The best brands lock in their offers, creative, and operations weeks (if not months) ahead so they can focus on scaling, not scrambling.
Your BFCM Success Framework
We’re breaking down prep into three main buckets:
1. Marketing Prep
2. Operations Prep
3. Customer Experience Prep
Marketing Prep
1. Start with data – Review last year’s BFCM performance: What were your top-selling products? Which offers drove the highest AOV? Where did you overspend on ads?
2. Lock in your offer - Decide whether you’re running sitewide discounts, bundles, tiered pricing, or gift-with-purchase. Keep it simple and irresistible.
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a. Start planning your sale wayyyyy early.
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b. Google is suggesting sales to start as early as September 1st
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c. Plan as many offers as possible. More opportunities to sell and clear your funnel.

d. Focus on bundle offers
3. Build your VIP list – Launch campaigns now to collect email and SMS subscribers who’ll get early access to your sale. These are your highest-intent buyers.

4. Build your affiliate and influencer group.
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 a. Send your offers to your affiliate groups
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b. Send products and campaign briefs to Influencers
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c. Reach out to holiday gift guides


5. Test and create all ads early -  October is for testing creative and messaging; November is for scaling what works. Avoid making changes during BFCM week unless something’s completely tanking.

a. Set up Influencers for Whitelisting ads
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b. Update hooks and iterations (i.e. adding the keywords “holiday” “gifts”)
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c. Editorial templates - tying popular trends and entertainment to your copy and hooks

d. Update your keywords with research and data
6. Creative testing variations. – Be prepared to have a library of creatives with different copy and iterations that targets different audiences.

a. Create variations with video UGC
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b. Create static variations with a variety of photography angles and copy hooks
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c. Be sure to capture a variety of your product categories for testing
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7. Update your Landing Pages - Create variations that matches your offerings and holiday copy / content.

a. Create a landing page that captures their email and then the promotion after they submit their email
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b. Separate your landing pages for different offers
8. Warm your audience – Spend modestly on ads in October to build retargeting pools. The more people who see your brand pre-BFCM, the cheaper it will be to convert them during the sale.
Operations Prep
1. Check your stock and supply chain – Forecast demand for each SKU. Confirm supplier timelines and have backups ready in case you blow through inventory faster than expected.

2. Stress test your site – Run a load test and mobile checkout test. Even a 1-second delay can drop conversions.

3. Set up fulfillment staffing – Whether in-house or through a 3PL, make sure you can handle order spikes without delays.

4. Pre-write customer service scripts – FAQs, return policy answers, and shipping updates should be ready so your team can respond instantly during peak hours.
Customer Experience Prep
1. Plan your email and SMS cadence – Teasers before the sale, a VIP early drop, launch day, mid-sale reminders, and “last chance” alerts. SMS gets higher open rates, so use it for urgency.

2. Make checkout frictionless – Fewer clicks, clear shipping timelines, multiple payment options.

3. Leverage post-purchase upsells – After checkout, offer a relevant add-on to increase AOV.

4. Create a post-BFCM bounce-back – Give buyers a reason to come back in December — loyalty points, a special holiday drop, or an exclusive offer.

5. Thank your customers – Send a sincere thank-you email or small surprise in their order. Retention starts with appreciation.
Bottom Line
BFCM isn’t won during the weekend — it’s won in the weeks leading up to it.



By locking in your offers, prepping your operations, and warming your audience early, you’ll enter BFCM confident, ready, and able to scale without panic.
The 25-Point BFCM Prep Checklist
☐ Set clear revenue goals.
☐ Audit your ad accounts for structure & tracking.
☐ Review past BFCM performance.
☐ Lock in your hero offers.
☐ Build a VIP list for early access.
☐  Segment your lists (VIP, high AOV, dormant).
☐  Launch lead gen campaigns to grow warm audiences.
☐  Test creative in October.
☐  Produce all creative assets early.
☐  Warm up ad accounts with modest spend.
☐  Optimize website speed.
☐  Stress-test checkout on mobile & desktop.
☐  Confirm inventory & suppliers.
☐  Prep customer service scripts.
☐  Map your email calendar.
☐  Map your SMS calendar.
☐  Set up VIP early access events.
☐  Assign daily monitoring roles.
☐  Run aggressive retargeting during BFCM.
☐  Scale budgets with ROAS guardrails.
☐  Track key metrics daily.
☐  Add upsells & cross-sells post-purchase.
☐  Run bounce-back offers post-BFCM.
☐  Archive performance data & creative.
☐  Send customer thank-yous.
Table of Contents
Your BFCM Success Framework
1. Marketing Prep

2. Operations Prep

3. Customer Experience Prep
Bottom Line
The 25-Point BFCM Prep Checklist