Quick answer
The best Black Friday strategy for a CPG brand is to treat BFCM as a customer-acquisition and retention event, not a four-day discount campaign. Start building demand before Cyber Week, choose an offer based on contribution margin and average order value rather than headline discount percentage, make bundles and spend thresholds easy to buy on mobile, and plan the email, SMS, paid-media, storefront, and post-purchase experience as one connected campaign.
For consumable and subscription brands, the decisive test is what happens after the first discounted order. Model first-order contribution and expected 60 to 90 day repeat revenue before deciding how much margin or acquisition cost you are willing to subsidize.
Black Friday Cyber Monday is now too large for consumer brands to ignore. Shopify merchants generated a record $14.6 billion over BFCM weekend in 2025, up 27% year over year, with more than 81 million consumers buying from Shopify-powered brands (Shopify, 2025). Across the wider US market, Adobe Analytics reported $14.25 billion in Cyber Monday online spending inside a record $257.8 billion online holiday season (Adobe, 2025).
More traffic does not automatically mean more profitable revenue. CPG brands enter BFCM against thousands of competitors raising ad budgets, sending more messages, and cutting prices for the same shoppers. Winning is less about a bigger discount and more about an ecommerce system that converts the extra attention into customers you can keep.
Liquid Lemon builds Shopify storefronts, paid acquisition, and lifecycle retention for CPG and DTC brands, so we evaluate BFCM as one connected economics problem rather than separate ad, email, and website campaigns. In practice, the biggest BFCM failures we see are not creative problems. They are margin and retention problems: brands that buy a wave of one-time customers at a discount they can never earn back.
In this Black Friday series: the full Shopify Black Friday checklist, 15 CRO fixes to make before BFCM, and our guide to Shopify for CPG brands.
When should CPG brands start Black Friday marketing?
CPG brands should start Black Friday marketing weeks before Cyber Week, because shoppers increasingly research and buy holiday products before Black Friday itself. Attentive's 2026 holiday research, a survey of US shoppers who planned to buy during BFCM, found that 83% begin planning holiday purchases before Black Friday, 71% expect to start buying before it, and 84% expect brands to offer deals before it (Attentive, 2026). Google's holiday research similarly found that 83% of holiday purchases recorded in early October 2025 had been researched before the purchase was made (Google, 2025).
Use October and early November to build the audience the promotion will convert:
- Grow your email and SMS lists
- Introduce new customers to the brand and build retargeting audiences
- Test creative concepts and identify winning products and landing pages
- Collect reviews and user-generated content
- Educate customers on product benefits and build anticipation for the offer
Black Friday is the conversion event. The weeks before it are when you build the audience that converts. If your team cannot execute the storefront, lifecycle, and paid-media work before peak season, see when to hire a Black Friday ecommerce agency and the realistic lead time each discipline needs.
What Black Friday offer should a CPG brand run?
The best Black Friday offer for a CPG brand is the one that maximizes customer contribution, not order volume. Compare sitewide discounts, spend thresholds, bundles, gifts with purchase, and subscription incentives on average order value, variable margin, and the likelihood that a first-time BFCM customer buys again, then choose the structure that protects margin while still converting.
Discounting is expected during Black Friday, but the deepest percentage is rarely the smartest structure for a consumable brand. The main options, in plain terms:
- Spend threshold. An offer that increases the reward once a customer crosses a set cart value, such as 20% off orders over $75. It rewards larger carts.
- Bundle. Complementary products combined into a BFCM-exclusive set customers cannot normally buy, raising perceived value without discounting every unit.
- Buy more, save more. Tiered savings (buy two save 15%, buy three save 20%), well suited to replenishable products customers can reasonably stock up on.
- Gift with purchase. A high-perceived-value add-on above a spend threshold, which protects margin better than deepening the discount.
- Subscription incentive. A promotion designed to convert a one-time buyer into recurring replenishment, rather than simply discounting a single transaction.
| Offer | Best for | Main advantage | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sitewide discount | Simple catalogs | Easy to communicate | Margin erosion |
| Spend threshold | Raising AOV | Encourages larger carts | Threshold can feel unreachable |
| Bundle | Consumable CPG | Higher AOV and product discovery | Merchandising complexity |
| Gift with purchase | Margin-conscious brands | High perceived value | Inventory planning |
| Subscription incentive | Replenishable products | Recurring revenue | Higher commitment to convert |
Should CPG brands use bundles for Black Friday?
CPG brands should use bundles for Black Friday whenever products are consumable, complementary, or naturally bought in multiples, because a bundle raises average order value and introduces new SKUs without discounting every unit equally. Food, beverages, supplements, skincare, pet, and personal-care products are all natural fits.
Instead of sending paid traffic to a single $30 product, a Black Friday bundle worth $90 or $120 can:
- Increase average order value
- Introduce customers to multiple SKUs
- Move slower inventory alongside best sellers
- Raise perceived value without relying entirely on a discount
- Give existing customers something new to buy
Merchandising decides whether bundles work. Do not bury them inside a normal collection page. Give your strongest bundles dedicated homepage sections and, where it is worth it, dedicated landing pages that state exactly what the customer receives and how much they save.
How should a Shopify store be designed for Black Friday?
A Shopify store should be designed so the Black Friday offer is understood within seconds and the path to checkout is frictionless on mobile, because most BFCM demand lands on the storefront after the ad has done its job. Cart abandonment is already high: Baymard Institute puts the average ecommerce cart abandonment rate at 70.19% and found that 63% of mobile ecommerce checkouts deliver a mediocre or worse experience (Baymard Institute). Black Friday is the wrong time to discover your mobile checkout is confusing.
Before traffic increases, review mobile navigation, site speed, product-page clarity, offer messaging, add-to-cart and cart behavior, discount application, shipping thresholds, subscription selectors, checkout flow, payment options, and social proof. A shopper landing on the site should know within seconds what the offer is, what to buy, why to buy it, and when the offer ends. If any of those answers require hunting, there is friction in the funnel.
Why should CPG brands prioritize mobile for BFCM?
CPG brands should prioritize mobile for BFCM because most holiday buying now happens on phones. Adobe reported that smartphones drove 56.4% of US online holiday revenue in 2025 (Adobe, 2025), and for many DTC brands the mobile share of traffic is higher still. Review the mobile experience independently rather than as a smaller version of desktop.
Pay particular attention to hero height, font size, sticky add-to-cart, product image ratios, variant selectors, subscription widgets, popups, cart drawers, checkout buttons, page speed, and accelerated payment options like Shop Pay and Apple Pay. Shopify reported that 32% of BFCM orders in 2025 were placed with Shop Pay, with Shop Pay sales up 39% year over year (Shopify, 2025).
What information do Black Friday shoppers need before buying?
Black Friday shoppers need enough product information to justify the purchase, because holiday buying has shifted from spontaneous to researched. Google found that spontaneous holiday purchasing has declined while pre-purchase research has risen (Google, 2025), which matters most for CPG categories that require explanation. A discount gives a reason to buy now; the product page gives a reason to buy from you, and you need both.
For supplements, functional foods, skincare, beverages, pet, and wellness products, make sure each page clearly communicates the primary benefit, key differentiators, ingredients or materials, how the product works and how to use it, reviews and user-generated content, FAQs, shipping information, guarantees, and subscription benefits where relevant.
What Black Friday ad creative should CPG brands test?
CPG brands should test their proven winning creative first and then layer the Black Friday offer onto it, rather than adding a sale badge to stale ads in Thanksgiving week. Enter the most expensive advertising period of the year already knowing which hooks, creators, products, and formats drive efficient purchases. A creative earns a place in Cyber Week by hitting a target cost per purchase or thumb-stop rate, not by being new.
Test combinations of offer-led creative that leads with the promotion, product-led creative that leads with the benefit and introduces the offer second, user-generated content, founder-led video, social proof built on reviews and results, and bundle creative that shows exactly how much product the customer receives for the price.
How should CPG brands use email and SMS during BFCM?
CPG brands should use email and SMS as the backbone of BFCM revenue, run as a planned, segmented sequence rather than repeated "sale ends soon" blasts. Klaviyo reported that email and text together drove roughly 42% of BFCM GMV among Klaviyo customers in 2025, with SMS revenue up 25% and email up 15% year over year (Klaviyo, 2025). Your store is the ceiling on those returns; see why your Shopify store is the ceiling on your Klaviyo ROI.
A workable Black Friday calendar runs pre-launch anticipation and signups, VIP early access for best customers and subscribers, a clear launch announcement, product-education sends featuring best sellers and bundles, social proof to reduce hesitation, legitimate low-stock messaging, a Cyber Monday reason to return, and a final-hours deadline. Attentive analyzed more than 4 billion messages sent during Cyber Week 2025 and found half of all Q4 campaign volume was already going out before Cyber Week began (Attentive, 2025). The brands winning the weekend are not starting on Friday morning.
| Channel | Primary job during BFCM |
|---|---|
| Paid prospecting | Find new customers |
| Retargeting | Close consideration |
| Education and promotion | |
| SMS | Timely urgency |
| Product page | Explain why to buy |
| Cart | Clarify the offer and shipping |
| Post-purchase | Drive the second order |
Which email and SMS flows should be updated before BFCM?
Update every automated flow before BFCM so none of them contradict the live promotion. Review the welcome, browse abandonment, cart abandonment, checkout abandonment, post-purchase, cross-sell, win-back, and subscription flows, and adjust messaging so customers do not receive conflicting offers.
The most common conflict: a shopper abandoning a Black Friday cart should not immediately receive an evergreen welcome discount that is worse than the promotion already on the site. Small inconsistencies create confusion at exactly the point where you are trying to close the sale.
How should CPG brands retarget Black Friday traffic?
CPG brands should retarget Black Friday traffic by intent, matching the message to how far each visitor got. An add-to-cart or checkout start is a different signal than a three-second video view, so give high-intent visitors direct offer and urgency messaging, and give lower-intent visitors the education and proof that answers why-buy before pushing the discount.
Lower-intent visitors may still need product education, reviews, user-generated content, founder content, comparisons, FAQs, press, and ingredient information. Because shoppers research more before holiday purchases, retargeting is where your brand answers the questions still blocking the sale.
What should CPG brands do after Cyber Monday?
CPG brands should move new BFCM customers straight into a retention program the moment the promotion ends, because for consumable products the second and third orders decide whether discounted acquisition was profitable. Design post-purchase education, replenishment reminders, cross-sells, subscription offers, loyalty, referrals, and category education before Black Friday begins, not after.
A customer who bought once at 25% off is far less valuable than one who buys five more times at full margin. Black Friday acquisition should feed the retention engine, not stand alone as a discounted spike.
Which Black Friday metrics should CPG brands measure?
CPG brands should measure Black Friday by contribution margin and customer economics, not revenue alone, because a record sales day funded by deep discounts and one-time buyers can still lose money. A few working definitions: contribution margin is revenue left after variable costs such as product cost, discounts, fulfillment, payment fees, and shipping subsidies; CAC (customer acquisition cost) is acquisition spend divided by new customers acquired; AOV (average order value) is revenue divided by orders.
Track a day-of set and a 60 to 90 day set so acquisition quality is visible, not just volume:
| Day-of metrics | 60 to 90 day metrics |
|---|---|
| Revenue and conversion rate | Repeat purchase rate |
| Average order value | Returning-customer revenue |
| New-customer CAC | Subscription retention |
| Discount rate and shipping subsidy | Second-order contribution |
| Paid media efficiency | 90-day customer contribution |
| Email and SMS revenue, refund rate | Subscription starts that survive |
Shopify reported an average cart price of $114.70 across its merchants in 2025 (Shopify, 2025). The goal is not beating that number; it is understanding your own economics before, during, and after the promotion.
The Liquid Lemon BFCM Customer Economics Test
Before approving any Black Friday offer, run it through four questions. Do not approve the promotion until you can model all four.
- Cart. Does the offer increase average order value?
- Contribution. Is the first order profitable, or is it intentionally subsidized?
- Retention. What share of first-time BFCM customers should buy again within 60 to 90 days?
- Channel. Does the DTC promotion preserve retailer and wholesale economics?
Two formulas make the test concrete:
- First-order contribution = net revenue minus COGS minus fulfillment minus shipping subsidy minus payment fees minus acquisition cost.
- 90-day customer contribution = first-order contribution plus the contribution from repeat orders within 90 days.
Modeled this way, a 20% bundle at a higher AOV can produce a healthier customer than a 40% sitewide discount on a single unit, even though the sitewide discount looks more aggressive in the ad. The discount that wins is the one that acquires a customer you can profitably keep.
Protect your retail channel. If your brand also sits in grocery, on Amazon, or in specialty retail, an aggressive DTC discount can undercut the partners carrying your product. Decide in advance how deep you can go on DTC, and consider DTC-exclusive bundles that do not exist at retail rather than beating the shelf price.
Black Friday is a stress test for your ecommerce operation
Demand is not the problem. The National Retail Federation reported a record 202.9 million consumers shopping Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday in 2025, with 134.9 million buying online (National Retail Federation, 2025). Capturing that demand profitably is the challenge.
For CPG brands, Black Friday performance is rarely decided by one email, one Meta campaign, or one discount. It is the whole system working together: offer, creative, storefront, paid media, email, SMS, and retention. When those pieces align, BFCM introduces thousands of customers you can keep. When they do not, it becomes an expensive weekend of discounts and inflated acquisition cost.
Build the full ecommerce engine for growth
Liquid Lemon helps consumer brands grow across the entire ecommerce funnel. We combine custom Shopify design and development with paid media, creative, conversion optimization, landing pages, email, SMS, and retention, so the ad, the landing experience, the offer, the storefront, and the follow-up are built to work together from the first impression through the first purchase and into the next one.
Whether you are preparing for Black Friday, launching a product, rebuilding your Shopify store, or looking for a partner to run the full funnel, we can help you build and scale it. Ready to grow? Get in touch with Liquid Lemon.
