Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November 2026, and Cyber Monday on 30 November. For many Shopify stores, those four days are the busiest of the year, and the least forgiving of a slow page, a broken discount or a sold-out bestseller.
The work that decides how that weekend goes happens in October. This checklist covers what to fix, test and set up now, in the order we'd work through it on a client's store, so yours is ready long before the traffic arrives.
Key dates for BFCM 2026
Work back from the weekend. Leave time to test everything and to fix what the tests find.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| October | Speed, apps and checkout fixes. Plan offers and stock. |
| 1–13 November | Set up discounts, emails and alerts. Test every one. |
| 14–26 November | Change freeze. Only urgent fixes go live. |
| 27–30 November | BFCM weekend. Watch orders, stock and support. |
| December | Restock alerts, follow-up emails and a review of what worked. |
1. Speed up your store before traffic peaks
Many BFCM shoppers arrive on a phone, often from an ad or an email, and a slow first page can cost you the visit before they see a single offer. Start with how your store performs for real visitors, not just on your own fast connection.
- Check Core Web Vitals. The web performance report in your Shopify admin shows how fast your store loads for real visitors. Google's PageSpeed Insights shows data from real Chrome users where a page has enough traffic, plus a list of what slows it down.
- Remove leftover app code. Apps you uninstalled can leave scripts and snippets in your theme. Remove them, and uninstall apps you no longer use.
- Resize heavy images and videos. Large hero images and autoplay videos are a common reason a home page loads slowly on mobile.
- Question every third-party script. Chat widgets, popups, trackers and review widgets all add weight. Keep the ones that earn their place.
If you'd rather hand this to a developer, our Shopify speed optimization and maintenance service covers Core Web Vitals checks, image and script optimization and app clean-up.
2. Test your checkout end to end
A checkout problem during BFCM costs you orders you already won. Test it the way your customers will use it.
- Turn on test mode in Shopify Payments, or use Shopify's Bogus Gateway, and place test orders.
- Test on a phone and on a desktop, as a guest and as a logged-in customer.
- Try every discount code and automatic discount you plan to run.
- Check shipping rates for each zone you ship to, including your free-shipping threshold.
- Check that every payment method you offer appears when it should.
- Read the order confirmation and shipping emails as a customer would.
If your checkout uses rules, such as hiding cash on delivery above a certain order total, test those too. Checkout Engine, our checkout rules app, lets you hide, rename and reorder payment and delivery methods by conditions like the order total, all built on Shopify Functions.
Tip: test your offers before they start. A discount scheduled for Black Friday can't be tried at checkout until it's active. Create a test version of each offer as a discount code, try it in checkout, then delete it.
3. Plan discounts that protect your margin
Decide your offers before you build them. A clear plan avoids the two classic BFCM mistakes: discounts that stack in ways you didn't expect, and offers so deep they wipe out the profit on each order.
- Pick the offer type. Automatic discounts apply without a code and remove friction. Codes work better for email and influencer campaigns you want to track.
- Check how discounts combine. In Shopify, each discount has settings that control whether it can combine with product, order and shipping discounts. Check them for every offer you run at the same time.
- Set start and end dates. Schedule each discount so it starts and ends on time, even if nobody is at a desk.
- Reward bigger baskets. Tiered offers such as "spend more, save more" and a free-shipping threshold raise order value instead of only cutting price.
4. Get stock and restock alerts ready
Bestsellers can sell out faster than usual. Plan for it rather than losing those shoppers to a grayed-out "Sold out" button.
- Order stock for your bestsellers early, based on last year's sales and what shoppers are saving and asking about now.
- Add a Notify me button to sold-out products, so shoppers can leave their email instead of leaving your store.
- Send restock emails automatically the moment inventory returns, while shoppers still want the product.
- Use low-stock alerts honestly. A real "only a few left" message creates urgency; a fake one damages trust.
Back In Stock! Alert Engine, our restock alert app, adds a Notify me button to sold-out products and emails shoppers automatically when stock returns. It has a free plan with 50 email alerts.
5. Use wishlists to build demand before the sale
In the weeks before Black Friday, many shoppers browse and save products they plan to buy once prices drop. A wishlist captures that intent and gives you a way to act on it.
- Price-drop alerts tell shoppers the moment a saved product goes on sale, which is exactly when BFCM prices go live.
- Wishlist insights show which products are saved most, so you know which ones to feature in your offers and to have in stock.
- Shared wishlists make gift shopping easier during the holiday season.
SE Wishlist Engine is our Built for Shopify wishlist app. It has a free plan, and its Advanced and Premium plans add price-drop, restock and low-stock alerts.
6. Freeze changes and keep a backup
The week before Black Friday is the wrong time to install a new app or redesign the home page.
- Duplicate your live theme in Online Store → Themes, so you can switch back in a minute if something breaks.
- Set a change freeze from mid-November. After that date, only urgent fixes go live.
- Prepare BFCM banners in a copy of your theme, preview them, and publish the copy when the sale starts. On Shopify Plus, Launchpad can schedule theme changes and discounts for you.
- Install and test new apps early. Anything added in October has time to prove it doesn't slow your store or clash with your theme.
7. Prepare support and operations
Busy weekends expose gaps in operations as quickly as gaps in code.
- Update your shipping cut-off dates, delivery times and return policy for the holidays, and show them where shoppers look: the product page, the cart and your FAQ page.
- Decide who answers customer questions over the weekend, and prepare saved replies for the most common ones.
- Check staff accounts and app permissions, and remove access that people no longer need.
- Keep an eye on the fraud analysis Shopify shows on each order, and hold high-risk orders for review before you ship them.
- Write down the support contacts for your theme developer and your key apps.
Your BFCM checklist for Shopify
- Core Web Vitals checked on mobile; unused apps and leftover code removed.
- Checkout tested with real discounts, shipping zones and payment methods.
- Offers planned, scheduled and checked for how they combine.
- Bestsellers stocked; Notify me button and restock emails on.
- Wishlist and price-drop alerts ready for your BFCM prices.
- Live theme duplicated; change freeze from mid-November.
- Shipping cut-offs, returns and support rota published.
Want a second pair of eyes before the weekend? Book a free strategy call with a Shopify developer, or send us your requirements and we'll look at your speed, checkout and apps.
Frequently asked questions
When is BFCM 2026?
Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday is Monday 30 November 2026. Many stores run their offers across the whole weekend, and some start earlier in November.
When should I start preparing my Shopify store for Black Friday?
Start in October. That leaves time to fix speed and checkout issues, set up and test your discounts and alerts, and still freeze changes in mid-November.
Should I install new apps right before Black Friday?
It's best not to. Install and test new apps a few weeks before, so you can check their effect on speed, your theme and your checkout before traffic peaks.
How do I test my Shopify checkout before BFCM?
Place test orders with Shopify Payments in test mode or with Shopify's Bogus Gateway, on a phone and a desktop, using your real discount codes, shipping zones and payment methods. Then read the confirmation emails as a customer would.