The Most Creative Black Friday Campaigns - in eCommerce

BFCM is an indefinable emotion across customer segments. 

And as an eCommerce business, it’s your chance to shine a light on it while you tune your marketing strategy to tune in. 

In this piece, we bring you some heavy-duty inspiration in terms of BFCM campaigns. They’ve all brought great conversions, not because of deep discounts but because of ideas that plug into shopper psychology. 

So without further ado, let’s dive in. 

BFCM Campaign Ideas for eCommerce Stores

1. Layer your ads with “priority access”

2. Trigger BFCM buying intent through your current sale

3. Get your wishlists to do the smart work

4. Educate to convert during Black Friday

5. Get shoppers to convert and contribute

6. Get select categories to shine

7. Tap into “the gifting mindset”

8. Treat loyalty members like royalty

9. Reward higher spending like you mean it

10. Stack up the benefits!

11. Set the stage for virality

12. Tell a great cross-channel story

13. Drive repeat buys with gift cards

14. Drive engagement with “Days of Deals”

15. Let ‘em #UnwrapThe Deals

16. Turn November into “Slowvember”

17. Make it the “Only Sale of the Year”

18. Let a film drive the brand forward

19. Bring mystery into your BFCM campaign strategy

20. Opt out of Black Friday

1. Layer your ads with “priority access”

They say a captive audience is the best when it comes to BFCM. 

We would’ve heartily agreed if we hadn’t come across what cycle & cycle accessories brand Rapha did.

But Rapha proves it wrong in this Black Friday Cyber Monday campaign which they ran across Instagram, serving ads to those who’d browsed similar brands or even visited Rapha’s site or pages.

Lessons from Rapha’s BFCM campaign:

👉 Don’t treat BFCM as a standalone weekend sale event — use it as fuel to grow your email list (without appearing pushy!)

👉 Segment for your Instagram BFCM ads like a killing machine — Rapha showed this ad to audiences and lookalike audiences who may either be interested in the brand or in Rapha Cycling Club, a community the brand has managed to drive, bringing cyclists from all around the world together. 

To segment better, choose people who:

• Visited product pages in the last 60 days.
• Engaged heavily with Instagram content (saved, commented, shared).

2. Trigger BFCM buying intent through your current sale

A frequent complaint we hear from eCommerce leaders is that repeated sale shoppers seem to be reducing. 

Now, while it’s a very valid occurrence, it’s worthwhile to go behind the scenes and see why. 

eCommerce sales can come across as being pushy & interfering — even for the deal hunter who wants to sniff out the best discounts.

So what Monsoon is doing for its BFCM 2025 sale is really noteworthy: they’re using their summer sale event to nudge traffic towards the Black Friday sale that’s coming up in November.

Lessons from Monsoon’s eCommerce Black Friday campaign:

👉 Prime first-time visitors for Black Friday > prime them around the year — and the reason is simple: this is an event where even shoppers at the top of the funnel are keener to buy!

👉 Create a hero header that’s non-salesy — in Monsoon’s hero image, visitors first get to see the copy: “You’re a little early - Be the first to hear about our Black Friday offers” before they see the countdown timer and the CTAs leading to the summer sale. This naturally creates a soft landing for shoppers who’re comparing or aren’t even aware of the brand. 

Further Reading: 26 Brilliant Ways To Boost eCommerce Repeat Sales

3. Get your wishlists to do the smart work

You’ll hear a lot of advice around inventory planning and smart targeting when it comes to the Black Friday weekend event. 

And this campaign strategy is directly in line with the above — because when a brand initiates wishlist sign-ups way before the event, it gauges demand and helps stock-ups based on real-time interest.

Something that Wolf & Badger decided to max out on during Black Friday Cyber Monday 2024. They tied wishlisting with price drops, maximizing the micro-conversions & also driving more chances of conversions.

Lessons from Wolf & Badger’s BFCM marketing strategy:

👉 Create a personalized wishlisting experience — Wolf & Badger knew shoppers would respond more vigorously on restocks & price drops on items they’ve personally “saved” (instead of generic restocks & discounts).

👉 Promote account creation subtly — the “Go to my account” CTA creates instant ownership for the most high intent shoppers, thinking in time about the best deals they can get their hands on!

Further Reading: The Most Powerful CTA Phrases in eCommerce

4. Educate to convert during Black Friday

By now, in the fitness niche, it’s common enough knowledge about how Gymshark holds these “up to 70% off sale” events for BFCM year on year. 

And what that means for the sake of this post is that this strategy doesn’t belong to a single specific year. 

But the fact that the fitness brand takes an educational / informational approach to their BFCM eCommerce sales can be inspiring enough. 

For one, they tie up with really “influential” influencers (like in the following YouTube video, Brittany Lupton “taps” into her fan base to promote her “all time favourites” from the brand. The video is almost half an hour long and extremely detailed):

Then there’s the brand’s steady attempts at SEO, which ensure the most high intent & quality organic traffic enters the store — and finds what they’re looking for. To make this possible, they’ve created a standalone, knowledge-rich BFCM page which features info on size guides, payment methods and much more:

Lessons from Gymshark’s BFCM weekend strategy:

👉 Address FAQs like your sale’s success depends on it — this is a big one that many eCommerce brands overlook even what they have on is a great discount or a superb return policy (Gymshark, for example, already has an FAQ page live for their 2025 sale so that high intent shoppers can be wheeled in early on.)

👉 Identify the “right” topics to spread the word — apart from offering basic educational guidance, the brand also ensures influencers and affiliates build around topics that eventually bank on social proof. Their long form content creation offers shoppers enough justification to put their money into certain products & categories over others. 

Further Reading: 34 Black Friday Marketing Ideas For 2025 (eCommerce)

5. Get shoppers to convert and contribute

Anyone who talks about how crowded the BFCM weekend gets in terms of sale “noise” ought to see what Finisterre does (and copy that as well if their bottom line allows). 

The sustainable outdoor wear brand thrives on transparency for year-long conversions — and to amplify their vision (as well as the next cycle of conversions), they turn Black Friday “Blue”. 

They match each purchase with a donation, and since this is highly compelling for shoppers who want to “do something different” over that weekend, conversions naturally happen:

Lessons from Finisterre’s eCommerce Black Friday campaign:

👉 Spread the word across high intent platforms — to think about it, Finisterre could’ve just stopped short at talking about Blue Friday” on more visual platforms like Instagram & TikTok, but they make sure to talk about their impact on a platform like LinkedIn as well, which is inhabited by a more serious audience that’ll “mark” the brand as a choice:

👉 Get your campaign-specific on-site UX right — it’s tempting to think shoppers will be blown away by how you line up various “causes” on the product page (and / cart) but the truth is, many of them will donate only if they’re fully sure of the impact you’re attempting to create. To get this right, Finisterre includes archival content on the impact they’ve created through Blue Friday across the years. 

6. Get select categories to shine

Let’s get this straight: lots of eCommerce businesses try out the scarcity tactic for & during the BFCM eCommerce sales weekend. But only a few brands get to really convert shoppers through this Black Friday marketing strategy. 

Third party aggregate giant Wayfair is one of them. They select high-converting categories to push flash deals across, like in the following example. Now, if you look carefully, why this really works is because some of these categories are otherwise super expensive — and deep discounts allow more shoppers to add more to their cart at one go:

Lessons from Wayfair’s BFCM weekend sales strategy:

👉 Narrow “24 hour flash deal” timeframes — when the brand doesn’t work on a longer flash sale (like the above) on limited quantities, it takes the refreshing strategy of 24 hour flash deals, which make high intent shoppers come back if they don’t find what they wanted on a specific day.

👉 Early access communication as “app exclusives” & for loyalty members — the brand offers early access to deals through its mobile app ahead of the broader public sale at least 48 hours earlier. They also give Wayfair Rewards members access to exclusive bonuses on top of flash deals.

Further Reading: Build high-converting category pages (13 ideas + great examples)

7. Tap into “the gifting mindset”

If you want to drive conversions through the gifting sentiment before and during BFCM 2025, you’ll have to be super tactical about how you feature tiered discounts. 

At least that’s what Japanese skincare brand Tatcha does, to much success. 

As a result of the above, the brand has seen more repeat visitors, many of whom find greater joy in not knowing what these “gifts” will be. In 2023, for example, the brand ran a tiered gift structure of 2 mystery gifts if someone shopped for $100 and 4 mystery gifts if someone shopped for $400. 

Lessons from Tatcha’s BFCM marketing strategy:

👉 Don’t just tier, gamify based on shopper psyche — for example, if you’ve been declaring mystery gifts with different thresholds, maybe up the stakes with differing mystery gift sizes for each threshold (something like: Spend $75 → get a mini mystery gift AND Spend $150 → get a full-size mystery gift). This can be a sure shot way to have more shoppers touch the higher threshold.

👉 Protect margins with perceived value over deep discounting — after all, customers perceive bonus items as added luxury, while your core products maintain their full-price prestige positioning.

8. Treat loyalty members like royalty

Many eCommerce brands we’ve audited and worked with have had the common complaint that their loyalty program doesn’t pay off as much. 

What is fundamentally perhaps the question is: how is the program being used in the favor of a huge public sale like BFCM?

Which brings us to campaigns Nike has done from time to time, declaring member-exclusive discounts on select categories & products:

Lessons from this high-converting Black Friday campaign:

👉 Differentiate “member-exclusive” offers clearly — the idea is to remember that the most loyal shoppers are only partially chasing discounted prices; they’re more after the experience, which may include (like in Nike’s case) special collections—like limited-edition colors or early-release styles—for members only. These “member products” show up only when logged in.

👉 Drive the campaign in a platform-specific way — Nike, for example, doesn’t drive member-exclusive advantages across all platforms. They feature these “early access” benefits only for NikePlus loyalty program members and those who’ve signed up on the Nike app. 

Further Reading: 14 eCommerce Loyalty Programs Backed By Science (Examples)

9. Reward higher spending like you mean it

Discounts stacking up is often the reason why many shoppers look at buying only during the BFCM weekend sale. 

And eyewear brand Warby Parker knows this really well — which is why every year, they drive the “Add a pair and save” campaign across their online store and socials. 

Now why this works is the veritable ease of use — not just in terms of how the discount applies (for every 2 pairs, it’s a 15% off), but also how the brand puts up a landing page that clearly explains the ins and outs of the process:

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Lessons from Warby Parker’s Black Friday weekend shopping strategy:

👉 Use value-add discounts instead of blanket markdowns — Warby Parker, for example, doesn’t slash prices across the entire catalog — instead they reward customers for buying more. So the lesson here is to tie discounts to behaviors that grow your bottom line—like bundling, multi-item purchases, or upsells.

👉 Set up a dedicated BFCM landing page — not only does this help SEO matters leading up to the BFCM sale, it also lets online journals and magazines pick up your offers to feature in their BFCM sale lists - like this one does for Warby Parker:

10. Stack up the benefits!

So far we’ve just been touching upon discounts, offers and the like in separate, siloed ways across brands. 

But a Black Friday campaign run by United Colors of Benetton made the good choice of bringing it all together — winning shoppers with “overall value” instead of “steep discounts”.

Apart from a 30% off, this campaign included a free shipping threshold as well as free & extended returns:

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Lessons from UCB’s eCommerce Black Friday campaign:

👉 Create a BFCM “experience” around a discount deal — while a 30% or 50% discount is great during BFCM, too many brands are doing it anyway. So, to cut out that noise, UCB powers up that condition with other friendly conditions like free shipping & extended returns. 

👉 Extend campaign longevity to avoid return spikes — stretching extended returns well past BFCM (into December or early January) gives buyers time and flexibility.

11. Set the stage for virality

Now while we realize that this isn’t a Black Friday sales strategy that many eCommerce brands would be able to apply, we love it. 

And we love it because it packed in the punch in more ways than one: 1) created a frenzy of engagement amongst Boohoo’s Instagram followers 2) nudged more followers to share thanks to the nature of the prize and 3) made it super easy to enter the contest:

Lessons from Boohoo’s BFCM marketing strategy:

👉 Amplify shopper memory in your brand’s favor — after all, eCommerce sales don’t stop with BFCM in a specific year, and the idea is to keep your brand coming up in shopper memory again and again!

👉 Tie the giveaway to owned channels — by requiring signup (and possibly app downloads or subscribing to email), you strengthen your marketing funnel and create multiple touchpoints leading up to and after BFCM.

Further Reading: 36 Powerful Instagram Strategies to Drive eCommerce Sales (+Tips & Trends)

12. Tell a great cross-channel story

During BFCM, sales noise is so high that channel-only messaging can get lost rather quickly. 

And this is what skincare brand Blume decided to fight with their consistent messaging of “Buy 2 Get 1 Free Sale”. 

The following is a snapshot of the email, which tones out the language differently, speaking in a more personalized way to the subscriber base. 

But the brand drove messaging on the same lines across other channels too, including Instagram and their own website:

Lessons from Blume's Black Friday campaign strategy:

👉 Avoid campaign fatigue with an early launch — if you’re launching your campaign just when every other eCommerce brand also is, you have a higher chance of missing out on quality attention. 

👉 Build anticipation weeks in advance — segmentation-based teasers, early access for email subscribers, and sneak peeks can build buzz and funnel engaged customers into the main event.

Further Reading: eCommerce Multichannel Selling: Expert Advice From Business Leaders

13. Drive repeat buys with gift cards

For the longest time, when it came to waiting for eCommerce BFCM, Apple enthusiasts would wait for special offers to be declared by conglomerates like Amazon and Best Buy. 

However, for BFCM 2023, for example, Apple declared a day of purchases where gift cards would be given away with buys of certain thresholds. 

For example, they gave away a $75 card for purchases of iPhone SE, 13 and 14. 

On the other hand, with the purchase of a MacBook Air or Mini, they gave away $200 gift cards. 

The following image links back to a similar campaign Apple ran in 2017:

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Lessons from Apple’s BFCM marketing strategy:

👉 A tight shopping window to trigger urgency — Apple combines this with the powerful element of exclusivity, since not all shoppers across segments can really afford an Apple product. 

👉 Preserve brand value with future-oriented perks — while discounts are gone with a BFCM weekend sale event, gift cards ensure someone still uses it beyond the event to buy, improving brand recall & loyalty.

14. Drive engagement with “Days of Deals”

While Black Friday Cyber Monday is technically a great time to sell, the truth is that many campaigns see abysmally low open & click-through rates. 

And why not? Shoppers across the conversion funnel are exhausted of being targeted and start experiencing BFCM fatigue.

Something that beauty brand Laneige understood well, and launched an SMS campaign for subscribers where each day, there would be a new deal to explore and avail. 

Given that, SMS marketing can potentially bring in 2000% ROI during Black Friday, this was indeed a great move:

Lessons from Laneige’s high-converting Black Friday campaign:

👉 Time your messages smartly — begin 1 to 2 weeks before BFCM weekend begins so that you can also roll out countdown timers just in time.

👉 Tailor SMS based on customer segments — craft the language differently depending on whether you’re targeting VIPs, browse abandoners or new subscribers.

15. Let ‘em #UnwrapThe Deals

In 2020, when most brands were focused on creating “super sales”, Walmart decided to veer away from the usual. 

So instead, they came up with a TikTok-specific filter called #UnwrapTheDeals just for Black Friday campaigning.

The shoppable in-video sticker made sure if an interested shopper clicked on it, they would go straight to Walmart’s online store. 

The eCommerce giant also hired top creators on TikTok to trigger more UGC around the deals, the most notable among them being Zach King.

Lessons from this eCommerce Black Friday campaign:

👉 Make experiences shareable — the idea is to turn static products or discounts into “talking points” that other shoppers will be wowed by, increasing their chances of converting as well.

👉 Optimize for shopping within the platform — using the UGC content for shoppers to land straight into your store is the shortest way of ensuring their explore or buy. 

Further Reading: 27 Brilliant User-Generated Content Examples (eCommerce)

16. Turn November into “Slowvember”

We’ve already talked about how BFCM eCommerce sales fatigue becomes real every November. 

And eCommerce parent company Deciem (owning famous skincare brands like The Ordinary) has, for a while, gone in the opposite direction. 

Every year, they announce their Slowvember sale, so that shoppers actually have the time to make mindful purchases. 

Lessons from Deciem’s BFCM marketing strategy:

👉 Maintain a separate landing page on the event — Deciem does this through a link on Deciem Chat Room, even maintaining archives of previous year’s BFCM sales and what offers were featured.

👉 Trigger pop-ups that actually lead shoppers towards the event — Deciem, for example, features gift cards that interested shoppers can avail during Slowvember. 

17. Make it the “Only Sale of the Year” (Glossier)

In an eCommerce landscape where almost every brand hosts sale events across the year, including big anniversary discounts, Glossier keeps mum through it all. 

The skincare & makeup brand has now earned its rightful place among Black Friday campaign strategies, because they go on sale only at this time of the year. 

So though the % discount is around 25% (and on the lower front), Glossier enthusiasts love it. 

More shoppers across the internet also hear about it because of popular websites like Yahoo releasing comprehensive lists like the following:

Lessons from Glossier’s eCommerce Black Friday campaign:

👉 Use auto-applied offers — Glossier, for example, features  sitewide 25% off and takes 30% off when someone purchases worth at least $100, and these conditions are mentioned upfront, requiring no use of a code.

👉 A reliable and repeated sale window — this builds shopper anticipation and when it’s scarce, increases the urgency to shop as well. 

Further Reading: 43 Insanely Powerful Online Promotion Ideas For eCommerce

18. Let a film drive the brand forward

The reason we’ve kept this towards the end of the list is because not many eComm brands have the budget for a film. 

Although, video content isn’t the only way to tell a great story — more on that here. 

Having said that, unisex jewelry brand TwoJeys produced a path-breaking BFCM film in 2020 about a casino heist and we love it. The 5:40 duration film was able to garner 5000+ orders within the first 24 hours of its release and garnered 5 million Instagram views.

Lessons from TwoJeys’ high-converting Black Friday campaign:

👉 Cut through the BFCM noise with a story — shoppers after all are done with discounts in some part of their psyche, and a good story can reinstate interest very quickly, especially in a niche like jewelry.

👉 Combine product and narrative to avoid seeming salesy - shoppers know heavy-handed promotions when they see them, and many can be put off by it.

Further Reading: eCommerce Video Marketing Ideas That Actually Improve Sales

19. Bring mystery into your BFCM campaign strategy (Art of Play)

Whether shoppers are buying for themselves or gifting someone, surprises elevate the experience. 

During peak BFCM shopping season, this can also be a “refresh” over the usual discounting & surplus sales. 

Something that card deck brand Art of Play leveraged with their limited time mystery collection deck:

Lessons from Art of Play’s BFCM marketing strategy:

👉 Combine mystery with exclusivity and scarcity — in fact, this is the crux of why Art of Play’s BFCM campaign was such a success among shoppers old and new.

👉 Feature elements that shoppers wouldn’t otherwise get — this is an important aspect of building customer trust in a strategy like this, building interest at this key time, year on year (Art of Play, for example, features designs that 

20. Opt out of Black Friday

Way back in 2015, when the eCommerce madness of shopping for Black Friday and Thanksgiving was just picking up, REI decided to run with their “Opt Outside” campaign. 

The idea was to sell nothing and instead, to divert people’s attention to the outdoors where they could go instead of queueing up across shopping lines. 

The result was immediate. More than 1.4 million people followed the beat along with more than 170 outdoor companies and not-for-profit organizations. 

Lessons from REI’s eCommerce Black Friday campaign:

👉 Create a values-led stance to cut through clutter — REI reminds every other eCommerce brand that discounts aren’t always the best weapon. 

👉 Compete, yes, but through differentiation — since price ceases to be a great differentiator across eCommerce BFCM campaigns, creating a brand-led differentiator and leaning into it with your marketing material can be the long-term answer.

BFCM Questions eCommerce Businesses Ask:

1. How to plan a strong BFCM campaign?

The days running up to Black Friday Cyber Monday are critical as far as engagement & conversion strategy goes. Here are the most critical checkpoints you’ll have to cover to get the sales ringing during Black Friday weekend. 

Warm up audiences with the goal to create buying intent

This will require you to run lead-gen campaigns for email and SMS opt-ins based on customer journey. Segment shoppers through hooks like “priority access,” “VIP early entry,” and “BFCM waitlist.” You’ll also need to set up BFCM-specific quizzes as well as social media giveaways to create a larger captive audience to target for the main event. 

Define campaign objectives based on business goals

Is your goal to acquire new customers, liquidate inventory, or increase retention/LTV? Based on this, look at your best selling products and slow movers. It’s always a better idea to place a lesser discount on bestsellers (so that your margins improve) compared to slow moving inventory, for example. Look at metrics like AOV and CAC in relation to each other so that you don’t end up featuring unprofitable offers during the BFCM weekend.

Plan a multi-channel campaign rollout

And you’d want to do this lesser dependence on paid channels. So, focus on setting up effective email & SMS flows and creating hype through community groups on platforms like Facebook, Reddit and Discord. Having said that, your retargeting campaigns will be equally important, but lead them with precise data on your most high intent audiences. 

Stress-test operations & post-sale strategy

Look at how your site loads on desktop and mobile. Also focus on inventory and the messaging you plan to create across products & categories. Prep customer support through a better functioning live chat and more human support as the BFCM weekend approaches. Run a check on refund and return policies and finally, plan for email & SMS flows that you’ll send out as a follow-up to BFCM sales. 

2. Which strategies work really well for BFCM email marketing?

The fact that email fetches an incomparable ROI has got to be THE reason why it should feature in your BFCM campaign mix. However, the time leading up to it or the time around the main weekend isn’t for generic emails. By working on Engage, here are the strategies we’ve discovered to be most useful:

👉 Lead with early access & VIP sequences: Remember, a strong, captive audience is already present in your most loyal customers & subscribers (those who show high engagement). So show them emails leading with messaging like “VIPs only: shop before the rush”.

👉 Feature tiered discounts for a win-win experience: The idea is for you to achieve a higher AOV while your shoppers feel like they’re getting a great deal. So, if you’ve declared a sitewide tiered discount, bring that into email as well. This is, however, also a great time to declare email-only discounts. So, in your email flows, show bundles and cart examples that help customers hit the next tier. 

👉 Lean into time-boxed urgency: Work with segmenting the micro-windows because not all segments will respond to the same timelines. For example, if you’re giving VIPs a 12-hour headstart, offer cart abandoners messaging like “Your reserved cart expires in 3 hours.”

👉 Get your customer segmentation game strong: First things first, you’ll have to get to who’re likely to spend the most during the time leading up to the weekend and the main weekend event itself. We’ve noticed that repeat purchasers, loyalty members, first-time visitors and category-based shoppers all make a beeline. The next thing to do is to stack segmentation up — combine purchase history, engagement and geography to get it right.

👉 Take a mobile-first approach: And this won’t just be about a single-column layout or larger CTA buttons. You’ll have to especially look at optimizing elements like the preheader text and treating it as a capable secondary hook to aim at more email opens & clickthroughs. Similarly, also look into where shoppers land when they click on a CTA — ideally it should be a smooth mobile checkout flow, and not a homepage or product page. 

3. What are the ways to ensure your BFCM messaging strategy stays powerful?

While offers and visuals lead the way for most BFCM campaigns, the way you maintain messaging across platforms has a direct impact on their success. Here are three critical things to remember when it comes to Black Friday messaging that goes along with campaigns.

Differentiate messaging while personalizing discounts

This holds true even if you’re driving a sitewide discount but want to reach out to every segment with messaging that’s more likely to lead them into action. So messaging like “Because you bought sneakers last month—get 30% off running gear” has chances of being taken more seriously than a more generic “Get 30% off on 1000s of your favorite styles.”

Don’t let urgency erase personality

We get it that the countdown timer is the main point of gamification in your Black Friday weekend campaign. But because shoppers are likely to see a lot of campaigns with similar elements, you’ll have to bring in your brand voice clearly. This includes how you write your subject lines, landing pages and even special sections on product pages dedicated to BFCM. 

Rotate your urgency messaging 

As much as urgency can be the way to get shoppers to act before & during BFCM, how you position it through messaging can make it or break it. The ideal way is to layer urgency into your social proof (“This deal is trending—shop before it’s gone”), early access (“Yours first: 24 hours ahead of the crowd”) and even member exclusivity (“VIPs only: secret midnight drop for 2 hours only!”)

Lead BFCM campaigns with winning UX

98% of visitors who visit an eCommerce site—drop off without buying anything.

Even when BFCM campaigns do a great job across platforms and channels.

Why: user experience issues that cause friction for visitors.

And this is the problem Convertcart solves.

We've helped 500+ eCommerce stores (in the US) improve user experience—and 2X their conversions.

How we can help you:

Our conversion experts can audit your site—identify UX issues, and suggest changes to improve conversions.