What are some quick wins for retailers over Black Friday 2026?

If Black Friday/Cyber Monday is only a few days away and you’re just getting to your marketing plan now… you’re not alone. The good news? You don’t need a six-week build-up to make BFCM work hard for you.

Here are last-minute, high-impact tactics you can still roll out in the days ahead of BFCM, plus what to do on the day and immediately after—for the “oh wow, it’s basically tomorrow” reality.

1. Tighten your segments for hyper-relevant offers

A “blast to all customers” is noisy at the best of times—during BFCM it’s just white noise.

Instead, spend a couple of hours cleaning up your key segments so you can send fewer, more relevant campaigns in the days leading up to BFCM and on the day itself.

For example, if you’re a technology retailer, you might have segments like:

• “Photographers” – customers who most frequently buy cameras, lenses, lighting.

• “Gamers” – customers who buy consoles, headsets, gaming chairs.

• “Creators” – customers buying microphones, streaming gear, editing software.

Then, send tailored BFCM emails and SMS to each segment featuring only the products they actually care about. You can still add a “See All Deals” button at the bottom to pull them into the wider sale.

For example:

Subject: Alice, up to 60% off everything photography
Body: Feature cameras, lenses, and lighting first, then add a “See all Black Friday offers” CTA.

Even if you only refine 2–3 key segments, you’ll get more engagement than a single, generic “20% off sitewide” send.

Quick win:

Pick your 2–3 highest-value segments and give them their own tailored BFCM email + SMS. You can get this live within a day.

2. Add urgency everywhere with simple countdowns & “last chance” messaging

You might not have time for a multi-week build-up, but you do have time to build urgency.

Some big brands run full “Countdown Campaigns” with multiple pre-Black Friday sale waves. With only a few days left, you can borrow the spirit of that strategy—just in a compressed format.

Ideas you can implement fast:

• Drop a dynamic countdown block into your BFCM emails
  “Sale ends in 02:14:36” is much harder to ignore than “Sale ends soon”.

• Use countdown strips on your homepage and collection pages
  A simple banner like “Black Friday offer ends Sunday 11:59pm” keeps urgency front and center.

• Add a “wishlist” CTA
  Encourage subscribers to “save favorites before the sale ends” so they come back ready to check out.

Quick win:
Update your main BFCM emails and a site-wide banner with a clear end date and, if possible, a live countdown. This can be done in a couple of hours.

3. Lean on SMS when inboxes are overflowing

BFCM inboxes are brutal. SMS, on the other hand, still cuts through.

Brands like Scott Home Delivery use SMS as a key BFCM channel and see click rates that far outstrip typical email performance. It makes sense: messages land directly on the lock screen and are usually read within minutes.

For last-minute and on-the-day efforts, you can line up:

• “The sale is live” SMS on the morning of Black Friday

• “Last chance” SMS on the final evening

• Segmented reminders to VIPs or high-intent browsers

A simple BFCM SMS still follows the same recipe:

• One clear offer (e.g. “Black Friday: 40% off storewide”)

• Clear urgency (“Ends midnight tonight”)

• A short link straight to your sale

• Opt-out instructions (always)

For example:

Black Friday is here! 40% off storewide until midnight. Shop now: [short link]
Reply STOP to opt out.

You can also personalize with merge tags—first name, loyalty points balance, or VIP status—to make it feel more like a one-to-one message.

Quick win:
Set up 2–3 SMS sends right now: “Sale live”, “Weekend reminder”, and “Final hours”. Schedule them across Black Friday and Cyber Monday for maximum impact.

4. Send smart product recommendations with a flexible discount code

No time to curate the perfect “handpicked” sale collection? Let your data do the work.

Instead of discounting specific products only, create:

• A simple discount code (e.g. BFCM20, CYBER25)

• An email featuring product recommendations tailored to each customer

Marsello’s product recommendation engine uses customer purchase behaviour to predict which products they’re most likely to buy next—similar to Amazon’s “You might also like”. You drag-and-drop a product recommendation block into your BFCM email, attach a universal discount code, and you’re good to go.

You might:

• Send “Recommended for you” BFCM emails 1–2 days before the sale.

• Follow up during the weekend with “Still thinking it over?” emails highlighting a few more products plus the same code.

• Use the same recommendation block in post-BFCM winback campaigns.

Quick win:
Create one discount code and one email template. Swap in a product recommendation block and hit your whole database—everyone sees something different, but setup time stays low.

5. Treat your VIPs like VIPs (even if it’s last-minute)

Your best customers are the ones most likely to buy from you during BFCM and come back again in January. They deserve something a little extra.

Rubber Monkey does this well by sending their email subscribers an extra $10 voucher to stack on top of their Black Friday purchases. It’s a small gesture, but it reinforces the feeling of “you’re part of our inner circle”.

You can do something similar with almost no lead time:

• Identify your VIP segment (e.g. highest lifetime spend, most frequent purchasers, or loyalty tier).

• Send them a bonus voucher to use during your BFCM sale:

  • “Here’s an extra $10 off on top of all Black Friday deals.”

  • “VIPs get early access to Cyber Monday—start shopping from 6am.”

• Add a short, personal-sounding message from the founder or team.

This doesn’t need its own landing page. You can simply honour the voucher at checkout in-store and online.

Quick win:
Pull your VIP list, create a standalone voucher code just for them, and send a simple one-off email + SMS. This can be done in an afternoon.

6. Tune your Abandoned Cart automations for BFCM

If there’s one automation you can’t skip on Black Friday, it’s Abandoned Cart.

Brands like Ozzie Collectables run a three-email Abandoned Cart sequence that consistently converts a big slice of would-be lost revenue—and their automated flows make up a significant chunk of total sales overall.

In the last few days before BFCM (and on the weekend itself), you don’t need to build new flows from scratch. Just:

• Shorten the delay
  For a one-day sale, try sending the first reminder after about an hour rather than 24 hours.

• Tweak your subject lines
  “You left something behind” becomes “Black Friday deal still waiting in your cart”.

• Highlight urgency and stock
  Mention “limited stock” or “sale ends tonight” if it’s true.

• Add your BFCM offer clearly
  If you’re running a storewide discount, repeat it here so customers don’t second-guess it at checkout.

Marsello has pre-built Abandoned Cart templates you can quickly customize. Even small changes (like timing and subject lines) can make a big difference when traffic spikes.

Quick win:
Edit your existing Abandoned Cart flow with BFCM-specific copy and shorter delays. Test it by abandoning a cart yourself before the big weekend.

7. Use BFCM traffic to build your customer database (not just your sales)

Think beyond the weekend. Every BFCM shopper—especially first-timers—is a chance to grow your long-term customer base.

If you do nothing else in the lead-up, make sure you can capture customer details across every channel:

• • In-store – train staff to enroll customers in your loyalty program at checkout.
    
    

• Online – use pop-ups and checkout opt-ins to capture email and SMS consent.

• Everywhere – offer clear benefits for joining: points, member-only offers, early access to future launches.

The reality is that a small group of customers will drive most of your profits over time. The heavy BFCM traffic is your chance to bring more people into that core group—not just to discount heavily for one weekend.

Quick win:
Review your sign-up touchpoints (online and in-store) and make sure your loyalty enrollment and marketing opt-in are front and center before the weekend hits.

8. After BFCM: turn deal-hunters into brand loyalists

Once the dust settles, the work isn’t over. Those new customers you just acquired are warm—but they won’t stay that way forever.

In the days and weeks after BFCM:

• Send a “thank you” campaign
  Highlight that their purchase isn’t just a deal; it’s the start of a relationship. Offer bonus points or a small perk for their next visit.

• Show them what it means to be part of your brand
  Share your story, values, or community initiatives, not just more discounts.

• Use segmentation + product recommendations
  Follow up based on what they bought: accessories for cameras, refills for skincare, complementary items for homeware.

• Invite them to your loyalty program (if they didn’t enroll at checkout)
  Make it easy to join and clearly explain the ongoing benefits.

This is where that larger customer database pays off. Instead of treating BFCM as a one-off spike, you turn it into a springboard for long-term retention.

Quick win:
Draft a simple “Thanks for shopping with us over Black Friday” email that includes:

1) a warm 'thank you' message from a founder of one of your team members, 2) how to earn/redeem loyalty rewards, and 3) a gentle nudge toward their next purchase.

Bringing it all together

Even if you’re only a few days out from Black Friday/Cyber Monday, you still have time to:

• Sharpen your segments

• Add urgency with countdowns and “last chance” messaging

• Lean on SMS to cut through the noise

• Use product recommendations plus a simple discount code

• Give VIPs something extra

• Tune your Abandoned Cart flows

• Capture more customer data

• Follow up post-BFCM to keep new shoppers coming back

Pick 3–4 of these quick wins, ship them fast, and let BFCM do more than just spike a single weekend’s revenue—it can set you up for the year ahead.