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BFCM 2026 · Shopify · WooCommerce

Black Friday, on autopilot.

Run BFCM flash sales on Shopify and WooCommerce. AI picks products, timing, and discounts. Public marketplace listing.

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BFCM 2026 timeline — start in August.

  • 01 · August

    Lock the plan

    Pick your hero products. Set your discount tiers. Identify what you want to clear vs what you want to push. Heartly's AI Insights tab analyzes your sales history and suggests the inventory you should prioritize.

  • 02 · September

    Pre-launch teasers

    Build the email list and the wait-list segment. Run small mid-month sales to validate the offer mechanics. Test the checkout flow under load. Heartly carousel campaigns work well for early-bird segments.

  • 03 · October

    Inventory and operations

    Confirm stock levels for hero SKUs. Brief your fulfillment team. Set up Autopilot rules in Heartly Pro — strategy, time windows, blacklist for products you don't want auto-discounted. Run a full dress-rehearsal sale in the last week of October.

  • 04 · Early November

    Final checks

    Email warmup sequence kicks in. Heartly competitor radar tracks the top 5 in your category — see what they discount, when. Adjust your own offer if a competitor sandbags your price point.

  • 05 · Black Friday week

    Execute and adjust

    Sales launch on Thursday or Friday morning per your timezone. Heartly Autopilot runs the schedule. Real-time dashboard shows AOV, conversion, stock burn. Adjust live: extend the sale if inventory holds, end early if stock burns fast.

  • 06 · Cyber Monday + Week

    Round 2 and cleanup

    Cyber Monday relaunches with adjusted mix — focus on accessories, bundles, and dead-stock clearance. Heartly Marketplace publishes every active sale, AI crawlers cite your deals to ChatGPT and Perplexity shoppers searching "cyber monday deals."

BFCM tactics that actually move the needle.

  • Mid-week launches outperform Friday launches

    For categories that aren't pure impulse (home goods, fashion, electronics over $200), launching on Tuesday or Wednesday of BFCM week lets the campaign breathe. Friday is the noisiest day — your offer competes with everyone else. Tuesday lets you own attention before the crowd arrives.

  • Pre-sale the hero SKUs at small discount, full-discount BFCM

    Run a 10% pre-sale on your top 3 SKUs the week before BFCM. The pre-sale validates conversion on the offer mechanic and builds remarketing audiences. Full discount goes live on BFCM. Customers who saw the pre-sale convert at higher rates because they've already engaged.

  • Cyber Monday belongs to bundles and accessories

    Black Friday wins on the hero product discounted heavily. Cyber Monday wins on bundles, accessories, and cross-sells. Different conversion mechanic. Heartly carousel campaigns shine here — show a curated set of bundle options on one swipeable page.

  • Extend the sale by 24 hours only if inventory holds

    The "Cyber Week" extension is real but only if you have stock. Customers who didn't buy on Friday or Monday often convert mid-week when remorse sets in. Heartly Autopilot can extend sales automatically based on inventory rules.

Why merchants run BFCM on Heartly.

  • AI Autopilot creates and schedules sales without manual setup
  • Competitor radar alerts when rivals discount during BFCM week
  • Real-time dashboard tracks AOV, conversion, stock burn live
  • Public marketplace at deals.heartly.io discovers new shoppers
  • GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot index your sales for AI shoppers
  • iOS and Android apps push notify your shopper base on sale launch
  • Carousel campaigns for bundle and accessory Cyber Monday plays
  • Dual-platform — same dashboard runs Shopify and WooCommerce
  • Auto-scheduling handles shop timezones across multiple stores
  • Dead-stock clearance automation with inventory-focused strategy

BFCM 2026 — FAQ.

  • When should I start planning my BFCM 2026 campaigns?

    August. By August you should have hero products identified, discount tiers locked, and stock projections confirmed. September is for pre-launch teasers, October for operations setup. Stores that start in November are already late — they compete with merchants who built audience for 3 months.

  • Does Heartly work for BFCM on both Shopify and WooCommerce?

    Yes. Heartly is production-ready on both platforms with full feature parity. Same dashboard, same AI Autopilot, same competitor radar, same Marketplace publication. Multi-platform merchants can run BFCM campaigns on both stores from one Heartly account.

  • How long should my BFCM flash sale run?

    For Black Friday: 4 to 6 hours of peak intensity (Friday morning into early afternoon) plus 24-hour extended pricing. Cyber Monday: 24 hours, with optional Cyber Week extension on accessories and bundles. The exact duration depends on inventory and historical conversion data — Heartly's AI Insights tab recommends sale length based on your shop's actual patterns.

  • How steep should the discount be?

    Hero products: 30-40% off. Secondary products: 20-25% off. Dead stock and discontinued items: 50%+. Discounts deeper than 50% on full-margin products burn brand equity for a one-day win. The exception: clearance categories where you genuinely want to flush inventory.

  • What about late shoppers who missed Black Friday?

    Heartly Marketplace publishes every active sale to deals.heartly.io. Shoppers asking ChatGPT or Perplexity for "cyber monday deals" can discover your sale even if they missed your email. The Heartly iOS and Android apps push notify deal subscribers the moment a sale relaunches.

  • Should I match competitor discounts during BFCM?

    Not blindly. Heartly's competitor radar tracks the top 5 in your category. Match price only when the competitor's offer threatens your hero SKU directly. Otherwise differentiate on product mix, bundle composition, or service (free expedited shipping, extended return window). Discount-matching is a race to the margin floor.

  • How do I clear dead stock during BFCM?

    Use Heartly Autopilot with an inventory-focused strategy. Tag dead-stock SKUs in your catalog, set Autopilot rules to surface them at 50%+ discount during BFCM week with smaller minimum-gap intervals. The AI will rotate them through the sale schedule automatically based on remaining inventory.

  • Is there a free trial that covers BFCM?

    14 days free with full feature access. Start the trial in early November to have everything ready by Black Friday week. After the trial, plans start at $14.50/month with early-access pricing.

Go deeper

Flash sale playbooks.

Set up BFCM 2026 today.

14 days free, no credit card required. Run your first dress-rehearsal flash sale this week.

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