Free playbook · BFCM 2026
The 2026 BFCM Playbook
Get practical tactics for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, from where shoppers are spending to how AI is changing the way they search.
Our team's read on the 2026 season, written by Northern's paid media, creative, email, and SEO specialists for retail and ecommerce brands in Canada and the US. Six plays covering Google's AI campaigns, creative testing, social-to-subscriber capture, Klaviyo flows, and AI search, plus a week-by-week countdown to Black Friday.
- +4.0% Canadian Q4 retail sales growth in 2025, against a flat forecast Statistics Canada
- 85% Of Canadians wait for sales before buying RCC × Leger, 2025
- 39% Of Canadians used AI to help make a purchase in the past year Leger for National Bank, 2026
- $275.1 billion Projected US online holiday spending in 2026, up 6.7% from last year Adobe Digital Insights, 2026
Trusted by retailers across Canada and the US
What's inside
Six plays to win BFCM 2026
- 01
Pace the quarter
Start spending in October, while ads cost less and shoppers are still building their shortlists. Save your viewers and engagers as audiences, then convert them when the sale opens.
- 02
Feed Google's AI good inputs
Lead your product titles with brand, material, size, and colour, turn on AI Max for Search, and set your ROAS target at the lowest return you can still make money on. Finish bid changes by early November, so Smart Bidding has time to settle before the peak.
- 03
Test creative beyond the black-and-yellow look
Load responsive search ads with up to 15 headlines built around one core promise, and lead with the things cautious shoppers check: the actual discount, star ratings, and delivery dates.
- 04
Turn social followers into subscribers
A comment like "BFCM" on Instagram can now trigger an automatic DM that captures email and SMS consent, so you can grow your list before ad costs peak.
- 05
Run email and SMS like peak infrastructure
Warm your list in October with your most engaged 90-day segment, split VIPs from lapsed buyers, and have your welcome, cart, browse, back-in-stock, and price-drop flows tested and live by Nov 20.
- 06
Make your site readable to AI search
Check that robots.txt isn't blocking AI crawlers, add structured data for products and FAQs, and make sure your key pages load without JavaScript.
The countdown
Your BFCM countdown, at a glance
Right now
Clean your product feed and tracking. Check robots.txt and llms.txt, and confirm key pages are readable without JavaScript. Brief three or four creative territories. Launch a social capture campaign and start list warm-up.
October
Run upper-funnel media at shoulder-week rates. Build audience pools, test creative, and lock your promo plan using last year's discounts as the benchmark. Watch weather triggers for seasonal categories.
Nov 1–20
Open VIP early access. Every flow live by Nov 20, and BFCM promos live at least a week before Black Friday.
Proof
What this looks like in practice
Case study · Quarks
Flows drove two-thirds of Quarks' BFCM and Boxing Week revenue.
After Northern rebuilt the retailer's Klaviyo program, flows generated 59% of owned revenue from just 2.8% of sends.
- 59% of owned revenue from flows
- 2.8% of total sends
Northern is a Klaviyo Master Elite Partner.
Get the full playbook
Six plays and the full week-by-week countdown, free. Inside, you'll find our checklist for Google's AI campaigns, example ads built for cautious shoppers, and the five Klaviyo flows to have live by Nov 20. Everything is based on current Canadian and US data. Enter your email and we'll send it straight to your inbox.
FAQ
Common BFCM questions
In October. Ads cost less before the peak, and more than half of Canadian shoppers start researching one to three weeks before Black Friday. Use October to build audiences, warm your email list, and fix your product feed, so everything is ready when demand spikes.
Yes, but keep it separate from the main sale. Run an early offer like VIP access or a member-only bundle in November, and hold your best discount for Black Friday through Cyber Monday, since 85% of Canadians wait for sales before they buy.
Five: welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, back in stock, and price drop. Have them tested and live by Nov 20, since these automations do most of the work during Cyber Week.
39% of Canadians used generative AI to help with a purchase in the past year, and 80% of them say it helps them compare options. To show up in those answers, keep your product data current, add structured data, and make sure AI crawlers can read your key pages.
Both. It uses Canadian and US data and runs through the full North American season, from October planning to Boxing Day and January.
See how we've helped retailers win peak season.
Northern implemented a comprehensive email strategy for Beauty by Imagination’s (BBI) brands – Wet Brush, Bio Ionic, and Ouidad – during Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2023 to maximize engagement and conversions while maintaining strong email deliverability.
- 41% of total revenue in November attributable to email marketing
- 36% average decrease in unsubscribe rate compared to BFCM 2022
- 87% increase in Ouidad's email revenue compared to BFCM 2022
Pulp & Press partnered with Northern to improve their email marketing program by delivering personalized, conversion-focused emails to resonate with subscribers at each point in their purchase journey. As a Klaviyo Master Elite Partner, Northern successfully developed and implemented a fresh email strategy that nurtured subscribers into paying customers.
- 492% Increase in owned revenue
- 255% Life in eCommerce revenue
- 250% Email list growth
- 123% Lift in email campaign conversions
GP Bikes sought to increase email marketing performance by migrating to a more powerful eCommerce-focused ESP platform, growing their subscriber list, and delivering personalized experiences to their audience. As a Klaviyo Master Elite Partner, Northern successfully developed and implemented a powerful email marketing strategy that drove impressive results and paved the road for GP Bikes to advance its growth for years to come.
- 865% Attributed revenue year over year
- 185% Conversion rate year over year
- 125% Email list growth year over year
Want a hand with your BFCM plan?
Tell us what you sell and which platforms you run on, and we'll point you to the two or three plays that will pay off fastest for your business.