October 22, 2026
Most marketing gurus frame Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) like a trip to Vegas: weeks of planning, one big blow out, then things return to normal and you never mention what happened.
Normal strategies, like building customer loyalty or pushing subscriptions are off the table; that’s just not what BFCM is about. One study of D2C performance data found that just 13% of new BFCM customers make a second purchase.
Now, was that research run by a business selling customer loyalty software? Sure. Does this kind of data include plenty of businesses whose products aren’t really geared towards repeat sales? Of course.
But it also captures something true about BFCM: customers are not typically looking for anything serious. This week (or, increasingly, weeks) of frenzied buying is an anomaly, so founders should make the most of it.
Brands push heavy discounts to spike sales, giving more thought to margin management than what happens to all these new customers. So of course those customers don’t generally return; you’ve turned the whole thing into a transaction, so they treat it the same.
Yet those established tactics don’t work like they used to. So what would it look like if your BFCM strategy was built around winning loyalty, rather than squeezing every last conversion out of the peak rush?
Before we start, let’s be clear: some brands really should focus on sales volume. If your products are expensive, don’t need to be replenished, or are typically bought as a one-off, have at it; this is your chance to catch up with KPIs or build a buffer for the cold months when Brits are too depressed to buy fancy swimming trunks or whatever you’re selling.
But if your products could drive repeat sales (say, if you run a solid subscription business), making that your focus throughout BFCM helps offset the risks and drawbacks of BFCM sales:
As we said in a recent article: “If you sell at a massive discount but hook consumers, smaller margins could be more than worthwhile.” But how do you make sure BFCM customers actually get hooked?
The basic principle behind all customer loyalty is simple: deliver an exceptional experience customers can’t get elsewhere. For BFCM, that can actually be easier; most brands are desperately pushing to maximise sales.
Your brand should focus on four key goals:
Your customers don’t trust Black Friday. That’s not us being cynical; they’ve said so in survey after survey.
Barclays research found 68% of UK adults are doubtful about the real value of BFCM deals, while 44% no longer look forward to seasonal sales like they used to. Across the pond, Omni Calculator found 85% of US shoppers suspect retailers of at least one pricing trick, such as quietly hiking prices in the weeks before the sale.
Brands, meanwhile, seem blissfully unaware. According to DHL, 69% of retailers believe customers trust their offers. Only 50% of shoppers actually do.
That gap presents an obvious opportunity: when everyone else looks a bit shifty, being straight with people stands out.
There are several ways to do that:
None of this means giving up on urgency or big discounts. It means your customers believe you when you use them.
For a first-time buyer, the delivery is their most sustained exposure to the brand. They haven’t used your product yet; all they have to go on is whether you did what you said you would.
UK shoppers aren’t especially forgiving about it, either. Sendcloud found 64.3% of UK consumers wouldn’t reorder from a retailer after a failed delivery, and a third (33.2%) would walk away over a delay alone.
So what does a loyalty-winning delivery look like during peak?
Nail delivery and your follow-up lands with a customer who already feels good about you. Fumble it, and no email sequence will win them back.
After BFCM, most brands do one of two things. They go quiet, or they bury new customers under a pile of “you might also like” emails; both alienate customers and throw away your newly acquired BFCM contact list.
Think about it from your customer’s side. They bought based on price; they don’t owe you anything yet, and their inbox is heaving. Validity found nearly one in four consumers (and nearly half of Gen Z) say a brand’s holiday email practices have made them trust it less, buy less, or stop buying altogether.
So the goal of your follow-up isn’t to sell. It’s to prove the purchase was a good decision:
Lead with value, not offers
The first messages after a BFCM order are the ones that matter most. As Temilola Agbede points out in Inc., the confirmation, delivery update and welcome note are what tell a first-time customer whether buying was a good call.
Fill them with genuinely useful stuff: how to use the product, what results to expect and when, who to contact if something isn’t right. Upselling can wait until they’ve actually tried what they bought.
Time it to their experience, not your calendar
A Black Friday order might not arrive until the following week. Time every follow-up from the delivery date rather than the order date, as we’ve recommended before. Nobody wants a “How are you finding it?” email about a parcel that’s still in a van.
Help the product become a habit
One purchase says “I’ll give this a go.” A repeat purchase says “this is part of my routine now.” Your follow-up should bridge that gap by giving the product a clear moment in their day, the same way toothpaste owns your morning and bedtime.
Spread the load across channels
Email isn’t your only option, and it’s the most crowded one in December. Consider:
Whichever channels you use, check your consent records first. UK marketing rules still apply to your shiny new customers.
Make them part of something
Community is one of the most powerful levers for loyalty, but most D2C brands leave newly acquired customers in their own little email bubble. Invite BFCM buyers to share how they use the product, feature customer tips in your emails, or open up whatever space your regulars already hang out in.
JSHealth, for example, builds an exclusive app into its subscriptions. That’s an extreme example though; a genuine “welcome to the club”, with real perks like early access to launches or a say in new products, does far more than another discount code.
If you sell subscriptions, your BFCM subscribers are a special breed. They’re the purest form of what we’ve called the “F-it, why not?” subscriber: someone who signs up for the discount, spots “Cancel Anytime”, and has very little intention of ordering twice.
That doesn’t make them a lost cause. It just means the playbook that works for your regulars won’t work for them.
Don’t rely on inertia
Banking on people forgetting to cancel is a poor bet with this crowd. In a large field experiment with a European newspaper, Stanford researchers found auto-renewal lifted short-term revenue, but 24% to 36% of potential subscribers avoided signing up when offered it. After a year, revenue was level with auto-cancel contracts, just with fewer subscribers.
The rules are changing too. UK subscription regulations under the DMCC Act are due to apply from January 2027, right as your BFCM cohort hits its second or third renewal. Clear renewal reminders and easy cancellation are about to become a legal requirement, not a nice-to-have.
Plan for the price jump
Order two is where BFCM subscribers make up their minds about your brand. They got a great deal first time round; now the price goes up and nothing new has happened to justify it.
Soften that step by:
Make pausing easier than leaving
Plenty of BFCM subscribers will over-order and end up with a cupboard full of product. Give them a way to slow down without walking away.
Mastercard and FT Strategies found US subscription businesses rank the ability to pause payments as their most effective retention tactic. Their consumer research points the same way: 74% say they’re more likely to subscribe when cancellation is simple.
Track them as their own cohort
Tag BFCM subscribers separately and watch how they behave against your regulars. Somebody who skips twice in a row probably needs a different delivery frequency, not a bigger discount. A subscriber who cancels after order two is telling you something about your second delivery.
Black Friday puts unbelievable pressure on D2C founders, but it’s important to resist the temptation to harvest as many sales as possible. BFCM happens once a year; it is not the basis for a sustainable business.
What helps brands scale is learning how to turn more customers into long-term brand advocates.
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