TL;DR
- Built from 500+ DTC brands and $1.07B in generated revenue
- VIP presale: Open Oct 24–31 to top 10–20% (LTV); 48–72h window.
- Bundles > blanket %: Launch 2–3 bundles with 15–25% effective savings; keep margin ≥55%.
- Deliverability triage: Spam <0.01%, unsub <0.3%, bounce <1%; warm cold segments.
- 4-wave cadence: Announce (Nov 18–20) → Early Access (Nov 24–26) → Live (Nov 28)
→ Last-Chance (Dec 1).
The plays that helped 500+ brands turn BFCM into their most profitable quarter — with real numbers to prove it.
While most brands were racing to the bottom with 50% off everything, we’ve seen brands like Olivia Jewelry grew SMS revenue by 10×. Kiyoko Beauty drove 43.31% of store revenue through email alone. Jan Leslie tripled their revenue during BFCM weekend.
These aren’t outliers. They’re what happens when you stop treating Black Friday like a discount free-for-all and start treating it like the systematic profit machine it should be.
After scaling 500+ DTC brands through Q4 — from seven-figure challengers to nine-figure category leaders — we’ve seen what separates the brands that merely survive from those that transform BFCM into their springboard for the next year. At our recent closed-door masterclass with operators from Bottomless Labs and Inspire, we broke down the exact playbooks driving these results.
Here’s what’s actually working in 2025.
Retention & Email: The 43% Revenue Channel You’re Underusing
SMS is eating email’s lunch (and that’s good news)
Kiyoko Beauty’s 3.4× BFCM revenue growth didn’t come from better subject lines. It came from understanding that SMS drives 8–10× more clicks than email during peak shopping days. But here’s what most miss: it’s not about switching from email to SMS — it’s about orchestrating both.
The winning formula we’re seeing: Build your VIP early-access list through SMS (like Jan Leslie did with social-led hype), then mirror your campaigns across both channels. Layer SMS into checkout flows, post-purchase sequences, and — critically — start capturing numbers NOW, not November 1st. Olivia Jewelry’s 10× SMS revenue growth? They started list-building in August.
The October goldmine nobody talks about
Your VIPs don’t need Black Friday prices. They need first access. Jan Leslie opened their sale to VIPs on November 4th — weeks before the masses — and watched 60% of their BFCM revenue flow through email. Kiyoko Beauty saw similar results: VIP early access drove massive October revenue, and those same customers came back in November.
The psychology is simple: exclusivity beats discounts. Your best customers will pay full price in October for the privilege of shopping first, then return for gifts in November.
Paid Ads: Where $7M Brands Die (And How to Avoid It)
The $10K mistake that killed a $7M brand’s biggest weekend
Marin from Inspire watched a $7M brand lose their entire Black Friday weekend. Not because of bad creative. Not because of weak offers. Because they hit their ad account spending limit at 2 PM on Friday.
Another brand ran out of their hero SKU Saturday morning. A third couldn’t scale because their payment processor flagged the sudden volume spike. These aren’t rookie mistakes — they’re happening to eight-figure brands.
If your ad account limits aren’t raised, your inventory isn’t triple-checked, and your payment processing isn’t stress-tested by November 1st, you’re not preparing — you’re praying.
Why bundles beat discounts (every single time)
Across Marin’s split tests, intelligent bundling consistently outperformed deep discounts on both AOV and profit margins. SkinnyMeTea proved this at scale: their 40% email-attributed revenue came from strategic bundles, not racing to the bottom on price. The data is clear: “Buy-one-get-one” and curated gift sets protect margins while actually converting higher than “50% off everything.”
CRO & Landing Pages: The 102% Conversion Rate Boost
Urgency psychology (but only during BFCM)
Pupnaps doubled their conversion rates with one insight: BFCM is the only time urgency doesn’t feel fake. Customers actively expect countdowns, limited quantities, and “deal of the day” mechanics during this window. It’s not scammy — it’s anticipated.
But timing matters. Deploy urgency too early and you train customers to ignore it. Save it for November and watch conversions spike. Pupnaps saw +102% conversion rates, +76% store revenue, and +62% revenue per recipient by getting this timing right.
Stop selling products, start selling gifts
Organifi doesn’t sell green juice powder in Q4. They sell “wellness gifts for him.” This shift alone — tested across dozens of our beauty and apparel clients — consistently drives 20-30% conversion lifts.
Every product needs a gift angle. Every landing page needs gift-focused copy. Every email needs to solve someone’s shopping list problem. Jan Leslie’s 48% campaign-attributed revenue? Built on gift positioning, not product features.
The Deliverability Crisis Nobody’s Discussing
SkinnyMeTea’s +333% open rate improvement tells the real story: if you’re not hitting the inbox, nothing else matters. They rebuilt their entire email infrastructure — list cleaning, domain warming, spam testing — before touching creative or copy.
Organifi went even further, implementing what they called “deliverability triage”: segmenting damaged cohorts, A/B testing plain-text vs HTML formats, and maintaining 95% list coverage through November and December. Result? +234% email revenue in 6 months and 46.27% of total revenue from owned channels.
The brutal truth: Gmail and Yahoo’s 2024 authentication requirements killed more BFCM campaigns than bad creative ever could. If you haven’t audited your deliverability, you’re invisible.
The Hidden Pattern in Every Nine-Figure BFCM
After analyzing results across our 500+ brand portfolio, here’s what separates the exceptional from the average:
They compound wins, not discounts. Every successful brand in our case studies ran the same playbook:
- August-September: List building and segmentation (Olivia captured zero-party data on skin tones and style preferences)
- October: VIP presales and testing (Jan Leslie’s pre-season A/B tests informed their November strategy)
- November: Multi-wave campaigns (Kiyoko’s announce → early access → live → last-chance cadence)
- December: Retargeting and second purchases (Pupnaps’ reminder sequences captured 50-67% additional revenue)
This isn’t a sprint. It’s a system.
Your 90-Day BFCM Profit Plan Starts Now
The difference between brands crushing Q4 and those just surviving? The winners started preparing in August, not November.
We covered the surface-level tactics here. But in our 120-minute masterclass, Josh Chin of Chronos Agency, Nico Muoio of Bottomless Labs, and Marin Ištvanić of Inspire went deep on:
- The exact SMS/email sequencing that drove Kiyoko’s 3.4× growth
- Automation strategies generating 40-60% of total BFCM revenue
- The specific bundling frameworks outperforming discounts 3:1
- Zero-party data collection driving Olivia’s 46.85% YoY owned-revenue growth
- Post-BFCM momentum strategies extending profits through January
Ready to implement these strategies for your brand?
Get the complete frameworks, templates, and step-by-step walkthroughs that helped 500+ brands transform BFCM into their profit engine.
Want us to do it for you? We’re opening limited spots for Q4 partnerships. If you’re doing $5M+ annually and want the team behind these case studies optimizing your BFCM, let’s talk.
P.S. — Every brand featured here started where you are now. The only difference? They stopped treating BFCM like four days of discounts and started treating it like a profit system. Which will you choose?
BFCM 2025 FAQ
When is BFCM 2025?
Black Friday is Nov 28, 2025; Cyber Monday is Dec 1, 2025. Use these anchors for your 4-wave plan and inventory pacing.
How do we stay inbox-safe under Gmail/Yahoo’s 2024 bulk-sender rules?
Authenticate with SPF, DKIM, DMARC, include one-click unsubscribe, and keep spam complaints <0.3% (ideally <0.1%) per Postmaster Tools. Suppress chronic non-engagers before BFCM to maintain thresholds.
What’s a safe BFCM week send plan by cohort?
4 waves: Announce (Nov 18–20) → VIP (Nov 24–26) → Live (Nov 28) → Last-Chance (Dec 1).
Engaged/VIP get 5–7 total touches across channels; lapsing/cold are capped to 2–3 after a warm-up. Resends only to non-openers or click-no-buy with a fresh angle. SMS reserved for high-intent drops; push for timely nudges.
How do we structure the four waves without cannibalization?
Announce → VIP → Live → Last-Chance, with distinct product sets and creative. Resend only to non-openers or click-no-buy with new subject angles. Hold one hero bundle for Live; keep a fresh, scarcity-led angle for Last-Chance.
Bundles vs. blanket %-off — how do we choose?
Chronos A/B (tiered 10/15/20% vs flat 15%; site already running BOGO 50%) → Tiered won on Revenue per Recipient (+12%). One campaign 2× revenue and 2× orders vs flat 15%. Why: higher AOV, stronger perceived value at 3 items (“Get up to 20% off”), novelty vs usual %. Ship 2–3 bundles, target 15–25% effective savings with ≥55% margin
What’s the right VIP presale window?
Open to top 10–20% LTV customers for 48–72 hours in late October. Limit SKUs, cap inventory, and gate with passcodes/unique URLs. Goal: bank profit before the widespread discounting begins.
What are the deliverability guardrails during BFCM?
Per-send checks: complaint <0.3% (Gmail rule), bounce <1%, unusual unsub spikes. If a send trips thresholds, immediately suppress recent non-engagers and rotate creative/offer type next wave.
How should email, SMS, and push divide responsibilities?
Email carries narrative and bundles; SMS handles urgency (drops, timers, order updates); push adds lightweight nudges. Avoid duplicate messages inside 60 minutes; use cross-channel sequencing (email → 3–6h → SMS) for lift, not overlap.
What do we measure in real time to make pivots?
Owned-channel revenue share, placed-order rate per send, spam complaints, SMS opt-out spikes, stock-out velocity by SKU. If VIP sells out a bundle, swap the Live hero to a different bundle rather than extending site-wide %.
What’s the post-BFCM momentum plan?
Within 72 hours: thank-you + upsell; 7–10 days: win-back for non-buyers; then gifting/shipping-cutoff campaigns. Keep deliverability hygiene rules active; re-warm cold segments gradually.
