Black Friday emails for Shopify stores
Black Friday 2026 is Friday, November 27. A send timeline, subject lines by customer type, three email outlines, and what to avoid, for Shopify stores.
Dates
Black Friday is the biggest weekend of the year for many Shopify stores. Over Black Friday–Cyber Monday 2025, Shopify merchants sold a record $14.6 billion globally, up 27% on the year before, and more than 94,900 merchants had their highest-selling day ever (Shopify). Sales peaked at 12:01pm EST on Black Friday, at $5.1 million a minute (Shopify).
In the US, Adobe recorded $44.2 billion in online sales across the five days from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, with $11.8 billion on Black Friday alone, up 9.1% (Adobe).
Black Friday is always the day after US Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Thursday of November, so it moves between November 23 and November 29. It falls on the same day in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia.
| Dates | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Thanksgiving | Thu Nov 26 | Thu Nov 25 | Thu Nov 23 |
| Black Friday | Fri Nov 27 | Fri Nov 26 | Fri Nov 24 |
| Small Business Saturday | Sat Nov 28 | Sat Nov 27 | Sat Nov 25 |
| Cyber Monday | Mon Nov 30 | Mon Nov 29 | Mon Nov 27 |
Send timeline
Then hand over to your Cyber Monday emails.
The days around Friday carry real money too. Adobe counted $6.4 billion in US online spend on Thanksgiving Day itself, up 5.3%, and another $11.8 billion over the Saturday and Sunday, up 8.7% (Adobe). So the Thursday VIP email and the weekend sends are not filler. Give each one its own job: Thursday rewards, Saturday helps people choose, Sunday tells them what's left.
| Send timeline | Send | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| Early November | Early-access signup | Build the list you'll send to first |
| ~1 week before | Teaser: what's coming and when | Get it on their calendar |
| Thanksgiving (US) | VIP early access | Reward your best customers |
| Black Friday, morning | Main sale announcement | The big one |
| Black Friday, evening | Reminder to non-openers | Catch people who missed it |
| Saturday | Best sellers and gift picks | Help the undecided choose |
| Sunday | "Still going" with what's left | Momentum into Monday |
Subject lines by customer type
For your best customers
For first-time buyers
For gift buyers
For everyone
- You're in early. The sale starts now
- Before anyone else: our Black Friday sale
- First pick, as promised
- The one product to start with, now on sale
- Our best seller, at its lowest price this year
- New here? This is the weekend to try us
- Gifts sorted, before the rush
- Our gift guide, Black Friday edition
- Easy gifts, still in time for the holidays
- Black Friday is here
Three email outlines
1. Early access (VIPs, day before) Personal line from the founder. What's included and the discount. Why they're first. One button. No countdown timer needed.
2. Main announcement (Black Friday morning) The offer in the first line. Three to six products, grouped by who they're for. Delivery and returns info. One clear button. Over Shopify's 2025 BFCM weekend the average cart was $114.70 (Shopify), so compare your own average order with your free-shipping threshold and say plainly what it takes to reach it.
3. Saturday picks "Not sure what to choose?" Three picks, each with one line on who it suits and one review. Link to the full sale.
What not to do
- Don't invent urgency. If the sale runs until Monday, don't say "ends tonight."
- Don't send every email to everyone. Remove people who already bought.
- Don't bury delivery information. Gift buyers need it most, and on Shopify's 2025 BFCM weekend cross-border orders were 16% of all orders (Shopify), so say which countries you ship to and how long it takes.
- Don't design for a desktop screen first. On Thanksgiving 2025, 61.6% of US online sales came through a phone (Adobe). Big buttons, short lines, the offer above the first image.
- Don't discount products that sell without one, unless you want to.
Questions people ask
When is Black Friday 2026?
Friday, November 27, 2026, the day after US Thanksgiving. In 2027 it falls on Friday, November 26, 2027, and in 2028 on Friday, November 24, 2028.
When should Black Friday emails start?
Build an early-access list from early November, tease the sale the week before, and send the main email on the morning of Black Friday. VIPs can get access a day early, on Thanksgiving.
How many emails should I send over Black Friday weekend?
Most stores send more than usual over the weekend. Keep every email useful (what's on sale, for whom, until when) and leave out people who already bought.
Is Black Friday on the same day outside the US?
Yes. It follows US Thanksgiving, so stores in Canada, the UK and Australia run it on the same Friday, even though those countries don't celebrate US Thanksgiving.
The segments to build before Thanksgiving
Set these up in your email tool in early November, so the weekend is about writing, not list work:
- Early access: everyone who joined your early-access list in October and November. They asked to hear first, so they get the first email.
- VIPs: repeat buyers or your highest spenders. They get Thursday's email and the founder's note.
- Bought this weekend: anyone who ordered since Thursday. Leave them out of every later sale email and send them an order thank-you instead.
- Opened but didn't buy: people who opened Friday's email but haven't ordered. They get Saturday's picks.
- Gift buyers: anyone who bought gift cards or used gift wrap last year. They get the gift guide.
Plan it with Tilly
Once your Shopify store is connected, the email calendar puts Black Friday in your November whichever country the store is in. Black Friday counts as a sale moment, so the calendar plans two sends for it: an early-access send a week before, on Friday, November 20, 2026, and the main send on Friday, November 27, 2026. Each send comes with a working title, a subject-line idea and a one-sentence reason. Sale moments also lift the month's limit on sends that may carry a discount, which never goes above four, and an email may only use a discount code that already exists in your Shopify store. Nothing is sent for you: an email you approve goes to Klaviyo as a draft, and you choose who gets it and press send there. The full Black Friday plan covers ads, pages and stock too, and the free BFCM planner dates every prep step and send from eight weeks out.
Sources
- Shopify Merchants Achieve Record-Breaking $14.6 Billion in Black Friday-Cyber Monday Sales (Shopify), checked 1 October 2026
- Adobe: Cyber Monday Hits Record $14.25 Billion in Online Spending (Adobe), checked 1 October 2026
See this on your own store
Paste your store URL. The first pass takes about a minute and needs no account. Save a card (nothing is charged) and Tilly reads the whole store and works out who buys from you.