November email calendar for Shopify stores
November 2026 email calendar for Shopify stores: Diwali, Singles' Day, US Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday dates, a BFCM send plan and subject lines.
Key dates, November 2026
November is the biggest month of the year for many Shopify stores. Over Black Friday–Cyber Monday 2025, Shopify merchants sold a record $14.6 billion globally (Shopify). The work is spacing your emails so they don't all land in the same three days.
The month is bigger than one weekend. In the US, Adobe counted $137.4 billion in online spend from November 1 to December 1, 2025, up 7.2% (Adobe). Gift buying starts well before Black Friday, so the first three weeks of November deserve real emails, not a holding pattern.
Three moments share Wednesday, November 11, 2026. Singles' Day is a shopping day; Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada are days of remembrance. If you sell in more than one of those markets, keep the Singles' Day email away from your US and Canadian lists, or skip it.
| Key dates, November 2026 | 2026 | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Diwali | Sun Nov 8 (NYC DOT) | Where relevant to your customers |
| Singles' Day | Wed Nov 11source | Where relevant to your customers |
| Veterans Day | Wed Nov 11source | US: not a sales moment |
| Remembrance Day | Wed Nov 11 (CRA) | CA: not a sales moment |
| US Thanksgiving | Thu Nov 26 | US |
| Black Friday | Fri Nov 27 | US, CA, UK, AU |
| Small Business Saturday | Sat Nov 28 | US |
| Cyber Monday | Mon Nov 30 | US, CA, UK, AU |
The November send plan
Each week has one job. The first two weeks earn attention with useful emails, so that the last week's sale emails reach people who still open your mail.
| The November send plan | Focus |
|---|---|
| Nov 2–8 | Early-access list push. Diwali gifting if relevant. Normal content |
| Nov 9–15 | Gift guide. Singles' Day offer only if it fits your customers |
| Nov 16–22 | Black Friday teaser. Remind early-access subscribers of the date |
| Nov 23–30 | VIP early access, Black Friday, weekend sends, Cyber Monday |
Subject lines for the month
Weeks one and two
Week three
The weekend
Cyber Monday
- Want in before Black Friday?
- Gifts, sorted early
- A Diwali gift guide, with delivery dates
- Black Friday starts Friday. Here's what's coming
- Mark your calendar: our sale opens on the 27th
- You're in early
- Black Friday is here
- Still going: our best sellers
- Cyber Monday: the last day
- Our sale ends tonight
What not to do
Next: December email calendar. The full plan, including ads and pages, is in how to plan Black Friday.
- Don't run a sale on Remembrance Day or Veterans Day.
- Don't start discounting in early November if your Black Friday offer is the same. You'll train people to wait.
- Don't email everyone every day. Suppress buyers and use your engaged segment for extra sends.
- Don't let new subscribers from your early-access form sit idle. Send them your welcome flow so their first email from you isn't a sale.
Take it with you
Who is shopping
Shopify's numbers for the 2025 weekend show how wide the audience is. More than 81 million customers bought from Shopify-powered brands, and 15,800+ entrepreneurs made their first sale (Shopify). The top selling countries were the US, UK, Australia, Germany and Canada, and the hottest categories were cosmetics, clothing tops and pants, activewear, and fitness and nutrition (Shopify). If you sell in those categories, expect more competition in the inbox, and write subject lines that only your store could send.
Three November emails to write this week
1. The early-access invite (first week). One question in the subject line: "Want in before Black Friday?" Say what early access means (a day, a first pick, a gift) and when it starts. One sign-up button. No discount yet.
2. The gift guide (second week). Grouped by recipient, not by product type. Four to eight products, each with a price and one line on who it suits. Add your delivery promise at the bottom.
3. The teaser (third week). The date, the time the sale starts in your timezone, and what kind of offer it will be. Ask early-access subscribers to look out for your Thursday email.
Plan it with Tilly
The email calendar builds November from the dates for your store's country. A store in Canada or the UK gets Black Friday and Cyber Monday; a US store also gets Singles' Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Small Business Saturday. Each sale moment gets an early-access send a week before and a main send on the day, and each one lifts the month's limit on sends that may carry a discount, from two to at most four. The rest of the month is filled at your cadence, two sends a week unless you change it, with teaching and product sends, plus customer quotes and founder notes when your store has them. Diwali isn't in the calendar's list for US, Canadian or UK stores, so plan that send yourself if your customers celebrate it.
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
- Alternate Side Parking Suspensions, 2026 calendar (NYC DOT), checked 1 October 2026
- Public holidays (Canada Revenue Agency), 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.