Black Friday Cyber Monday Planner

Black Friday is the day after US Thanksgiving, which is the fourth Thursday of November. Cyber Monday is the Monday after. In 2026 that makes Thanksgiving Thursday 26 November, Black Friday Friday 27 November, Small Business Saturday 28 November and Cyber Monday 30 November. In 2027 Black Friday is 26 November and Cyber Monday 29 November.

The planner computes these from the rule for whichever year you pick, so it is never out of date. The dates follow US Thanksgiving everywhere, including stores selling in the UK, Canada and Australia.

Every step is a number of days from Black Friday:

• 8 weeks before: decide one offer and work out that it still leaves a profit after ad costs. Check stock.
• 6 weeks before: change your sign-up form to promise early access.
• 4 weeks before: keep sending your normal emails, so a quiet list is not suddenly hit with five emails a week.
• 3 weeks before: check that abandoned checkout, browse abandonment and welcome flows are live and tested.
• 2 weeks before: a teaser email. No code yet.
• 1 week before: early access for subscribers (optional), matching the 7-day lead Tilly’s calendar uses for shopping events.
• Black Friday to Cyber Monday: a launch email, a note from you on Small Business Saturday, a weekend reminder that excludes anyone who has ordered, and a Cyber Monday email.
• Optionally, Cyber Week through the Friday, with a last call that day.
• Afterwards: move new customers into the post-purchase flow, and write down what worked.

A store planning 2026 with early access and SMS on, and Cyber Week off, gets the offer decision on Friday 2 October, the teaser on Friday 13 November, early access by email and text on Friday 20 November, the launch on Friday 27 November, and the Cyber Monday email on Monday 30 November with a last call that evening. Add a Christmas shipping cut-off of Friday 18 December and an order-by reminder lands on Tuesday 15 December.

To check the offer, put your margin into the ROAS calculator: a discount comes straight off the margin, so the break-even ROAS for your ads rises with it.

• Deciding the discount last. A deeper discount means a higher break-even ROAS on every ad you run that week.
• Waking a cold list in November. Mailbox providers watch how people react to your mail; a burst of sends to people who stopped opening months ago hurts delivery for everyone else.
• Emailing buyers about a sale they already used. Exclude people who ordered from the weekend reminders.
• Untested flows. Traffic is at its highest; a broken abandoned checkout email costs the most this week.
• Forgetting the next month. New customers from the sale are the start of your December and January.

It dates the steps and says what each is for. It does not write the emails, pick the products or know your stock. For the rest of the season, use the email calendar generator, or let the email calendar agent plan and draft it for your customers.