Most Shopify brands spend Q4 buying one spike at full price — then watch the list go quiet by January. We build the retention system that turns BFCM traffic into repeat buyers, not one-time discount hunters.
60-minute audit. No pitch deck. No fluff. Just where your revenue is leaking.
Your acquisition will probably work. It usually does. The failure happens in the six weeks either side of the weekend — in the flows, the list, and the silence that follows December 1st.
You send six times your normal volume to a list you haven’t warmed since summer. Gmail throttles you in the exact window that matters, and your best-performing send lands under Promotions.
Cost: the whole weekend, filtered
Deep sitewide discounting acquires customers who convert at 40% off and nothing less. They look like growth in November and like dead weight in February.
Cost: Q1 revenue that never arrives
The single biggest cohort you will acquire all year gets a receipt and then nothing. No second-order sequence, no review request, no reason to come back.
Cost: 2.4× the first sale, unclaimed
Three times the carts, same generic three-email sequence, no segmentation by cart value or buyer history. High-intent shoppers get treated like tyre-kickers.
Cost: +£84 per cart you didn’t touch
Your VIPs get the same email as a subscriber who lapsed two years ago. At the moment your list is worth the most, you train your best customers to ignore you.
Cost: unsubscribes at peak list value
A channel switched on in November with no consent history and no sending reputation. Carriers filter it, and the compliance exposure is real.
Cost: filtered before it’s read
Ten things that decide whether November is a spike or a system. Tick what is genuinely live in your account today — not what is on a roadmap.
This is not a campaign calendar. It is the order operations have to happen in for November to work — and the reason starting in October costs you the first two phases.
Before a single BFCM email gets written, the list has to be able to receive it. We run list hygiene, sunset genuinely dead subscribers, rebuild segmentation from actual purchase behaviour, and establish a warm, consistent sending cadence so your reputation is earned before the volume spike.
Every core flow gets a Q4 branch: welcome series that routes new subscribers toward the sale, cart and browse abandonment segmented by value and intent, post-purchase sequences written for gift buyers, and a VIP track with early access for your top 10%. Copy, timing and test hypotheses included.
Q4 traffic is the cheapest list growth you will ever get. Exit pop-ups and waitlist capture convert browsers into subscribers before the sale, teaser campaigns build anticipation without discounting early, and SMS consent is collected properly so the channel is legal and warm by the 27th.
A mapped campaign calendar across all four days, SMS used surgically in flash windows and restock moments rather than blasted, real-time cart recovery tuned for volume, and inventory-aware sending so you never promote a product that sold out three hours ago. We monitor live.
This is where BFCM either pays for itself or doesn’t. Post-purchase sequences that introduce complementary products and set up the second order, review requests timed to the moment customers are happiest, and a January win-back built specifically for the discount cohort — at full margin.
Anyone can set up a flow. We build the strategy behind it — the segmentation logic, the copy angle, the timing, the test hypothesis, and the monthly iteration that makes it compound.
Your new subscriber just raised their hand during your most expensive traffic month. We map the first 7–14 days so that by the time the sale opens, they already trust you — instead of a generic thanks for joining.
Someone looked at a product three times and didn’t buy. That is not disinterest, that is hesitation. Multi-touch sequences that address the real objection — price, trust, urgency — segmented by behaviour, never batch-blasted.
We find your top 10% and give them the sale before everyone else. Early access, exclusive bundles, recognition that feels earned. These are the customers who refer friends and forgive your stock issues.
Most brands go silent after the sale. We design a sequence that handles fulfilment anxiety, drives the review, introduces complementary products, and sets up the second order before the customer thinks about needing it.
We calculate your average reorder cycle from your actual order data and build nudge sequences timed to it. The customer feels like you read their mind. You recover revenue that would have gone to a competitor.
Not a channel we bolt on for optics. Flash windows, restock alerts, post-purchase confirmations and win-back moments where the inbox just won’t cut it. Every message has a reason to exist.
Lapsed customers aren’t lost, they’re ignored. We identify exactly when a BFCM buyer starts going cold and intercept with a sequence that feels personal, not desperate. No knee-jerk discounts. Strategy first.
Repeat purchase rate, revenue per subscriber and lifetime value — not open rates. Transparent monthly reporting and a dedicated contact who actually knows your brand.
Book the free 60-minute audit and we’ll map which of these you actually need before Black Friday.
The flows just made sense. Customers were getting the right email at the right time and it showed.
We went from batch-and-blast to actually strategic. The difference in engagement was immediate.
We finally had a welcome series that actually felt like us.
Churn dropped, reviews went up, and repeat orders followed. That was the whole point.
We build inside the platform you already run on — Klaviyo, Omnisend, Brevo and Attentive — so your BFCM flows, segments and sending reputation are set up natively, not bolted on afterwards.
Book before the October build window closes and your BFCM flows go live with time to test.
One-time
For stores with flows already live but results that don’t show it. We review your entire account, identify what’s broken, and give you a prioritised fix list.
$3,500/month
For brands doing $500K–$2M a year. Full flow setup, monthly campaigns, segmentation, reporting and copy included.
$5,500/month
For scaling brands at $2M+. Everything in Tier 1, plus the channel depth that BFCM volume demands.
New store with no retention system at all? Ask about Complete Setup — a one-time full flow build, launched with everything running. Minimum commitment is 3 months, then month-to-month. Calculate your ROI first →
Every plan on this page assumes the site converts what it sends. Our sister studio ForgeCRO runs a free Shopify CRO audit that shows exactly where a store leaks conversions under peak traffic — and ships the fixes inside 7 days, which is why this is an October job rather than a November one.
Free, and no call required to get the report. Fixes shipped within 7 days if you want them done for you.
Flows have to be live and tested before the traffic arrives, which puts the real work in October — not the week of the sale. Book the audit just below and we’ll map what to build, in what order, and what each piece is worth to you.
Proven by 150+ Shopify store owners · Klaviyo, Omnisend, Brevo & Attentive partners
Retention marketing for Shopify and DTC brands — Klaviyo, Omnisend, Brevo and Attentive. Each button opens your assistant with a research prompt already written, so it reads the site and reports back.
