Black Friday and Cyber Monday

What Is Black Friday and Cyber Monday? Meaning & Examples

When marketers talk about “Black Friday Cyber Monday” as a single phrase, they are referring to the most intense shopping period of the year. These two days anchor the start of the holiday shopping season in the United States, but their influence now extends globally and across industries.

• Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving Day, traditionally marking the unofficial start of holiday shopping. Historically focused on in store shopping with dramatic doorbusters and long lines at brick and mortar stores, it has shifted heavily toward online deals over the past decade.

• Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately after Thanksgiving weekend. The term Cyber Monday was coined in 2005 by the National Retail Federation to encourage consumers to shop online, originally targeting workers who returned to offices with faster internet access.

• Black Friday deals typically focus on big ticket items like new TV sets, gaming consoles, laptops, and power tools. Cyber Monday deals tend to favor clothing, beauty products, digital subscriptions, SaaS annual plans, and small appliances like stand mixers.

• Together, these days form what many retailers now call “BFCM” or simply the start of Cyber Week, a period that can stretch from early November through December.

Black Friday: Meaning, history, and key trends

Black Friday is the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving, and it has become the busiest shopping day in the United States by shopper count. But the name did not always carry positive associations.

The term originated in the 1960s in Philadelphia, where police used “Black Friday” to describe the chaos that erupted the day after Thanksgiving. Suburban shoppers flooded the city for holiday shopping and the Army-Navy football game, creating traffic jams, accidents, and crowd control nightmares. Officers worked overtime, and the name stuck as a way to describe the mayhem.

In the 1980s, major retailers recognized an opportunity to reframe the narrative. They promoted the idea that Black Friday was when stores moved from operating “in the red” (at a loss) to “in the black” (profitable). This accounting metaphor helped transform a negative term into a marketing opportunity. Some retailers even tried pushing “Big Friday” as an alternative, but that never caught on.

The evolution of Black Friday accelerated through the 2000s and 2010s. Early morning doorbusters gave way to Thanksgiving evening openings. Physical stores competed with online retailers offering black friday prices without the crowds. The 2020 pandemic accelerated this shift dramatically, pushing many consumers to holiday shopping online for the first time.

Today, Black Friday is less about a single day and more about a week-long or even month-long event. Many retailers start teasing black friday bargains in early November. The result is a more sustained shopping season rather than a frantic 24-hour sprint.

Common Black Friday deal categories include:

• 4K and smart TVs

• Gaming consoles and accessories

• Smartphones and tablets

• Large appliances and smart home devices

• Power tools and outdoor equipment

Cyber Monday: Meaning, origin, and how it differs from Black Friday

Cyber Monday is the monday immediately after Thanksgiving, dedicated entirely to online shopping and digital-first promotions. While Black Friday evolved organically from post-Thanksgiving retail patterns, Cyber Monday was deliberately created.

In 2005, the National Retail Federation’s digital arm, Shop.org, issued a press release introducing the term. They had noticed a pattern: online sales spiked on the Monday after Thanksgiving as workers returned to offices with high-speed internet access. Rather than fighting crowds at physical stores, many consumers preferred shopping online from their desks. The name “Cyber Monday” was chosen deliberately. An alternative, “Black Monday,” was rejected due to its association with the 1987 stock market crash.

Through the 2010s, Cyber Monday rapidly grew into one of the biggest online shopping days of the year. Online retailers invested heavily in infrastructure, and Cyber Monday sales began rivaling or exceeding Black Friday totals for many ecommerce brands.

Traditional differences between the two days included:

However, the distinction has blurred significantly. More retailers now run seamless campaigns from Friday and Cyber Monday through the entire week. Many brands talk about “Cyber Week” or “BFCM” as a unified event rather than strictly separating the days. For savvy shoppers and marketers alike, the question has become less about which day matters and more about how to plan ahead for the entire period.

Black Friday vs Cyber Monday: What matters for your strategy

For many brands, the question is not “which day is better” but “how do we use both days within one coordinated campaign.” Understanding the differences helps you allocate resources and tailor offers appropriately.

• Timing differences: Black Friday captures early-bird shoppers and high-intent deal hunters who have been waiting all year. Cyber Monday reaches shoppers who researched over the Thanksgiving weekend and prefer to buy online rather than fight crowds.

• Product focus: Consider using Black Friday for limited-stock, high-ticket items where urgency and special discounts drive action. Reserve Cyber Monday for accessories, bundles, add-ons, and subscription offers where the online version of your store shines.

• Pricing strategy: Black Friday often calls for deeper discounts or doorbuster-style deals that create urgency. Cyber Monday can emphasize value-based bundles, loyalty perks, extended trials, or gifts with purchase.

• Operational requirements: Black Friday may require in-store staffing, curbside logistics, and same day fulfillment capacity. Cyber Monday demands robust server capacity, mobile-optimized checkout, and UX that handles traffic surges without friction.

• Testing approach: You can A/B test different offers per day and segment, then quickly roll out winners mid-campaign. This makes sense when you are not sure whether your audience responds better to friday or cyber monday messaging.

Why Black Friday and Cyber Monday matter for ecommerce and SaaS

Black Friday and Cyber Monday now influence the entire Q4 revenue picture for ecommerce brands and many SaaS companies running seasonal or annual plan promotions. The holiday season concentrates buying intent into a narrow window, creating both opportunity and intense competition.

Many consumers deliberately delay purchases, waiting for black friday sales or cyber monday deals before buying expensive items like laptops, annual software subscriptions, or marketing tools. This behavior means brands that skip BFCM may lose sales to competitors who participate. At the same time, intense competition increases customer acquisition costs in paid advertising, making on-site conversion optimization and personalization critical to protecting margins.

The peak traffic period also offers a unique opportunity to collect first-party data. Email capture widgets, quiz funnels, and account creation prompts can turn one-time visitors into long-term contacts. For SaaS brands especially, the long-term value comes from turning Black Friday buyers into repeat customers or users who later upgrade plans after their discounted period ends.

Traffic volume during BFCM is high but finite. Each visit must be treated as a testable and personalizable opportunity. Rather than showing every visitor the same generic banner, you can segment by behavior, traffic source, and customer stage to deliver the right message at the right moment.

How Black Friday Cyber and Monday campaigns work in practice

Effective BFCM campaigns follow a predictable sequence: tease, launch, optimize, and extend. Understanding this flow helps you structure your efforts from early november through the week after Cyber Monday.

Pre-event (October through mid-November): Brands build email and SMS lists using popups and lead magnets with explicit Black Friday or Cyber Monday framing. Messaging might offer early access or exclusive previews in exchange for signup. This is also when you should test core pages and finalize creative assets.

Launch week: During the actual event, brands deploy tailored on-site messaging, countdown timers, and urgency tactics to move visitors to checkout faster. Different banners and offers may appear for different segments. Testing continues, with quick pivots based on what performs.

Optimization in real-time: The best deals often surface mid-campaign. Monitoring performance by segment allows you to double down on what works. If a particular hero banner drives higher conversions from mobile traffic, you can expand that treatment immediately.

Post-event extension: After Cyber Monday, the shopping season continues. Brands retarget visitors who browsed but did not buy, using segmented experiences and personalized recommendations to close remaining opportunities before holiday shipping deadlines.

Use Cases For Black Friday and Cyber Monday

There are quite a few tools for no-code conversion rate optimization and personalization used by ecommerce and SaaS brands during BFCM. They enable behavioral targeting, A/B testing, and smart widgets such as popups, banners, and slide-ins without heavy development work.

Common Black Friday and Cyber Monday use cases include:

• Special offer announcements: Display targeted banners announcing your best deals to first-time visitors, while showing different messaging to returning customers who have already seen the main promotion.

• Cart saver popups: Trigger exit-intent overlays offering an additional discount or free shipping when a shopper is about to abandon checkout during the high-stakes weekend.

• Personalized product recommendations: Show dynamic recommendations based on browsing behavior, helping shoppers discover complementary items or alternatives that match their interests.

• Targeted upsell widgets: Present upgrade options, bundles, or add-ons to customers based on what is already in their cart or their purchase history.

• Segmented experiences by customer stage: Create different experiences for new visitors, returning customers, loyalty members, and high-value segments during the peak shopping weekend.

All experiments and personalizations are backed by real-time analytics, so marketers can react quickly when traffic surges and patterns shift.

Real-world Black Friday and Cyber Monday personalization examples

Understanding how personalization works in practice helps translate strategy into action. Here are scenarios that illustrate what effective BFCM personalization looks like.

Ecommerce example: Dynamic homepage banners

An online electronics store uses a personalization tool to show different homepage banners on Black Friday versus Cyber Monday. On Friday, the hero image highlights doorbuster deals on gaming consoles and 4K TVs. On Monday, the banner shifts to emphasize online deals on accessories, streaming subscriptions, and extended warranties. Visitors see messaging tailored to the day, without the marketing team manually swapping creative.

SaaS example: Trial extensions for new visitors

A marketing tool offers an extended free trial only to first-time visitors arriving from paid ads during Cyber Monday. Returning users who already have accounts see a different offer: a discounted annual plan with priority support. Good tools handle the segmentation automatically, ensuring each person sees the most relevant promotion based on their stage.

Geolocation targeting for clarity

A clothing brand with customers worldwide uses geolocation to display local currency pricing and accurate shipping cutoff dates by region. A visitor from the UK sees prices in pounds and a December 15 shipping deadline, while a visitor from Australia sees Australian dollars and a December 10 cutoff. This eliminates confusion and reduces checkout abandonment during the busiest week of the year.

Segment-based promotions

A beauty brand shows first-purchase discounts to new visitors, while existing customers see promotions for upgrades or add-ons. Loyalty members receive early access messaging, and high-value customers see exclusive bundles not available to the general audience. All of this runs simultaneously without developer involvement.

Best practices for Black Friday and Cyber Monday conversion optimization

Preparation and execution separate brands that thrive during BFCM from those that scramble. Follow these practices to maximize your results:

• Start planning months in advance: Finalize creative, offers, and testing hypotheses by early October. Last-minute scrambles lead to missed opportunities and errors.

• Test core pages before peak traffic: Use A/B tests on home, category, and checkout pages to identify the strongest variants before Black Friday arrives. Do not experiment with major changes during your busiest days.

• Avoid popup overload: Prioritize a sequence rather than stacking multiple overlays. A welcome offer on entry, exit-intent for cart recovery, and a final reminder at checkout is more effective than bombarding visitors with interruptions.

• Prioritize mobile experience: A large share of black friday and cyber monday traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. Ensure popups are mobile-friendly, checkout flows work smoothly on small screens, and page load times are optimized.

• Use urgency carefully: Dynamic countdowns and low-stock messaging can drive action, but only if they are honest. Countdowns that restart or misleading scarcity claims damage trust and can trigger negative reviews.

• Align on-site personalization with other channels: Visitors should see consistent Black Friday or Cyber Monday messaging across email, paid ads, social, and your website. Disconnected experiences create confusion and reduce conversions.

• Double check discount codes and flows: Test every code, upsell path, and checkout scenario before going live. A broken coupon during peak traffic costs real revenue.

Key metrics to track during Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Knowing what to measure during the BFCM window helps you make real-time decisions and evaluate performance afterward.

Core performance metrics:

• Conversion rate: Percentage of visitors who complete a purchase

• Average order value: Total revenue divided by number of orders

• Revenue per visitor: Total revenue divided by total sessions

• Cart abandonment rate: Percentage of shoppers who add items but do not complete checkout

Technical metrics:

• Page load time: Slow pages cost conversions, especially on mobile

• Checkout error rate: Payment failures or form errors that block purchases

• Mobile bounce rate: Visitors who leave immediately on smartphone devices

Marketing metrics:

• Email signup rate from BFCM widgets

• Performance by segment (new vs returning, traffic source, device)

• A/B test results on messaging, layout, or offer types

If you use a personalization tool, you can track how each widget or personalization variant contributes to conversions in real time during the event. This visibility allows you to scale winning experiences and pause underperformers before the weekend ends.

Preparing your website for Black Friday and Cyber Monday traffic

Operational readiness is just as important as marketing strategy. A site crash during peak traffic wastes your entire BFCM investment.

• Stress-test your website: Run load tests well before late November to identify bottlenecks. Work with your hosting provider to ensure capacity matches expected traffic spikes.

• Review the full purchase journey: Walk through every step on both desktop and mobile, from landing page to confirmation email. Remove friction points like unnecessary form fields, confusing navigation, or slow-loading images.

• Make promotions immediately visible: When visitors arrive, they should see Black Friday or Cyber Monday messaging within seconds. Do not bury deals behind multiple clicks.

• Prepare fallback experiences: Create alternative widgets ready to deploy if certain offers sell out or need to be switched quickly. Being able to swap messaging without developer help saves critical time during the rush.

• Communicate shipping and support details clearly: Display shipping deadlines, return policies, and customer support availability prominently. Uncertainty about delivery timing or returns is a common reason shoppers abandon carts during the holiday sales period.

Using Personalization tools to segment visitors for Black Friday and Cyber Monday

Segmentation is where personalization becomes powerful. Rather than treating all visitors the same, you can tailor experiences based on who they are and how they behave.

Key segmentation strategies for BFCM:

• Traffic source: Show paid social visitors a specific campaign code and landing message, while organic search visitors see a different promotion.

• Device type: Mobile visitors might see simplified popups and streamlined checkout prompts, while desktop visitors see richer experiences.

• Location: Display local currency, shipping options, and regional offers based on where the visitor is browsing from.

• Behavior: Segment by pages viewed, items in cart, or time on site. A visitor who has browsed multiple product pages is more ready for a conversion-focused popup than someone who just arrived.

• Customer stage: New visitors see first-purchase discounts, returning customers see loyalty messaging, and email subscribers see early-access offers.

Good tools allow no-code setup of these segments, making it feasible to build complex BFCM experiences without developer time. Rather than trying to personalize for every possible visitor type, prioritize a small number of high-impact segments that align with your offer structure.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday related topics

• A/B testing validates which offers, headlines, and urgency tactics actually perform before and during peak traffic periods.

• Exit-intent popups serve as a last defense against cart abandonment when shoppers get distracted mid-purchase.

• Personalization lets you segment experiences by visitor type, showing different messaging to first-time browsers, returning customers, and loyalty members.

• Average order value metrics help structure bundles and upsells that increase revenue per transaction during high-intent shopping windows.

• Cart abandonment analysis reveals where checkout flows break under pressure, guiding fixes before the next BFCM cycle.

• Urgency tactics like countdown timers and low-stock alerts require careful implementation to drive action without eroding customer trust.

Common Black Friday and Cyber Monday pitfalls to avoid

Even well-prepared brands make mistakes during BFCM. Awareness of common pitfalls helps you avoid costly errors.

• Overly complex offers: Stacking discount rules, minimum thresholds, and exclusions confuses customers at checkout. Keep promotions simple and easy to understand.

• Untested discount codes and flows: A coupon that does not work during your highest-traffic hours costs significant revenue. Test every code and upsell path before going live.

• Aggressive scarcity tactics that backfire: Countdowns that restart, “only 2 left” messages that never change, or fake urgency damage trust and invite negative reviews. Shoppers are more skeptical than ever.

• Ignoring post-purchase experience: Acquiring a customer during BFCM is only valuable if you retain them. Follow-up emails, smooth onboarding, and proactive support turn holiday buyers into repeat customers.

• Copying competitor offers blindly: Just because a competitor runs a certain discount does not mean it works for your margins, brand positioning, or audience expectations. Build offers based on your own data and strategy.

Conclusion

The retailers who win BFCM aren't necessarily the ones with the deepest discounts. They're the ones who treat the entire period as a learning laboratory.

Every visitor interaction during this compressed window generates a signal. Which segments convert on Friday but not Monday? Which offers move inventory versus which just attract deal-hunters who never return? Where do international visitors drop off in checkout? Most brands collect this data, file a post-mortem report, and forget about it by February.

The smarter play is building BFCM insights directly into your year-round optimization roadmap. If exit-intent popups rescued 15% of abandoned carts during Cyber Monday, why aren't they running in March? If geolocation-based shipping messaging reduced checkout friction for UK visitors, that's a permanent fix, not a seasonal tactic.

Think of BFCM less as a standalone event and more as a stress test that reveals exactly where your conversion funnel breaks under pressure, and where it holds. The fixes you implement based on what you learn will compound long after the holiday receipts are counted.

Key takeaways

• Black Friday and Cyber Monday have evolved from single shopping days into a week-long conversion opportunity that can define Q4 revenue for ecommerce and SaaS brands alike.

• Black Friday falls on the Friday after U.S. Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday is the Monday immediately following.

• Both days have merged into a longer “Cyber Week” period, but the individual days still represent peak conversion windows where buying intent is at its highest.

• Success during this shopping season is not only about deep discounts. Website performance, personalization, and A/B tested offers separate brands that thrive from those that leave money on the table.

• Good personalization tools help increase Black Friday and Cyber Monday revenue through no-code personalization, targeted widgets, and real-time testing that lets you react as traffic surges.

FAQ about Black Friday and Cyber Monday