BFCM keeps getting bigger, but a bigger sale is not always a more profitable one. US shoppers spent $257.8 billion online over the 2025 holiday season, up 6.8%, and peak discounts reached 25% on apparel and 31% on electronics (Adobe).
Two costs eat most of what a store makes during BFCM: the discount it gives away on every order, and the ad spend it pays to reach shoppers, including ones who already bought from it before.
This post covers one fix for each. Bundles raise order value without cutting the price of every product. A mobile app gives you a channel you own, so you stop paying to reach the customers you already have.
Where BFCM profit leaks
Leak 1: the discount on every order
Discounts got deeper in 2025, not shallower. Most categories peaked at 20–31% off listed prices.
A sitewide discount costs more than it looks, because every order pays it, including the ones that would have happened anyway. The table shows how much more a store has to sell just to earn the same profit after a price cut.
| Your gross margin | Sitewide discount | Extra units needed to break even |
|---|---|---|
| 60% | 20% | +50% |
| 60% | 30% | +100% |
| 40% | 20% | +100% |
| 40% | 30% | +300% |
Illustrative math using the break-even formula from Impact Pricing: extra units needed = discount ÷ (margin − discount).
Deep discounts also change what shoppers expect next time. In a Stanford field study of more than 200,000 supermarket shoppers, people who first saw a 30% discount were 22% more likely to respond to later 10% discounts than people who first saw 10% (Stanford GSB).
Leak 2: paying again to reach the same shoppers
Attention is at its most expensive during BFCM. Across large US Meta ad accounts managed by the agency Biddyco, the median cost per 1,000 impressions on Black Friday 2025 was 57% higher than in October (Biddyco).
Shoppers also buy more readily that week, so ads can still pay off. The leak is narrower: every time you want a past customer back, you pay the platform again to reach someone who already knows your store.
Two ways to protect your BFCM margin
Good news: both leaks have a fix, and neither one means giving up on BFCM sales. Bundles help you discount less, and an app helps you stop paying twice for the same customers. Let’s look at each one.
Lever 1: Bundles instead of deep discounts
A bundle gives the discount only when the shopper buys more, so the price of a single item stays where it is.
Take a candle store. Instead of 25% off everything, it sells any three candles for $54 instead of $60. A shopper who wanted one candle pays full price; a shopper who wanted a gift box gets 10% off and spends three times as much. (Illustrative example.)
This is one of the oldest ideas in pricing research. Bundling lets a store reach shoppers who value products differently without cutting the price of each one, and the discount is what tips some shoppers into the bundle (Stremersch & Tellis, Journal of Marketing). Shoppers are looking for it, too: going into BFCM 2025, BCG noted they were “watching for product bundles that offer better deals” (BCG).
Bundles are not automatic wins. In an MIT field experiment, only a small share of shoppers who saw a bundle bought it (Kumar, Eckles & Aral). The bundle has to match how people already buy your products.
Which bundle fits which product:
| Your products | Bundle type | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Things people use up and rebuy: skincare, snacks, socks, coffee | Volume bundle with pack sizes | 1 pair for $2, 7 pairs for $12 |
| Ranges with many scents, flavors or colors: candles, tea, cosmetics | Mix & match | Any 3 candles for one bundle price |
| Gifts | Build-your-own box with guided steps | Pick a box, pick 3 items, add a card |
| A hero product that needs extras: cameras, consoles, apparel | Cross-sell bundle | Console + controller + game |
| New or unfamiliar products | Starter kit or sample pack | Lash kit with tweezers |
Examples adapted from Shopify’s bundling guide and price bundling guide.
Setting it up with PushBundle. PushBundle by EFOLI builds the four core types: mix & match, build-a-box, volume and cross-sell. Merchants can create starter kits using suitable fixed-product or cross-sell bundle configurations, while Mix & Match lets customers personalize their selections. You choose a percentage, fixed-amount or fixed bundle-price discount, and set quantities, steps and who is eligible.
Beyond traditional bundle discounts, PushBundle helps Shopify merchants make their BFCM promotions more rewarding with free gifts, free shipping, and scheduled bundle offers. Merchants can encourage customers to purchase more by unlocking a free gift or free shipping when they meet specific bundle conditions. They can also schedule bundles to run during selected promotional periods, making it easier to plan Black Friday and Cyber Monday offers in advance. These features help merchants create attractive, time-sensitive deals that encourage larger orders without relying solely on deep sitewide discounts.
It also keeps each component’s stock in sync with Shopify. That matters more than it sounds: research from Chicago Booth found shoppers react more strongly when one item in a bundle is missing (Chicago Booth). Selling a gift box with a sold-out candle in it is worse than not selling it.
If you also sell wholesale, the same app supports B2B bundle strategies for your wholesale buyers.
Lever 2: Stop paying to reach customers you already have
An app on a customer’s home screen lets you reach them with a push notification, and sending it costs nothing per message.
That is the main reason merchants give for building one. In reviews of mobile app builders on the Shopify App Store, the most common story is a store that relied on Facebook or ads for traffic and wanted a direct line to its best customers. One SimiCart merchant, Grayland Styles, wrote that after problems with Facebook’s algorithm, an app with push notifications was “truly the best decision” (SimiCart reviews).
The other uses merchants mention most are the ones BFCM needs:
- Early access for app users. Open the sale to app users a day early, so your best customers buy before stock runs low.
- App-only offers. A deal that exists only in the app gives people a reason to install it.
- Announcing the sale without buying the audience. A push reaches everyone who opted in, on the day ad prices peak.
Apps also tend to convert better than mobile web. In an analysis of 100+ shopping apps during BFCM 2025, app conversion rates were 80–115% higher than mobile web (see Sources). Treat this as directional: people who install an app are usually more engaged to begin with.
The honest catch: an app only pays off once people install it. A few things to plan for:
- Installs take promotion. Use your website, order confirmation emails and an app-only offer to ask for the install. The audience you build this BFCM is the one you can reach for free next year.
- Not everyone allows push. In 2025, the median opt-in rate was 48.85% on iOS and 53.3% on Android (Airship). Send fewer, more useful messages so people keep them on.
- It is a long-term channel, not a one-week tactic. The payoff grows with every customer who keeps the app after BFCM.
Building the app with SimiCart. SimiCart builds native iOS and Android apps from your Shopify store without code, synced with your products in real time. It includes unlimited push notifications, app-exclusive discounts, smart app banners that invite web visitors to install, and loyalty program integration on the Pro plan (SimiCart on the Shopify App Store).
Use both together: bundles that bring people into the app
The two levers are strongest as a loop: a BFCM bundle gives shoppers a reason to install the app, and the app brings them back for the next bundle without another ad.
- Launch one BFCM bundle in the app first. A gift box or best-seller bundle that opens 24 hours early for app users is a concrete reason to install.
- Ask for the install where BFCM traffic already is. A smart app banner on your site and a line in your order confirmation reach shoppers at the busiest point of the year.
- Follow up after BFCM with the right bundle. Shoppers who bought a volume pack of something they use up get a push when it’s time to reorder. Gift buyers get a build-a-box reminder before your December shipping cutoff.
By January, the shoppers you paid to reach once in November are customers you can reach for free.
Four-week plan before BFCM
Black Friday 2026 falls on November 27. Start now: app store reviews take time, and installs need weeks to build.
Week 1: Plan (late October)
☐ Write down your gross margin per category and the deepest discount you can afford on each.
☐ Pick 2–3 bundles from the table above, matched to your best sellers.
☐ Start building your app and submit it to the App Store and Google Play.
Week 2: Build (early November)
☐ Set up the bundles, their discounts and eligibility rules.
☐ Choose the bundle that launches in the app first.
☐ Turn on a smart app banner on your site and add an install link to order confirmation emails.
Week 3: Test and invite (mid-November)
☐ Buy each bundle on a phone and on desktop. Check stock, discount and checkout.
☐ Tell your email list and social followers about app-only early access.
☐ Schedule push notifications: early access, sale start, last day.
Week 4: Final check (the week before BFCM)
☐ Confirm bundle stock covers expected demand.
☐ Plan your post-BFCM follow-up: reorder reminders and December gift reminders.
☐ Freeze changes before the sale weekend.
The bottom line
A profitable BFCM comes from giving away less on each order and paying less to reach the same people twice.
- Bundles let you reward bigger baskets instead of discounting every product.
- An app turns this year’s BFCM shoppers into an audience you can reach for free.
You do not need both on day one. Start with the bundle for your best seller, and use it as the reason to get your first app installs.
BFCM offer: get 30% off eligible PushBundle paid plans for 12 months. Claim it through this BFCM link or use code BFCM26 by December 12, 2026.
This post is a collaboration between SimiCart and PushBundle by EFOLI. SimiCart helps Shopify merchants build native mobile apps. PushBundle helps stores create mix & match, build-a-box, volume and cross-sell bundles.
