Customer retention strategy for Black Friday: What to do before the holiday rush hits

Black Friday and Cyber Monday bring record-breaking traffic, and a flood of discount-hunters who vanish as soon as the deals end. This blog will help you change that. We’ll walk you through a proactive retention strategy designed to keep your holiday shoppers engaged long after BFCM is over.

From smart segmentation to loyalty perks and memberships that build predictable revenue, you’ll discover tactics proven to boost repeat purchases, margins, and customer lifetime value. But first, let’s understand why most brands lose their customers post-BFCM.

Why most brands lose customers post-BFCM sale (and how to retain BFCM shoppers)

The surge of holiday shoppers might feel like a victory, but the reality is that most of them will likely never return, as many are driven by discounts and opportunity.

They don’t buy because they love your brand, they buy because your 40% off sale made it the cheapest option at that moment. Once the urgency passes and prices return to normal, these shoppers often disappear.

Here are some more reasons your holiday shoppers don’t return:

They’re conditioned to wait for the next big sale.
They were a gift shopper and forgot all about your brand after the purchase.
They never built an emotional connection or a sense of loyalty to your brand.
You captured their email, but never gave them a compelling reason to engage again.
Your post-purchase experience was transactional. You simply sent a “thanks for buying” email rather than a relational “welcome to our community” one.

And while it’s tempting to think volume makes up for margin loss, every sitewide discount chips away at profitability. For many Shopify Plus brands, Black Friday sales cost 20–40% in margins. If you don’t have a plan to retain those new customers, you’re effectively renting revenue for a few days.

But the good news is that brands that combine smart retention tactics, especially membership programs, see 2–4x higher repeat purchase rates post-BFCM.

Before we talk in detail about memberships, let’s look at five other tactics to boost retention before and after the holiday season.

5 proven tactics to boost retention before and after the holiday season

Here are actionable plays you can consider for your BFCM planning.

1. First purchase flow → Second purchase winback

After someone buys during BFCM, trigger an automated flow to nudge them back. Offer a time-limited credit, a personalized bundle recommendation, or a loyalty tier upgrade. Send a series of emails that highlight new arrivals and limited-time offers, and reinforce the feeling of exclusivity. Make sure to remind them a few days before their incentive expires to create urgency.

2. Segmentation-based lifecycle messaging

Not all holiday shoppers are alike. Separate gifters from self-buyers and tailor messages accordingly. For example, “Did you love the gift you gave? Here’s something for the upcoming Valentine’s Day,” or “Why wait for the next holiday season, treat yourself again.”

Send post-purchase surveys to better understand their preferences and follow up with personalized recommendations. Use dynamic content in your emails to showcase relevant collections and limited-time perks.

3. Exclusive loyalty perks for the holidays

Offer exclusive loyalty perks for the holidays. As an example, you could create a “12 Days of Perks” campaign, with bonus points, early access to January drops, or members-only offers. This creates a sense of momentum and belonging.

Complement this with SMS reminders and push notifications to keep customers engaged across channels. Consider including surprise gifts or exclusive content to deepen the emotional connection.

4. Gift card and store credit promotions

Gift cards are more than last-minute saviors. They’re a built-in retention engine. Run a promotion like “Buy a $100 gift card, get $20 credit free.” Pair this with an email countdown highlighting how easy it is to redeem and share the offer. Follow up with reminders and creative use cases to inspire gift card usage in Q1.

5. Limited-time referral bonuses

Make referrals irresistible with time-limited offers: “Give $20, Get $20 when you refer a friend before December 31.” Add social proof with testimonials and a progress bar showing how many friends have signed up. Reinforce the urgency with a final reminder as the deadline approaches.

You could do one or a combination of these strategies to boost customer retention post Black Friday, and while all these tactics help, none are as powerful as launching a membership program. Let’s understand why.

Why memberships are your best BFCM strategy

Unlike discounts or product subscriptions tied to one product, memberships can help create a more sustainable and engaging customer relationship over time. They aren’t just about transactions, but about building a brand-wide connection that feels rewarding and special. They:

Generate upfront recurring revenue you can reinvest in inventory and marketing.
Unlock perks without constant discounting.
Encourage ongoing engagement with store credit, VIP access, and exclusive experiences.

For example, Rose Forever, a DTC brand that specializes in preserved roses presented in elegant boxes, used a membership program to drive retention and deepen relationships with customers who would often discover them during the holidays but wouldn’t return afterwards.

After implementing a membership program, they increased their LTV by 66%, highlighting how memberships can benefit even gifting-driven brands.

Read about how 3 other non-Shopify brands have used memberships to increase their LTC and reduce CAC.

And here’s how you, too, can build a Shopify membership program before the holiday rush hits.

How to build a Shopify BFCM membership program in 4 steps

Here are 4 simple steps to create a membership program before the BFCM season hits.

Step 1: Define your membership value proposition

Decide what your members would get. This is where you can outline a compelling mix of benefits that feel relevant and exciting for your customers. Instead of relying on a one-size-fits-all approach or focusing on your competitors, consider your brand story and what your audience values most. Examples:

Monthly store credit (e.g., $39/month redeemable sitewide)
Early access to new collections
VIP support and exclusive perks

Step 2: Design the Right Pricing

Use AOV and repurchase frequency to pick monthly or annual billing. The goal is to price high enough to drive value, but accessible enough to encourage sign-ups.

Step 3: Create a frictionless sign-up journey

Promote enrollment across PDPs, cart, and checkout. Think about where your customers naturally look for value and inspiration—this could be a homepage banner, an exit-intent popup, or a subtle prompt when someone adds a product to the cart.

Frame the offer as part of your brand story and not just another promotion. Communicate value with a clear copy like, “Lock in 10% off all holiday shopping + $39 credit every month.”

Read our detailed guide on how to create a membership program for your Shopify brand for more details.

Step 4: Map the right communication at the right time

Once your membership is ready, you also need to think about the right communication strategy. Because shoppers during BFCM are prone to alert fatigue as they get many offers from multiple brands.

Start by mapping the right communication at the right time. Think about when and how your customers expect to hear from you—and match your messaging to those moments.

For example, send educational emails during the consideration phase, timely SMS reminders during the BFCM weekend, and gentle push notifications afterward to re-engage shoppers who haven’t converted. Warm up your lists and prepare deliverability early so your messages land where they should.

Let’s explore more about why timing is important for your BFCM campaigns.

Launch memberships before Black Friday to maximize impact

Timing is everything when it comes to building momentum before Black Friday. Launching your program well ahead of the holiday surge gives you more space to educate customers, test messaging, and warm up your audiences without competing with the noise of BFCM itself.

By preparing early, you’ll have a chance to capture first-time holiday buyers before they fade away and build anticipation for your exclusive offers.

For example, you can tie membership sign-ups to special Black Friday perks that feel limited and time-sensitive, creating urgency and a sense of VIP access that encourages more shoppers to act fast.

Make sure you have a clear timeline in place:

In October, focus on designing your offer
In early November, roll out your campaign assets and begin your promotion
And during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, amplify your messaging with incentives that reward early commitment and keep your brand top of mind.

While these steps and tactics help with customer retention, it can feel intimidating to juggle so many moving parts, from timing and messaging to segmentation and testing. You might wonder how to keep it all organized and launch a successful retention strategy..

This is exactly where Subscribfy comes in to help you simplify the process.

Turn one-time holiday shoppers into lifelong customers with Subscribfy

When it feels overwhelming to plan and execute all of this alone, Subscribfy makes launching memberships fast, seamless, and profitable. Here’s how we can help you every step of the way:

Data analysis & segmentation

We start by analyzing your historical sales and customer behavior to identify the best-fit audience segments.
We uncover which cohorts are most likely to join a membership program, what perks will resonate, and what pricing model aligns with your AOV and repurchase frequency.
This step ensures your offer is grounded in data, not guesswork.

Custom UX & campaign design

Our design team builds a fully branded membership experience that feels seamless across your site, cart, and checkout.
We create all the assets you need: Landing pages, On-site banners and modals, Email flows (welcome series, reminders, re-engagement), Clear messaging and calls-to-action to drive sign-ups

Fast implementation & testing

Our engineers handle all the technical setup, integrating the membership program directly into Shopify Plus.
We test the full customer journey end-to-end to make sure everything works perfectly.
You’ll get to review and approve the flows before launch.

Launch and ongoing optimization

Once live, we monitor early performance, track sign-ups, and share clear reporting so you can see how your membership is driving revenue.
We help you adapt offers and automations in real time, especially during the holiday rush when every day counts.

The holiday season is when many brands see the biggest influx of new customers, but fail to convert them into lifelong customers.

Book a demo and see how Subscribfy can help you with that, so you get sales throughout the year.