United States
Black Friday follows Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday follows it, so the sale runs as one long weekend. Prices are shown before sales tax, which is added at checkout.
PLAYBOOK
The Shopify Black Friday and holiday playbook
A countdown from eight weeks out to the review after the sale, for stores selling in the US, UK and Australia.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Set the offer from your margin eight weeks out, freeze the code two weeks out, and test checkout in every market you sell in. Most sale-week failures come from a late change, not from the traffic.
IN SHORT
- Start eight weeks before Black Friday, and set the offer from your margin before any design or build work.
- Freeze the code about two weeks out. Most peak-week breakage comes from a late change, not from the traffic.
- Black Friday 2026 is November 27 and Cyber Monday is November 30, in the US, UK and Australia alike.
- The markets differ in the details that break a sale: tax-inclusive or tax-added prices, Boxing Day, summer in Australia, and which holidays fall when.
- The playbook uses no benchmarks of ours. It is a sequence, and every figure in it is yours.
The 2026 dates
Calendar dates for this year. The pattern repeats; the dates move.
- US Thanksgiving
- Thursday, November 26
- Black Friday (US, UK, Australia)
- Friday, November 27
- Cyber Monday
- Monday, November 30
- Christmas Day
- Friday, December 25
- Boxing Day
- Saturday, December 26
The countdown
Eight stages. Each one assumes the one before it is done.
- 01
8 weeks out: set the offer from your margin
The break-even ROAS calculator turns your costs into the floor.
Work out what each product earns after the discount, shipping, payment fees and returns, and set a floor you will not go under. Decide the offer before the design, because the offer decides which pages and discount rules you have to build.
- 02
6 weeks out: audit the theme and the apps
List every installed app and what it loads on the storefront. Remove what you do not use, then check the pages that will take the traffic (home, collection, product, cart) on a mid-range phone. Make the theme and app updates now.
- 03
5 weeks out: build and test the offers
Build the discounts, bundles and gifts, and try to break them: codes combined with automatic discounts, a discount on an already reduced item, a cart that crosses a free-shipping threshold. Test every market and currency you sell in.
- 04
4 weeks out: inventory and fulfillment
Decide what happens at zero stock: sold out, waitlist or pre-order. Get your carrier and warehouse peak cutoff dates in writing, and put the last-order date for Christmas delivery on the site.
- 05
3 weeks out: email, SMS and ads
Build the sequence and the early-access list, and send to engaged subscribers before the cold part of the list. Check your sending domain is authenticated, so peak-week volume does not land in spam.
- 06
2 weeks out: code freeze
A freeze is a rule, not a hope: one person owns it and says no.
From here only fixes ship. Run a full checkout in every market with every payment method you offer, on desktop and phone, and confirm the order, the email and the stock count all update.
- 07
Peak week: watch, do not change
Someone watches the checkout, the stock and the support inbox every day of the sale. Fix what is broken, and leave everything else alone until it ends.
- 08
After: review while it is fresh
Write down what sold, what broke and what the margin really was, while the week is still in your head. Returns arrive in January, so look at them again then.
What changes by market
The same calendar, different details. Check each one for every market you sell in.
United Kingdom
Black Friday is the same date, and Boxing Day is its own sale on the 26th. Shoppers expect the displayed price to include VAT, so check that your prices and any free-shipping threshold do.
Australia
Black Friday is the same date, and the holidays fall in summer, which changes what sells. Prices include GST, and shoppers often expect a pay-later option at checkout.
Selling into more than one
Run each market as its own checklist. A sale that is correct in dollars with tax added can be wrong in pounds or Australian dollars with tax included.
Sitewide discount or a targeted offer?
The honest answer is usually the cheaper one to run.
| Sitewide discount | Targeted offerUSUALLY THIS | |
|---|---|---|
| Margin risk | Applies to everything, including what would have sold anyway | Limited to the products and customers you choose |
| Setup | One rule, quick to build | More rules to build and to test |
| Right when | You need to clear stock, or margins are wide | Margins are tight, or you want to protect a core range |
| Main failure | A busy week that makes little profit | A rule that combines with another one by mistake |
Questions about the peak season
When should I start preparing a Shopify store for Black Friday?
Start about eight weeks before. The first job is deciding the offer from your margin, because the discount rules, pages and emails all depend on it. Leaving that to week four is what pushes testing into the freeze.
What is a code freeze and when should it start?
A code freeze is a point after which only fixes go live: no new features, theme changes or app installs. About two weeks before the sale is a common line, because it leaves time to find and fix what the last change broke.
What date is Black Friday in 2026?
Black Friday 2026 is Friday, November 27, the day after US Thanksgiving on November 26. Cyber Monday is November 30. The UK and Australia keep Black Friday on the same date.
Should I run a sitewide discount or a targeted offer?
Usually a targeted one, because a sitewide discount cuts the margin on everything, including the products that would have sold anyway. Sitewide is right when you need to clear stock or the margin is wide enough to absorb it. The comparison above sets out the trade.
How do I stop my Shopify store from breaking during a sale?
Remove apps you do not need, finish changes before the freeze, test the full checkout in every market, and keep one person watching it during the sale. Most peak-week failures come from a late change, not from traffic.
Are the holidays on the same dates in the US, UK and Australia?
Mostly not. Mother’s Day is the second Sunday in May in the US and Australia, but Mothering Sunday in the UK falls in March. Father’s Day is the third Sunday in June in the US and the UK, and the first Sunday in September in Australia. Check each market before you plan a campaign around it.
Do price and discount claims have rules?
Yes. Regulators in all three markets act on misleading price claims, including “was” prices that were never charged. Rules change, so check the current guidance from the FTC, the UK’s CMA and ASA, and the ACCC before you publish a reference price. This is not legal advice.
Where this fits
The playbook gives you the sequence. These are the places we do the work in it.
Discount break-even calculator
How many more orders a sale price has to bring in.
UX and checkout audit
The checkout test from the freeze, before the traffic arrives.
Break-even ROAS calculator
What an order leaves, so the offer is set from your margin.
Free store audit
A prioritized list of fixes, some of which you can do yourself.