Black Friday and Cyber Monday testing on Shopify
Three tracks, one for each kind of team: what to test before the sale, when to stop, and how to read the results afterwards. Free to read, no sign-up.
Shopify brands
For Shopify brands doing $1M to $10M a year.
Pick the two to four tests you will use in the sale, judge them on profit per visitor and plan the team and agencies around the freeze.
Small and new stores
For small and new Shopify stores.
Fix first, test second: what a store with modest traffic can learn before Black Friday, and what to do when the numbers say it can't.
The first part of this track is on its way.
Agencies
For agencies running tests for clients.
Plan BFCM tests across a client portfolio, agree a code freeze with each client and report the results honestly.
The first part of this track is on its way.
The timeline: what to finish by when
Work back from the freeze. A test needs at least 7 full days, and usually two to four weeks on a typical Shopify store (see how long a test should run), plus a few days to read the result and ship the winner before the freeze.
| When | What to do | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| By Sunday 25 October | Start any test that needs three weeks: an offer format, a free shipping threshold, a new collection or landing page layout. | Three weeks from 25 October ends on 15 November, the day before the freeze. |
| By Sunday 1 November | Start the last two-week tests. | Two weeks ends on 15 November. |
| 2 to 15 November | Read results, ship winners, build the BFCM offer and its banners, and check every version on phone and desktop. Place a test order with each offer. | Problems found now are cheap to fix. |
| Monday 16 November | Freeze: no theme publishes, app installs or new tests that change prices, discounts, shipping or checkout. Copy changes only through a reviewed process. | Ten days before Thanksgiving leaves time to notice anything the last changes broke. |
| 26 to 30 November | Run what you decided before the freeze. Watch guardrails, orders and support messages daily. | Traffic and order volume are at their highest; a broken page costs the most now. |
| December | Wait for refunds to come in, write down what you learned, then restart regular testing once traffic is back to normal. | Sale-week shoppers and returns distort results for a while after the peak. |
From the general guide, what to test before Black Friday on Shopify, which also covers what is safe to leave running over the peak.
Plan your BFCM tests on your own store.
We'll walk through a test plan on demo data and answer your questions. Or start the free trial on Shopify.