Black Friday 2026 falls on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30, sixty days from September 28. A week-by-week plan for Shopify stores that accounts for the platform changes landing in October, and what Shopify's record 2025 weekend says about where to focus.
Black Friday 2026 is on Friday, November 27, and Cyber Monday on Monday, November 30, with Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26. Counting from Monday, September 28, that is sixty days. It is enough time to prepare properly, and not enough to leave anything until November.
This is the plan we would follow for a Shopify store, week by week. It includes the Shopify platform changes that land in October, because two of them can quietly break a store's apps or integrations in the run-up to the sale.
What last year says about where to focus
Shopify reported that its merchants sold $14.6 billion over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend of 2025, up 27% on 2024, to more than 81 million shoppers. Four details from its figures are worth planning around.
- Sales peaked at 12:01 p.m. Eastern time on Black Friday, at $5.1 million a minute. That is 10:31 p.m. in India, so a brand in Mumbai selling to American shoppers meets its busiest minute late on Friday night.
- Cross-border orders were 16% of all orders. If you sell abroad, currency, duties, delivery estimates and returns for international buyers deserve as much attention as the discount.
- 32% of orders were placed with Shop Pay. Accelerated checkouts are part of the conversion path, so check they are switched on and work on a phone.
- The average cart was $114.70 across Shopify. Your own average order value is the number that matters: set bundle and free-shipping thresholds a little above it.
The platform changes that land before the sale
- October 1: apps can no longer create or update Shopify script tags. An app you install for the season that still depends on one cannot add its storefront feature, so choose apps that use app embeds.
- October 1: Shopify API version 2026-10 becomes stable.
- October 16: API version 2025-10 retires, and custom apps or integrations still asking for it are served a newer version. Test them before then.
- Already in effect: since August 26, script tags no longer run on the Order status page for any store. Check that your conversion tracking still fires before you spend your holiday advertising budget.
We have written about the script tag change and the API versions separately. Neither is difficult to handle in October. Both are unpleasant to discover in the last week of November.
Weeks 1 and 2, September 28 to October 11: decide and audit
- Decide the offer: what is discounted, by how much, for whom, and for how long. Settle it now, because every later step depends on it.
- Commit to stock. Check supplier lead times against the dates, and decide which products you are prepared to sell out of.
- Audit your apps: which touch the storefront, which use script tags, and which you no longer need. Every app you remove is one less thing that can break.
- Check tracking end to end. Place a test order and confirm it appears in your analytics and your advertising platforms.
- Measure speed on your key templates on a mid-range phone, and fix the worst of it while there is still time.
Weeks 3 and 4, October 12 to October 25: build
- Build the sale collections and a gift guide, and decide how each will be ordered. The first rows of a collection page get most of the attention, and during a sale that attention is the most expensive you will buy all year.
- Write product content, sizing notes and delivery promises for the products you expect to sell most.
- Grow the list you will sell to, with email and SMS sign-ups and a clear reason to join, such as early access.
- Finish testing custom apps and integrations against a supported API version before October 16.
Weeks 5 and 6, October 26 to November 8: rehearse
- Schedule your discounts and test them, including how they combine with each other.
- Run full checkouts on a phone with the payment methods your customers use, accelerated checkouts included.
- If the sale runs on a separate theme, build it now, switch on its app embeds, and preview it with the discounts active.
- Publish your shipping cut-offs and your returns terms for the holiday period.
- Indian brands have Diwali on Sunday, November 8, in the same window. If you run both, our Diwali checklist covers the domestic side.
Week 7, November 9 to November 15: freeze
Stop installing apps and changing theme code by the end of this week. From here, change content and merchandising only: banners, copy and collection order. A freeze two weeks out leaves time to spot anything a late change broke before the traffic arrives.
Week 8, November 16 to November 22: warm up
- Open early access for subscribers if you promised it.
- Brief whoever answers customer messages on the offer, the delivery dates, the returns terms, and what to say when something sells out.
- Agree who watches the store on each day of the sale, including the late-night peak if you sell into other time zones.
Sale week, November 23 to November 30: watch
- Watch stock on your fastest sellers through the day, and move sold-out products out of the first rows of your collections as they go. A sold-out product at the top of a collection turns a paid click into nothing.
- Check the storefront on a phone a few times a day: speed, discounts and checkout.
- Keep a short log of what you changed and when. It will be the most useful document you have in December.
After the sale, December 1 to December 14: learn
- Measure by collection and by product, not just in total: what sold, what sold out and when, and which collection order held up.
- Restock or retire, and follow up with first-time buyers while the purchase is recent.
- Write down what you would change for 2027 while you still remember it.
If collection order is part of your plan, SellRank, our Shopify app, sorts collections by live sales, views and stock, shows you the exact order before anything changes, and on its Grow plan can re-sort on a daily or weekly schedule. It is built for exactly the weeks when products sell out faster than anyone can reorder a collection by hand.
