Black Friday / Cyber Monday (BFCM) is just six weeks away, so there is still lots of time to make a few tweaks to your site that will get the sales rolling in. 

You don’t need the deepest discounts to have a great BFCM, but you do need a store that’s easy to shop and easy to trust. To help get you there, these are the six things I'd tackle first.

1. Add a countdown bar and a VIP early access list

If you do one thing from this list, make it this one. A countdown bar at the top of your site tells every visitor that something is coming and exactly when. Pair it with a simple "Get VIP early access" signup and you turn casual browsers into subscribers before the sale even starts.

Why it works:

• It builds your list when traffic is cheapest. Everyone you capture now is someone you can email on launch day without paying for another ad click.
• It gives people a reason to come back. They may have forgotten all about you come BFCM weekend, but they'll see that reminder in their inbox.
• People love feeling like insiders. Early access gives them exactly that! Letting VIPs shop a few hours (or a day) before everyone else rewards them for signing up and spreads your sales over a longer window.

A few tips for setting it up:

• Keep the bar short: the sale date, a live countdown, and one button.
• Send the signup straight into your email platform (Klaviyo, Shopify Email, etc) with a tag like "BFCM VIP" so you can segment them.
• Plan at least two emails for that segment: a heads-up the day before and an "early access is open" email at launch.
• When the sale goes live, switch the bar from "starts in" to "ends in" so the urgency carries through the weekend.

🔥 HOT TIP - if your theme doesn't include a countdown bar, I'd recommend using an app like Design Packs or Section Store

2. Make gift shopping easy

A lot of BFCM shoppers aren't buying for themselves. They're standing in your store trying to figure out what their sister, coworker or dad would like, and the longer that takes, the more likely they leave.

Help them decide faster:

• Create "Gifts under $25 / $50 / $100" collections. Price is usually the first filter people use for gifts. Fill these with best sellers and items with healthy margins.
• Add a "Gifts for…" collection or two if your products lend themselves to it (for her, for the home cook, for the person who has everything).
• Link them from your main menu and homepage so they're easy to find in a quick scroll.

On Shopify, automated collections make this quick: set a price condition and a tag, and the collection updates itself as inventory changes.

🔥 HOT TIP - if you've got a bit more time, you can also build a landing page where you can direct your promotional traffic that acts like a gift guide!

3. Build bundles and gift sets

Bundles are one of the simplest ways to raise your average order value. Instead of selling one item at a time, you're selling a ready-made gift that already feels complete.

• Group products that naturally go together, like a starter kit, a "best of" set, or a trio of your most popular items.
• Price the bundle slightly below the items bought separately so the deal is obvious without cutting deep into margin.
• Give it its own product page with real photos of the set together. It’s way easier to picture giving it to someone when you can see the whole thing.
• Use bundles in your BFCM offer itself. Bundles are a great way to offer a deal without discounting everything in your store

🔥 HOT TIP - Shopify's free Bundles app handles fixed bundles well and keeps inventory in sync across the individual products. 

4. Make your store fast and easy on mobile

Most of your BFCM traffic will be on a phone, often in short bursts: on the couch, in line, scrolling between other things. If your store is slow, or has a bunch of popups, those shoppers will find somewhere else to shop.

Before the rush, pull out your phone and shop your own store start to finish. Then check these:

• Clean out unused apps. Old apps can leave scripts behind that slow every page, even after you uninstall them.
• Compress and resize images, especially big homepage banners and sliders.
• Check your buttons and menus. Are they easy to tap? Does the add to cart button stay visible on product pages?
• Test your popups. A signup popup that covers the whole screen on mobile (or can't be closed easily) costs you more than it earns.
• Run a test order on mobile, including discount codes and any express checkout options like Shop Pay or Apple Pay.

🔥 HOT TIP - lock in your changes by early November. The week before Black Friday is not the time to push a big theme update.

5. Turn your cart into a selling tool

Your cart is where shoppers have already decided to buy, which makes it the perfect spot for a gentle nudge to add one more thing.

• Use a slide-out cart drawer instead of sending people to a separate cart page. They can see what they've added and keep shopping without losing their place. Most modern Shopify themes include one.
• Add a free shipping progress bar. "You're $12 away from free shipping" is one of the most effective ways to grow order size. Set the threshold a little above your current average order value.
• Show one or two relevant add-ons in the drawer: a small, low-cost item that pairs with what's already in the cart. Keep it to a couple of suggestions so it doesn't feel pushy.

🔥 HOT TIP - Check your free shipping threshold before BFCM. If your average order is $60, setting free shipping at $75 gives shoppers a reason to add one more thing.

6. Give shoppers confidence to check out

BFCM brings in a lot of first-time visitors who don't know your brand yet. Small trust signals can be the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart.

• Offer the payment options people expect, like Shop Pay, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal. Faster checkout means fewer drop-offs, especially on mobile.
• Be upfront about shipping. Show costs and delivery estimates before checkout, and post your holiday shipping cutoff dates clearly so nobody has to guess whether their gift will arrive in time.
• Make your return and exchange policy easy to find, and consider extending returns for holiday orders. It removes a big reason to hesitate on gifts.
• Show social proof near the buy button: reviews, star ratings, or a short line about how many happy customers you have.
• Add a gift note or gift message option if you can. It's a small touch that makes you an easy choice for gift buyers.

🔥 HOT TIP - add your holiday shipping cutoff dates to your announcement bar, product pages and FAQ by early November. “Order by December 15 for delivery before Christmas” answers the question every gift shopper is asking.

Start small, but start now

You don't need to do all six this week. Pick two or three, get them live, and watch how they perform. The countdown bar and VIP list should go first, since every day it's up is another day of building your audience before the sale.

Not sure where your store stands? My BFCM Pulse Check is a focused audit of your Shopify store before the holiday rush. I'll go through your site and give you a clear, prioritized list of what to fix so you can head into Black Friday with confidence.