# What Is BFCM? Meaning, 2026 Dates and a Shopify Plan

BFCM means Black Friday Cyber Monday. In 2026 it runs from Friday, November 27 to Monday, November 30. The meaning, the dates and a plan for Shopify.

Source: https://getkanal.com/blog/what-is-bfcm  
Last updated: 2026-11-09

## Key takeaways

- BFCM stands for Black Friday Cyber Monday: the four days from the Friday after US Thanksgiving to the following Monday, plus the campaign that stores build around them.
- The US Office of Personnel Management lists Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, 2026, so Black Friday falls on November 27 and Cyber Monday on November 30.
- Shopify merchants sold $14.6 billion over BFCM 2025, up 27% on 2024, according to Shopify, and Adobe counted $14.25 billion of US online spending on Cyber Monday alone.
- A BFCM plan for a Shopify store runs in four phases: prepare by November 13, warm up from November 16, sell from November 26 to 30, then ship and follow up. Kanal runs it on WhatsApp on every plan, and on SMS, RCS and iMessage from the Scale plan.

BFCM stands for Black Friday Cyber Monday, the four-day sales weekend that starts the day after US Thanksgiving and ends the following Monday. In 2026, BFCM runs from Friday, November 27 to Monday, November 30: the [US Office of Personnel Management](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/) lists Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26, 2026. For an online store, BFCM also names the campaign around those days: teasers and early access the week before, the offer over the four days, then shipping updates and follow-ups.

This guide explains what BFCM means, gives every 2026 date, shows how much BFCM weighs for Shopify stores, and lays out a messaging plan with a checklist. Kanal, our Shopify app for WhatsApp, SMS, RCS and iMessage, runs that plan from one place, and our [BFCM 2026 calendar](https://bfcm.getkanal.com/en) gives it day by day.

## What does BFCM mean?

BFCM is short for **Black Friday Cyber Monday**. You will also see it written BF/CM or BFCM weekend. The terms around it:

| Term | What it means | 2026 date |
|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | US federal holiday | Thursday, November 26 |
| Black Friday | The day after Thanksgiving, when the sale opens | Friday, November 27 |
| BFCM weekend | Saturday and Sunday between the two | November 28 and 29 |
| Cyber Monday | The Monday after Thanksgiving | Monday, November 30 |
| BFCM | Black Friday to Cyber Monday | November 27 to 30 |
| Cyber Week | The five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, in Adobe's definition | November 26 to 30 |
| GivingTuesday | The day of giving that follows | Tuesday, December 1 |

_Sources: [OPM federal holidays](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/) for Thanksgiving, [Adobe's Cyber Week release](https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record) for the Cyber Week definition, [GivingTuesday](https://www.givingtuesday.org/) for December 1, 2026, all read on November 9, 2026._

In e-commerce, "BFCM" is used for the whole campaign as much as for the four days. When a merchant says "our BFCM plan", they usually mean everything from the first teaser in mid-November to the last shipping update in December.

## When is BFCM 2026?

The dates follow from Thanksgiving. On its federal holidays page, the Office of Personnel Management lists Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26, 2026:

![The US Office of Personnel Management's 2026 holiday schedule, with Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26 highlighted (1)](https://getkanal.com/images/screenshots/opm-thanksgiving-2026-nov09.webp)
_Source: [OPM federal holidays](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/), 2026 schedule, read on November 9, 2026. In 1, Thanksgiving Day: Black Friday is the next day._

So the BFCM 2026 dates are:

- **Black Friday:** Friday, November 27, 2026
- **BFCM weekend:** Saturday, November 28 and Sunday, November 29
- **Cyber Monday:** Monday, November 30, 2026
- **Cyber Week:** Thursday, November 26 to Monday, November 30

The same page already lists Thanksgiving Day 2027 on Thursday, November 25, which puts Black Friday 2027 on November 26 and Cyber Monday 2027 on November 29.

The dates are the same for a store that sells in Europe or the UK and runs a Black Friday offer: Black Friday follows US Thanksgiving wherever the customer lives.

## Why BFCM matters for a Shopify store

Shopify published its merchants' results for BFCM 2025 in a [report dated December 2, 2025](https://www.shopify.com/news/bfcm-data-2025). It counted:

- **$14.6 billion in sales** over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, up 27% from 2024, or 24% in constant currency.
- **More than 81 million customers** buying from Shopify merchants.
- **A peak of $5.1 million per minute** at 12:01 p.m. EST on Black Friday.
- **More than 94,900 merchants** with their highest-selling day ever on Shopify.

![Shopify's BFCM 2025 report: Shopify merchants generate record-breaking $14.6 billion in Black Friday Cyber Monday sales (1), published December 2, 2025](https://getkanal.com/images/screenshots/shopify-bfcm-2025-results-nov09.webp)
_Source: [Shopify news, BFCM 2025 data](https://www.shopify.com/news/bfcm-data-2025), read on November 9, 2026. Shopify notes that the data is unaudited and that sales are measured as gross merchandise volume._

Across US retail sites, Adobe Analytics measured, for the 2025 Cyber Week, in its [release of December 2, 2025](https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record):

| Day, 2025 | US online spending | Change from 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | $6.4 billion | +5.3% |
| Black Friday | $11.8 billion | +9.1% |
| Cyber Monday | $14.25 billion | +7.1% |
| Cyber Week, Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday | $44.2 billion | +7.7% |

_Source: [Adobe newsroom](https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record), based on Adobe Analytics data covering over 1 trillion visits to US retail sites, read on November 9, 2026._

![Adobe's Cyber Monday 2025 release, with its chart of Cyber Week spending by day and the definition of Cyber Week as the five days from Thanksgiving through Black Friday and Cyber Monday (1)](https://getkanal.com/images/screenshots/adobe-cyber-monday-2025-nov09.webp)
_Source: [Adobe, "Cyber Monday Hits Record $14.25 Billion in Online Spending"](https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record), December 2, 2025. In 1, Adobe's definition of Cyber Week._

The same release says 57.5% of Cyber Monday online sales came through a mobile device. For a store, that means the BFCM customer reads your offer on a phone, where a text or a WhatsApp message lands next to the customer's own conversations.

## A BFCM messaging plan for a Shopify store

The plan below runs in four phases, from preparation to follow-up, on whichever channels your customers agreed to. The dates are for BFCM 2026.

| Phase | Dates | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Prepare | Now to Fri Nov 13 | Fix the offer and the deadline, build segments, collect consent, write and submit messages, switch on cart recovery and order notifications |
| 2. Warm up | Mon Nov 16 to Wed Nov 25 | Teaser around Nov 19, early access sign-ups, countdown on Nov 23 or 24, early access from the evening of Nov 25 |
| 3. Sell | Thu Nov 26 to Mon Nov 30 | No campaign on Thanksgiving, launch on the morning of Nov 27, stock alert and last call to clickers, cart reminders all weekend, Cyber Monday on Nov 30 |
| 4. Ship and follow up | From Tue Dec 1 | Order and shipping updates, delay notices, holiday shipping cutoff, review requests, back in stock alerts |

### Phase 1: prepare, by November 13

- **The offer.** One headline offer (a sitewide discount, a tiered offer or a gift with purchase) and one end date, the same in your messages, on your site and at checkout. Create one discount code per send to see which message sold.
- **The segments.** Engaged contacts who clicked a message recently, your best customers, last year's BFCM buyers, and new subscribers. On Kanal's Scale plan, segments are built from your Shopify customers and orders.
- **Consent.** Every marketing message goes to customers who agreed to it, on that channel. In the US, the FCC's rule at [47 CFR 64.1200](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-47/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-64/subpart-L/section-64.1200) requires prior express written consent for telemarketing calls and texts made with an autodialer; our [SMS opt-in guide](https://getkanal.com/blog/sms-marketing-consent-opt-in) explains what to collect. On WhatsApp, the opt-in is collected by a pop-up, a widget or a link.
- **The messages.** Write every text and template now. WhatsApp marketing messages are templates that Meta approves before you can send them, so submit them early. For texts, our [30 Black Friday text message examples](https://getkanal.com/blog/black-friday-text-message-examples) are ready to adapt.
- **The flows.** Switch on [abandoned cart recovery](https://getkanal.com/abandoned-cart-recovery) and [order notifications](https://getkanal.com/order-notifications) and test them on a real order before the teaser goes out.

### Phase 2: warm up, November 16 to 25

- **Around Thursday, November 19:** a teaser to every opted-in contact, with a way to join early access.
- **November 23 or 24:** a countdown or a wishlist reminder to the people who clicked.
- **Wednesday, November 25, from 6 p.m.:** early access opens for the sign-ups and your best customers.

### Phase 3: sell, November 26 to 30

- **Thursday, November 26 (Thanksgiving):** schedule Friday's sends, prepare answers to the questions you expect, send no campaign to the full list.
- **Friday, November 27, 8 to 10 a.m.:** the launch, to engaged contacts who have not bought in the last 24 hours.
- **Friday, midday to evening:** a stock alert, then a last call, each to the people who clicked and did not buy.
- **Friday to Monday:** [abandoned cart](https://getkanal.com/abandoned-cart-recovery) reminders that use the offer's deadline as the reason to come back.
- **Saturday and Sunday:** one message at most, to non-buyers or to buyers with a cross-sell.
- **Monday, November 30:** Cyber Monday, with something new: another category or a clear end to the weekend.

### Phase 4: ship and follow up, from December 1

- **Order and shipping updates** for every BFCM order, and a delay notice if packing takes longer than usual.
- **A holiday shipping cutoff.** USPS recommends sending by Thursday, December 17 (Ground Advantage) or Friday, December 18 (Priority Mail) for expected delivery before December 25 in the lower 48 states, according to its [2026 holiday shipping dates](https://www.usps.com/holiday/holiday-shipping-dates.htm). Subtract your packing time to set your own cutoff.
- **Review requests** once the parcel has arrived, and [back in stock alerts](https://getkanal.com/back-in-stock) for the products that sold out.

### BFCM checklist

- Offer, end date and one discount code per send decided
- Segments built: engaged, best customers, last year's BFCM buyers, cart abandoners
- Consent recorded for each channel you will use
- Messages written; WhatsApp templates submitted to Meta
- Cart recovery and order notifications switched on and tested
- Send times set in each customer's time zone, inside 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. for US texts
- One person on replies over the weekend
- A report ready to compare each send on the orders it brought in

## Which channel for which BFCM message

| Channel | What the customer sees | Who it reaches | Best BFCM use |
|---|---|---|---|
| SMS | Text and a link, 160 characters in one SMS | Any mobile number | Launch, last call and cart reminders in the US |
| RCS | Brand name and logo, product cards, carousels, buttons | Phones and carriers that support RCS | Product launches with images, in the messaging app |
| WhatsApp | Images, buttons and a thread the customer can reply to | WhatsApp users; marketing templates are not delivered to US numbers | Campaigns and cart reminders for customers outside the US, order updates everywhere |
| iMessage | A blue bubble in Apple's Messages app, with the store writing first | Customers on iPhone, iPad and Mac | Campaigns and cart reminders for customers on Apple devices |
| Email | Long content, your full catalog | Your email list | Gift guides and the full offer, from your email platform |

_WhatsApp: Meta's [per-user marketing limits page](https://developers.facebook.com/documentation/business-messaging/whatsapp/templates/marketing-templates/per-user-limits), read on November 9, 2026, states that WhatsApp does not currently deliver marketing template messages to users with United States phone numbers. RCS and iMessage: our [RCS](https://getkanal.com/rcs) and [iMessage](https://getkanal.com/imessage) pages._

For a store with customers on both sides of the Atlantic, the same BFCM campaign splits by country: SMS, RCS or iMessage to US numbers, WhatsApp to customers in Europe and the UK. Our [Black Friday WhatsApp plan](https://getkanal.com/blog/black-friday-whatsapp-playbook) gives the WhatsApp side day by day, with Meta's fees and messaging limits, and our [Black Friday text message examples](https://getkanal.com/blog/black-friday-text-message-examples) give 30 texts for the SMS side.

## Running BFCM with Kanal

Kanal is a messaging app for e-commerce stores that goes deepest on Shopify, used by 500+ brands. For BFCM, it covers:

- **Campaigns** on [WhatsApp](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-campaigns) and by [SMS](https://getkanal.com/sms-campaigns), with the revenue of each send, and from the Scale plan, to segments built from your store's customers and orders.
- **Automations**: [abandoned cart recovery](https://getkanal.com/abandoned-cart-recovery), [order notifications](https://getkanal.com/order-notifications), [back in stock alerts](https://getkanal.com/back-in-stock) and [post-purchase offers](https://getkanal.com/post-purchase-upsell).
- **Every channel from one app**: WhatsApp on every plan; SMS, [RCS](https://getkanal.com/rcs) and [iMessage](https://getkanal.com/imessage) from the Scale plan, to the same segments.
- **The weekend's questions**: a shared inbox, and on the Scale and Business plans an [AI agent](https://getkanal.com/whatsapp-ai-agent) that answers order tracking questions.

![Kanal's pricing table: WhatsApp on every plan (1), RCS from the Scale plan (2) and SMS from the Scale plan (3)](https://getkanal.com/images/screenshots/kanal-pricing-channels-annotated-nov06.webp)
_Kanal's [pricing page](https://getkanal.com/pricing): iMessage is included from the Scale plan too._

| Kanal plan | Price per month | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Pro | €89 | 1 user, chat widget and inbox, abandoned cart recovery, WhatsApp campaigns |
| Scale | €149 | 5 users, segments, unlimited and advanced automations, Klaviyo integration, SMS, RCS and iMessage |
| Business | €350 | Scale, plus flow setup and optimization by our experts |

_Source: [Kanal pricing](https://getkanal.com/pricing), read on November 9, 2026. Messages are billed on top: Meta's fees for WhatsApp, and SMS by destination country and number of segments. Kanal sends no email, so your email platform keeps that part of the plan._

To run the plan day by day, [Kanal's BFCM 2026 calendar](https://bfcm.getkanal.com/en) gives the sends of each day with their segments, WhatsApp templates ready to submit and a Claude skill that sets it all up in Kanal; it opens after a short form. The [Black Friday WhatsApp playbook](https://getkanal.com/playbooks/black-friday-whatsapp) is a 9-page PDF with the 5 WhatsApp messages to send from November 19 to 30 and a checklist, and our ranking of [Shopify BFCM apps](https://getkanal.com/best-shopify-apps/best-shopify-bfcm-apps) covers the rest of the stack: upsells, reviews, pop-ups and loyalty.

## BFCM 2026 at a glance

| Item | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Meaning | Black Friday Cyber Monday | |
| Thanksgiving | Thursday, November 26, 2026 | [OPM](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/) |
| Black Friday | Friday, November 27, 2026 | [OPM](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/) |
| Cyber Monday | Monday, November 30, 2026 | [OPM](https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/federal-holidays/) |
| GivingTuesday | Tuesday, December 1, 2026 | [GivingTuesday](https://www.givingtuesday.org/) |
| BFCM 2025 on Shopify | $14.6 billion, up 27% | [Shopify](https://www.shopify.com/news/bfcm-data-2025) |
| Cyber Monday 2025, US online | $14.25 billion, up 7.1% | [Adobe](https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record) |
| USPS send-by for Christmas | Dec 17 (Ground Advantage), Dec 18 (Priority Mail) | [USPS](https://www.usps.com/holiday/holiday-shipping-dates.htm) |

BFCM is four days on the calendar and a month of work around them: consent and messages ready by mid-November, a warm-up that finds your most interested customers, three focused days of sends, and a December of shipping updates. To see that plan on your own store, with WhatsApp and SMS from the same app, [book a Kanal demo](https://getkanal.com/demo).

## Frequently asked questions

### What does BFCM stand for?

BFCM stands for Black Friday Cyber Monday. It names the four days from Black Friday, the day after US Thanksgiving, to Cyber Monday, the following Monday, and by extension the sales campaign stores run around them. Adobe uses "Cyber Week" for the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.

### When is BFCM 2026?

BFCM 2026 runs from Friday, November 27 to Monday, November 30, 2026. The US Office of Personnel Management lists Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, November 26, 2026, so Black Friday is November 27, the weekend is November 28 and 29, and Cyber Monday is November 30. GivingTuesday follows on Tuesday, December 1.

### When is BFCM 2027?

The Office of Personnel Management lists Thanksgiving Day 2027 on Thursday, November 25, so Black Friday 2027 falls on Friday, November 26 and Cyber Monday on Monday, November 29, 2027.

### How big is BFCM for Shopify stores?

Shopify reported $14.6 billion in sales from its merchants over the Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend in 2025, up 27% from 2024 (24% in constant currency), from more than 81 million customers, with a peak of $5.1 million per minute at 12:01 p.m. EST on Black Friday. Across US retail sites, Adobe counted $11.8 billion of online spending on Black Friday 2025 and $14.25 billion on Cyber Monday.

### When should a Shopify store start preparing for BFCM?

By the first half of November at the latest. Offers, segments, consent and message templates should be ready by Friday, November 13, 2026, so the teaser can go out around November 19 and early access on the evening of November 25. Cart recovery and order notifications should be switched on and tested before the teaser.

### Which channels should a store use for BFCM messages?

The ones its customers agreed to and read on their phone. For US customers, the promotion goes by SMS or RCS, because Meta states that WhatsApp does not currently deliver marketing templates to US phone numbers. For customers in Europe or the UK, WhatsApp carries images, buttons and replies. Kanal sends WhatsApp on every plan and SMS, RCS and iMessage from the Scale plan, to the same segments, from one Shopify app.