Black Friday success: from discounts to strategy

Introduction 

As the eCommerce world takes a collected sigh of relief as another Black Friday, Cyber Monday comes to an end, SOZOs Performance Marketing expert Tom, reviews the marketing activities that created real growth for our clients over this sales period.

Spoiler alert, it wasn’t blanket discounts!

Despite consumer sentiment remaining at low levels, eCommerce brands achieved record levels of revenue last month. 

But rather than doing so with widespread discounts, the real growth this Black Friday 2025 came from shifting from broad discounts to strategic campaigns focused on customer retention, new product launches, and social commerce. 

Key strategies we employed for clients included leveraging paid social media advertising, extending promotions for a longer period in the run up to Black Friday, optimising the online customer journey and creating experiences that offered additional value beyond just price reductions.

This Black Friday, SOZO clients saw genuine, sustainable growth, not by discounting harder, but by adopting more strategic, customer-centric approaches.

Across categories, our strongest-performing clients didn’t chase “deal hunters”; instead, they focused on audience priming, new customer acquisition, email-led engagement and smarter paid media activation.

The result was clear: record revenue months, double-digit YoY growth, stronger profitability, and a healthier mix of new and returning customers, all without relying on blanket discounts.

Shopify merchants generate record BFCM sales 

The results achieved by our clients reflected a general upturn in numbers recorded by smaller, independent businesses globally using the Shopify platform.

According to Shopify’s own data, shoppers flocked to independent businesses in record numbers, driving unprecedented sales worldwide.

Merchants on this platform made history, generating a record $14.6 billion in sales over Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend, up 27% from last year, 24% on a constant currency basis. 

This revenue was generated by some 81 million customers around the world buying from businesses powered by Shopify.

BFCM by the numbers

• $14.6 billion in global sales* from merchants, a 27% increase in sales from 2024
• 81+ million consumers** worldwide bought from Shopify-powered brands
• 15,800+ entrepreneurs made their first sale on Shopify
• More than 94,900 merchants had their highest-selling day ever on Shopify

Thinking of migrating to a Shopify store? Read our guide

How SOZO clients achieved Black Friday success

Once again, client success this BFCM period wasn’t achieved by doing one thing in isolation. It was the culmination of many months of consistent, collaborative planning and execution. 

Customer-centric growth rather than discount-centric sales

Instead of cutting prices across the board, we helped clients identify and prioritise the audiences most likely to buy. We found their brand loyalists, high-intent return customers and new but receptive segments captured through demand-gen campaigns.

This strategy drove standout performances, with some home electronic brands achieving their most profitable November ever that saw more than 14% year on year growth and a retailer boosting new customer revenue by nearly a third (32%).

Extending the Black Friday window across the entire month

SOZO clients that embraced “Black November”, launched early access campaigns and began warming their audiences up weeks ahead of time, resulting in the biggest lifts in results.

One of the counties largest independent outdoor brands followed this strategy and gained nearly 50% uplift compared to 2024 through their combined ‘early access’ and BFCM sales period by activating sooner and building momentum consistently throughout the month.

Email-first execution that converted warm audiences

Much of the success came from email being used not as a last-minute push but as a month-long engagement engine.

Our curated sequences that included warm-ups, reminders, reinforcements and countdowns, meant audiences were primed long before offers went live.

A sport’s nutrition brand’ incredible +425% Year on Year growth is a perfect example of how powerful warm email lists can be when paired with targeted promotions.

Paid social and demand-generation campaigns drive new customer revenue

SOZO leaned heavily into platform-specific formats, optimised video and broader prospecting to reach beyond existing customers.

This is why our client brands saw new customer revenue growth outpace total revenue increases as a sign of true incremental performance, not just a cannibalisation of existing buyers.

Creative designed for the moment

We have long maintained that an ad’s creative execution is the difference between cut through and cut off.
This year, we produced more varied Black Friday creative than previous years, with tailored videos, UGC-style assets, and curated on-brand visuals ensuring our campaigns stood out across Meta, Google, and emerging discovery platforms.

For several clients, this elevated content helped drive record clickthrough rates and lowered acquisition costs.

Watch Tom’s video on the role of strong creative in your paid media campaigns. Here.

AI-driven insights and AIO content optimisation

According to Reuters  AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites soared 805% compared to last year, as LLMs (large language models) made the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.

We have seen, compared to ‘typical’ channel conversion rates, that traffic driven by AI Search engines also improved conversions, up to 11% in some pre-Black Friday sales.

But AI didn’t just help our clients with discovery, visibility and performance; it improved campaign efficiency too.

From audience modelling to website content optimisation, AI Search Optimisation work undertaken in the lead up to Black Friday helped reduce friction across the customer journey.

A local women’s fashion retailer, for example, benefited from improved user experience and better sequencing when we front-loaded their November budget, resulting in a 14.6% year on year increase in revenue.

Focus on value, clarity and trust, not noise

We have long advocated for clients to move away from blanket discounts! A 20 or 30% discount across all listings can increase sales volumes but at the detriment to margins. If bargain hunters are also from the one-and-done brigade, your investment in buying their business doesn’t yield the investment LTVit warrants.

Instead of joining the chaotic ‘discount’ messaging crowd, we helped clients engage their audiences through value. We used clear product benefits, transparent offers and consistent messaging through email, paid media and onsite content, to convey a more rounded proposition.

The result was greater confidence within an increasingly intentional cohort of consumers who were researching early and buying when brands had done enough to earn their trust, not just offered the largest savings.

Black Friday success: driven by strategy not discounts 

This Black Friday/ Cyber Monday, SOZO’s clients didn’t grow by discounting harder; they grew by thinking differently.

While many brands across the market launched promotions earlier, targeted their offers more carefully and leaned heavily on loyalty to capture value-focused shoppers, our clients went a step further. They shifted from broad, margin-eating discounts to strategic campaigns that were rooted in a clearer understanding of their audiences and preparing them long before the Black Friday/ Cyber Monday weekend arrived.

A huge part of this success came from treating the whole of November as the event. Instead of turning on ads and hoping for the best during one frenzied weekend of bargain hunting, we spent weeks priming audiences, generating leads and creating a steady cadence of email communication; warm-ups, reinforcements, countdowns and reminders that kept customers engaged and ready to act.

Behind the scenes, AI-driven search optimisation and AI optimised on-page content supported smoother customer journeys, faster product discovery and better on-site performance.

What ties all of this together is a mindset shift: the success of Black Friday selling is no longer defined by the number of customers buying lower priced items; it’s a longer game that requires a new level of strategy.

Our work with clients this year showed that when brands combine smarter planning with deeper audience understanding, better creative, stronger email journeys and broader new-customer reach, they don’t just survive Black Friday, they achieve profitable, sustainable growth.

Shopify stores were clear winners this year, if you would like to know more about our Shopify websites get in touch

If you would like to speak to us about a more strategic marketing approach let us know