The short answer: In 2026, Black Friday falls on Friday 27 November and Cyber Monday on Monday 30 November. The best BFCM email plan for a Shopify store starts with teasers in early November, gives your most engaged subscribers early access the week before, then sends launch and last-call emails on each peak day before closing with a thank-you in early December.
Below is a day-by-day calendar you can copy, with what to send, who to send it to, example subject lines, and the deliverability rules that matter most when every store on the internet is emailing at once.
When are Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2026?
Every BFCM date follows from US Thanksgiving, the fourth Thursday of November. In 2026 that is Thursday 26 November (US Office of Personnel Management), so the peak stretch looks like this:
- Thursday 26 November: Thanksgiving
- Friday 27 November: Black Friday
- Saturday 28 November: Small Business Saturday
- Sunday 29 November: the quiet middle of the weekend
- Monday 30 November: Cyber Monday
- Tuesday 1 December: Giving Tuesday (the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, see GivingTuesday)
Together, Friday to Monday is often called Cyber Weekend, and many stores run offers through Giving Tuesday as Cyber Week.
What should your BFCM email calendar look like?
Think of BFCM as four phases rather than four days. Each phase has a different job, and each one goes to a slightly different audience.
Phase 1: Get ready (now until 1 November)
- Clean your list. Remove addresses that hard-bounced and stop emailing people who have not opened anything in months. Sending to unengaged addresses at peak volume is the fastest way to land in spam.
- Check your sender authentication. SPF, DKIM and DMARC need to be in place before volume rises (more on this below).
- Switch on your automations. Abandoned cart, welcome and post-purchase emails do a lot of the work during BFCM because traffic is high. Make sure they are live and on-brand before the rush.
- Grow the list. A signup form with a clear reason to join (early access to your Black Friday offer works well) turns extra November traffic into subscribers you can email on the day.
Phase 2: Build anticipation (2 to 20 November)
This is where you warm up your audience and your sending reputation at the same time, by emailing your most engaged subscribers first and steadily widening the audience.
- Week of 2 November: announce Black Friday month. Tell subscribers something is coming and invite them to join an early-access list. Example subject line: "Our Black Friday plans (and how to get in first)".
- Week of 9 November: be useful. A gift guide, a bestseller roundup or a "how to choose" email. No discount yet. Example: "The 6 gifts our customers buy most".
- Week of 16 November: the teaser. Give the date and a hint of the offer, and remind people that early-access subscribers hear first. Example: "Mark your calendar: 27 November".
Phase 3: Peak week (23 November to 1 December)
- Monday 23 November: early access opens. Send to your early-access list and recent buyers first. Example: "You're in early: shop the sale before everyone else".
- Wednesday 25 November: sneak peek. Show the best offers before the rush. Keep it short.
- Thursday 26 November (Thanksgiving): a thank-you. A short, genuine note works better than another discount email. If your offer starts early, say so here.
- Friday 27 November (Black Friday): launch in the morning. Lead with the offer, the end date and your best sellers. Example: "Black Friday is live: up to [your offer] off".
- Friday 27 November, evening: reminder. Send only to people who did not open or did not buy. Do not resend to customers who already purchased.
- Saturday 28 November (Small Business Saturday): your story. If you are an independent brand, say so. Who makes the products and why it matters. Example: "Small shop, big thanks".
- Sunday 29 November: bestsellers and low-stock. Only mention low stock if it is true.
- Monday 30 November (Cyber Monday): launch, then last call. A morning email with the Cyber Monday offer and an evening "last chance" to non-buyers. Example: "Cyber Monday ends tonight".
- Tuesday 1 December (Giving Tuesday): only if it is real. If you donate or support a cause, explain exactly how. If not, use the day for a Cyber Week extension or skip it.
Phase 4: After the rush (2 December onwards)
- Thank new customers. A post-purchase thank-you, delivery expectations and how to get help.
- Ask for reviews once orders have arrived, not before.
- Re-engage non-buyers with a gift guide and your shipping cut-off dates for the holidays. Check your carriers' published cut-off dates rather than guessing.
Who should get which email?
Sending every email to every subscriber is the most common BFCM mistake. A few simple segments make each send more relevant and protect your inbox placement:
- Engaged subscribers (opened or clicked recently): get everything, first.
- VIPs and repeat buyers: early access and a personal thank-you.
- Subscribers who have never bought: lead with your best-selling product and a clear first-order reason to buy.
- Cart abandoners: your abandoned cart automation handles these all week.
- Recent buyers: exclude them from "last chance" emails for the offer they just used.
- Long-inactive subscribers: leave them out of peak-week sends.
What makes a good Black Friday subject line?
Your subject line competes with dozens of other sale emails in the same inbox. Clear beats clever:
- Say what it is. Name the event and the offer. Example: "Black Friday: 20% off everything until Monday".
- Give a real deadline. Urgency only works when it is true. Example: "Ends at midnight: our Cyber Monday offer".
- Make it personal where you can. Use a first name or the product someone viewed. Example: "Alex, the jacket you liked is in the sale".
- Use the preview text. It's a second line of your subject line, so spell out the offer or the end date there.
- Keep it short so it isn't cut off on mobile, and avoid all-caps and long strings of punctuation.
All subject lines in this guide are examples to adapt, not templates to copy word for word.
How do you keep BFCM emails out of spam?
Inbox providers tightened their rules for bulk senders in 2024, and BFCM is when those rules bite hardest. Google's sender guidelines say that anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts must use SPF, DKIM and DMARC, support one-click unsubscribe, include a visible unsubscribe link, and keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%, ideally below 0.1% (Google email sender guidelines). Yahoo's requirements for bulk senders are similar, including a DMARC policy, one-click unsubscribe, honouring unsubscribes within 2 days and a spam rate below 0.3% (Yahoo Sender Hub).
In practice, for a Shopify store:
- Authenticate first. Confirm SPF, DKIM and DMARC are passing before November.
- Ramp up, don't spike. Increase volume through early November so peak week is not your first big send.
- Send to engaged subscribers first on each peak day, then widen.
- Make unsubscribing easy. People who can leave easily don't report you as spam.
- Watch your numbers daily during peak week, and stop sending to the least engaged segments if complaints rise.
How does tinyAlbert help with Black Friday email?
tinyAlbert is an AI email marketing app for Shopify stores. It plans a year of campaigns, writes them and your core automations in your brand's voice, and sends them. For BFCM that means:
- Black Friday campaigns already on your calendar. tinyAlbert's AI campaign calendar is built around your store's category and retail moments, so campaigns such as "Black Friday Month" and "Black Friday Teaser" are written and scheduled for you to review, edit or regenerate.
- Automations written for you. Abandoned cart, welcome, thank-you, product review and win-back emails are pre-written in your tone and switch on with one toggle.
- Your voice and your language. Choose one of 7 tones of voice and one of 10 languages, and every email is written to match.
- Deliverability built in. Sending is authenticated (DKIM, SPF and DMARC) from day one, and tinyAlbert includes ready-made inbox-recovery segments for Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft and iCloud.
- Revenue you can see. Track the revenue and orders your emails bring in.
tinyAlbert starts at $3 a month for up to 100 contacts after a 7-day free trial. See pricing or install tinyAlbert on Shopify.
Key takeaways
- Black Friday is 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday is 30 November 2026.
- Plan four phases: get ready, build anticipation, peak week, after the rush.
- Email engaged subscribers first and widen gradually. Leave long-inactive contacts out.
- Send reminders only to people who didn't open or buy.
- Meet Google's and Yahoo's bulk sender rules before November: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, one-click unsubscribe, low spam rate.
Frequently asked questions
When is Black Friday 2026?
Black Friday 2026 is on Friday 27 November, the day after US Thanksgiving (Thursday 26 November). Cyber Monday follows on Monday 30 November.
How many emails should a Shopify store send during BFCM?
There is no single right number. A common pattern is a launch email on each peak day plus a reminder to non-openers or non-buyers, with lighter sending before and after. Let engagement guide you: send more to engaged subscribers and less to everyone else.
When should I start sending Black Friday emails?
Start building anticipation in early November with an announcement and an early-access list, send a teaser in the week of 16 November, and open early access the week before Black Friday.
Should I email my whole list on Black Friday?
Not all of it. Prioritise subscribers who opened or clicked recently, and leave long-inactive addresses out. Emailing unengaged contacts at peak volume raises spam complaints, which can hurt delivery for the whole week.
Can tinyAlbert plan my Black Friday emails for me?
Yes. tinyAlbert's AI campaign calendar includes Black Friday campaigns written in your brand's voice, ready to review, edit or regenerate, alongside abandoned cart and welcome automations you switch on with one toggle.
Sources
tinyAlbert is an AI email marketing app for Shopify stores, made by tinyCo, the company behind tinyEmail. About tinyAlbert.