The challenges of this year’s holiday season couldn’t be greater.
Nor the stakes, higher.
For DTC brands who’ve seen costs rise, sales plateau, and margins erode, you need every advantage you can get. And, you need those advantages as quickly, as profitably, and as light-on-resources as possible.
That’s what this guide contains. Sort of.
SMS marketing isn’t a magic bullet. It’s not a standalone strategy. In fact — compared to honing your Black Friday promotions and Cyber Monday deals — text message marketing won’t make or break your ecommerce business.
What SMS will do is add incremental revenue to every click, visitor, shopper, and customer your holiday campaigns touch. That is what this guide contains …
Stage 1: Pre-Holiday Set Up & List Growth
Now – Oct. 31st
Enable SMS opt-in at checkout
Set up & convert up to 5X with OneClick
Showcase and sell with your Welcome Flow
Seal the deal with cart abandonment
Stage 2: Before Black Friday Cyber Monday
Nov. 1st – Nov. 27th
Build your list with a pre-holiday incentive
Entice email subscribers with a landing page
Send an ‘Early Bird’ offer to eager shoppers
Stage 3: During Black Friday Cyber Monday
Nov. 27th – Dec. 2nd
Open early with an SMS exclusive
Launch your 🎁 Black Friday offer
Extend the offer into Cyber Weekend
Launch your 🎁 Cyber Monday offer
Stage 4: After Black Friday Cyber Monday
Late Dec.
Celebrate Giving Tuesday with a cause
Send shipping cutoff “warnings”: 72 and 24 hours
Come to the rescue with gift cards + a bonus
Give them one last (post-Christmas) chance
Stage 1: Pre-Holiday Set Up & List Growth
Now - Oct. 31st
There’s no wrong time to start building your subscriber list and setting up your SMS strategy. But there is a right time.
Now! Before the largest ecommerce sale period of the year.
Preparation is the key to success. This couldn’t be more true for your SMS marketing because the proper opt-in is vital to having an engaged first-party subscriber list.
So get this stage set up ASAP — and don’t leave them later than October.
Send More Than You Think You Need
Most of our clients get shocked when they witness their direct competitors (even high-ticket brands) sending 10-15 emails and 4-5 SMS campaigns during Black Friday. Daily campaign sends are increasing 15-20% YoY since 2019 — with no signs of slowing. Top brands now send one campaign per hour during peak windows, forcing everyone else to choose: match the intensity or get buried in the noise.
1. Enable SMS Opt-In at Checkout
⏰ Time: 5 minutes 📅 Oct. 2nd-3rd
Without enough SMS subscribers, your efforts in setting up campaigns and flows will go to waste.
For quick list growth, start with converting high-intent visitors at checkout. Because these soon-to-be customers are already buying, opt-ins skyrocket.
The best part? This feature is natively available on Shopify Checkout.
Go to your Shopify Settings
Select Checkout and accounts in the left menu
Check the SMS marketing box under Consent for marketing
You can also customize your SMS opt-in text.
It’s a little-known secret. If you click Customize checkbox label, you won’t actually find it. Instead, Shopify buries the option under Themes > Edit languages.
Search for SMS and edit the Accept SMS checkbox label.
If you work with us, you know that we’ve been borderline obsessed with squeezing every last dollar out of popups and SMS for you.
But as DTC brands double down on email and SMS every year, nobody seems to be focusing on the #1 indicator of success in retention: the list growth rate.
So, we ran 400+ A/B tests, put 100 million popup impressions under a microscope, and here’s what we learned: no matter how much we optimized, the biggest barrier is still the same — making people type their emails and phone numbers.
Nobody wants to do it, and it’s killing conversion rates.
So, we thought, “Why not bypass typing altogether?”
This led us to OneClick Opt-in, the world’s first lead-capture tool that lets your future customers join your email and SMS lists with — you guessed it — one click.
No typing, no typos, no bounced emails, just a 5x lift in your list growth rates.
OneClick auto-fills their information right into your popups, so they can skip the clunky data entry and wasted time.
It’s fast, it’s smooth. It’s lead-capture magic.
A Game Changer in List Growth Strategy
To get the most out of your popups…
Use a fullscreen layout: Remove background distractions and disable page scroll when the popup is open. A single, fullscreen focus keeps the visitor anchored on the offer and prevents the “popup chaos” that kills conversions.
Design thumb-friendly CTAs: Place primary buttons (e.g. “Claim Offer,” “Sign Up for Texts,” “Shop Sale”) in the lower half of the screen where the thumb naturally rests. This small UX adjustment can significantly lift tap-through rates on mobile.
Reduce eye travel with a simple vertical flow: Structure each step in a straight, top-to-bottom sequence: Offer → Input field → CTA → Legal text. Nothing should compete for attention; the next action must always be obvious at a glance.
Keep legal text visible but secondary: Position compliance copy (TCPA, CAN-SPAM, privacy links) directly beneath the CTA. It should be clearly readable and always present, but visually de-emphasized so it doesn’t pull focus away from the primary action.
Use progressive disclosure for multi-step opt-ins: Instead of asking for everything at once, use a two-step flow (e.g. email first, then SMS). Each screen should ask for one action only. Gradual commitment consistently increases completion rates.
Maintain a clear visual hierarchy: Use strong contrast for CTAs (e.g. dark buttons on a light background), bold headlines, and generous spacing. The design should be scannable in seconds — even when the user is scrolling quickly or slightly distracted.
3. Showcase & Sell with Your Welcome Flow
⏰ Time: 30 minutes 📅 Oct. 10th-12th
The opt-in journey doesn’t end when you’ve got a new subscriber. Sending a multi-part Welcome Flow is a non-negotiable next step.
Welcome Flow messages greet your new subscriber and engage them right away. A sequence of 3–5 texts does the job perfectly — each with conditional splits to exclude anyone who’s made a purchase or has an item in their cart:
Immediate: The discount or incentive you promised onsite
Delay 1 day: Your best-selling product or collection + discount
Delay 2–3 days: Contact card to improve deliverability & link to purchase
Delay 5 days (optional): Friendly introduction to your brand or founder story
Delay 7 days (as needed): Common objection or an answer to your top FAQ
Remember that SMS isn’t a stand-alone channel. And yet, it does come with its own strategic value. Treat it as such. Avoid creating text message versions of your email marketing campaigns.
4. Seal the Deal with Cart Abandonment
⏰ Time: 10 minutes (each) 📅 Oct. 13th
As your list steadily grows, these automations are what ecommerce dreams are made of. Simple yet powerful, the goal isn’t to merely re-engage your warmest shoppers … but to seal the deal.
They’re also a great way to test your audience’s response to different incentives.
10% discount not working? How about free shipping? No-go on shipping? Try a free sample, address common objections, add a special guarantee, offer buy-one to get-one (BOGO), or roll out gift with purchase (GWP).
Figure out what motivates them to buy, balanced with what works for your business, and you’ll know exactly what deals to offer during BFCM.
SMS Delays Are Guaranteed - Avoid Them SMS is a 50-year-old technology built on infrastructure that doesn't scale the same way internet data does.
During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, carrier towers become overwhelmed with message volume, creating significant delivery delays and failures. If you're planning to reach customers during peak shopping days, you need a specific approach.
Timing & Frequency: Schedule sends at "off-peak minutes" (:07, :23, :38, :52) rather than round hours or quarter hours (:00, :15, :30, :45). Most brands send at these times, creating bottlenecks.
Your competitors will send 5-6 SMS campaigns per day during this period. To stay visible, you'll need to truly stand out—or match their frequency.
Respect quiet hours: 9am-8pm local time. Account for delivery delays by sending several hours before 8pm. Last send we recommend is 6pm local time.
Message Format: - Keep every message under 160 characters with no emojis—this ensures one-segment delivery - Absolutely no MMS—carriers warn of delays up to 5 days during BFCM - Message format: One clear offer, strong CTA, one link. That's it.
Stage 2: Before Black Friday Cyber Monday
Nov. 6th – Nov. 27th
You’ve set your foundation.
Subscription at checkout and pop-ups are live. You’ve created a Welcome Flow and unleashed abandoned-cart automations. What’s next?
It’s time to expand other list-growth methods while focusing on pre-holiday promotions. This does two things.
One, it tests the potential of off-site list growth. Two, it tests your audience’s engagement with tactical campaigns and incentives (all that delicious data in preparation to crush BFCM).
5. Build Your List with a Pre-Holiday Incentive
⏰ Time: 30 minutes 📅 Nov. 6th–27th
Most shoppers won’t buy in the lead-up to the holidays. They know the discounts are coming. What do you do?
You hint at your sale — amping up intrigue and mystery. Or, you go the opposite direction, you tell them exactly what the promotion’s going to be. Plus, you drive home that the best of the best will go fast. In short …
Get your window-shoppers’ sales juices going by previewing your deal in your welcome popup.
Focus on building anticipation. And stress clearly that they should sign-up to be the first to know as well as get SMS exclusives no one else will have access to!
6. Entice Email Subscribers via a Landing Page
⏰ Time: 10 minutes (each) 📅 Nov. 9th, 16th & 21st
Odds are, you’re already sitting on a decent email-subscriber base. Well, it’s time to get them over to SMS.
Why? Because SMS is so direct and customers are picky about what they opt into, text marketing helps your business stand out in a sea of holiday-email spam.
Push email-only subscribers to SMS by including CTAs in two regular newsletters — around the 9th and 16th — and one stand-alone email campaign — on the 21st or right before Black Friday.
These CTAs should all drive to a landing page highlighting the benefits of SMS messages such as early access, sneak peeks, or updates on low stock.
On your landing page, consider featuring:
Dates and times of the event
Discounts or incentives to expect
Products and bundles that will be on sale
Wishlist items to snatch up before they’re gone
7. Send an ‘Early Bird’ Offer to Eager Shoppers
⏰ Time: 15 minutes 📅 Nov. 13th–15th
Some shoppers are happy with smaller discounts if they can get what they want before the Black Friday rush.
Capture these sales with an offer in November — at least a week before the big weekend, ideally between the 13th and 15th.
These campaigns are also a great way to test engagement and segment your audience — which means campaign personalization (which means 1.5x-2x more sales).
Use AI SMS to make this process faster and more efficient. Automating segmentation, optimizing send times, and transforming a single campaign into multiple text in just a few clicks.
Stage 3: During Black Friday Cyber Monday
Nov. 27th – Dec. 3rd
Two days of BFCM does not equal two campaigns. As you’ve seen above, this period is basically a season in itself. What’s more, Friday and Monday are just the tippy top of the revenue hill climb.
Warm-ups that run weeks or days before, tend to be more generic.
When the main event descends, shoot straight! Clear beats clever: Buy this product at this price for this limited-time period.
Turn Your Popup On With Best Offer
Ensure your popups are on and reflecting your best offers. Turning them off to "ease the buyer journey" typically backfires—you can't remind prospects who haven't shared their contact info.
Shoppers opt in at record rates during BFCM—they want your best deals delivered directly, even if those deals are available without signing up. Capture that intent.
8. Open Early with an SMS Exclusive
⏰ Time: 10 minutes 📅 Nov. 27th or 28th
Get your audience excited with an early access text marketing campaign. These not-so-sneaky promotions are show stoppers.
The day before Black Friday has people ready to buy and anxiously waiting for the clock to strike. That’s where you come in with a pre-madness, highly-exclusive drop.
It can even be as big and exciting as your Black Friday deals because you want people to shop right away.
Align your popup, welcome flow & onsite offer
Remember to turn off your evergreen popups and Welcome Flows during BFCM weekend.
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. The flood of special offers and confusion of the holiday online shopping season can overwhelm even the most experienced bargain hunter.
Consistency demands providing the same content and information across all your touchpoints.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have a popup or Welcome Flow. You should. As long as they match your other campaigns and offers.
Shorten Your Abandonment Flow Delays
Once your popup captures emails and phone numbers, your abandonment flows need to move faster than normal. During BFCM, the typical 1-hour/4-hour/24-hour delay sequence should compress to 30min/2hrs/12hrs. Speed matters when your offer expires in 48 hours and competitors are hammering the same inbox.
Specifically: Send more follow-ups, send them sooner, and make the urgency explicit (offer ends [date/time]).
9. Launch Your 🎁 Black Friday Offer
⏰ Time: 10 minutes (each) 📅 Nov. 28th
Campaign 1: Start
The moment your deal kicks off, your text should hit. As long as you respect legally-required quiet hours. But don’t expect to be the only message your customers receive. How can you stand out?
Start strong by opening with your main discount or offer. Do not include an image or gif. To ensure speedy delivery, only send SMS on Black Friday not MMS.
Campaign 2: Mid-Day
A gentle reminder that Black Friday is already halfway done. This text message is a great opportunity to stress scarcity and urgency.
For example, you can let your customers know that half of your stock is sold out, that specific products or collections are almost gone, or that time is ticking away.
Campaign 3: Final-Hours
The last call. A chance to let your customers know time is going, going … about to be gone — and so are your products. How can you give the last hour a much-needed boost?
Try a few creative angles …
End-of-day (deep discount) flash sale
Limited-quantities available
Black Friday exclusive products
Selected products or bundles
Rotating gifts with purchase
Drive 1.5x-2x more SMS sales with AI campaigns
Personalized texts out perform bulk sends. That’s why Recart’s AI transforms a single campaign goal into multiple texts.
With targeted copy + creative
Automatically segmented by lifecycle
Personalized to drive engagement + purchases
All based on brand guidelines, custom personas, and your subscribers’ past behavior — including the time of day they click + buy.
10. Extend the Offer into Cyber Weekend
⏰ Time: 10 minutes 📅 Nov. 29th–30th
People are still eager to shop. So let them!
But be careful with what you offer between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. You want to keep some exclusivity for the actual sale days as well as a little mystery of what’s to come.
You can achieve this with:
“Last-of” Black Friday stock
Smaller though rotating discounts and free gifts
Extended Black Friday-specific offers like mini-sets or bundles
When sending, always use purchase-exclusion lists.
While it can feel counterintuitive to exclude anyone from your promotions, doing so reduces the risk of spam and improves customer satisfaction.
Also, keep pushing on your abandoners.
With so many active shoppers, there’s no better time for Cart Abandonment Flows. Update your messaging and discounts. Set your delays for shorter periods than year-round flows so customers don’t miss out on BFCM deals.
Align your popup, welcome flow & onsite offer (again)
While making Black Friday and Cyber Monday feel unique, you’ve also got to stay consistent.
Align all popups, opt-ins, deals, and specials with each other in a way that feels cohesive.
11. Launch your 🎁 Cyber Monday Offer
⏰ Time: 10 minutes (each) 📅 Dec. 1st
Remember to make Cyber Monday feel a little different from Black Friday. This makes shoppers feel like both days are worth it.
(They’ll remember that next year, too.)
Using unique coupon promo codes, imagery, products, or deals will help you achieve this.
Campaign 1: Start
Just like Black Friday campaigns, you want to hit hard… first thing.
Keep it short, simple, and direct. If you changed your offer, tell them. If you kept it the same, tell them (again). Amid all the fury of Cyber Weekend, they probably forgot anyway.
Campaign 2: Mid-Day
A mid-day campaign can serve as a friendly countdown reminder that your sale is halfway over and your customers should buy while they can.
Feature an image of your top sellers to entice shoppers. Extra points if you personalize this based on previous data.
Campaign 3: Final-Hour
Send your last chance SMS wisely. Encourage shoppers to use their discounts and highlight that it’s a limited-time deal to create a sense of urgency.
As with Black Friday, give your campaign a boost with these creative angles …
End-of-day (deep discount) flash sale
Limited-quantities available
Cyber Monday exclusive products
Selected products or bundles
Rotating gifts with purchase
Stage 4: After Black Friday Cyber Monday
December
Deep breath because you’ve done it. The madness is over.
However, the work and the revenue aren’t.
If you’ve followed all the steps, you’ve likely got tons of new subscribers, lots of valuable data, and a queue of abandoned carts. Don’t stop now. If you do, you risk losing all the momentum you’ve created.
This is your chance to focus on remarketing, retargeting, and re-engaging…
Update your abandoned cart flow to retarget customers that didn’t complete their purchases with updated offers
Focus on retention and customer experiences by setting up VIP clubs, loyalty programs, or subscription models
Offer after-sales assistance and education
Use your AI personas to send personalized follow campaigns
12. Celebrate GivingTuesday with a Cause
⏰ Time: 15 minutes 📅 Dec. 2nd
While BFCM is a sales period focused on online shopping, deals, and online sales revenue, this time is also an opportunity to do some good.
Get involved with GivingTuesday, a global generosity movement for organizations and people to support and transform communities around the world. It’s the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. You can be supported and celebrated in various ways.
We’ve got two suggestions if you’re new to the cause:
Include information about donations throughout your campaigns. And let your customers know that their purchases are making a positive impact.
Pick a cause your business and founder believe in then use SMS marketing to let subscribers know the total raised or the final impact had.
13. Send Shipping Cutoff “Warnings”: 72 and 24 Hours
⏰ Time: 10 minutes (each) 📅 Dec. 15th–22nd
Because BFCM rolls straight into end-of-year festivities, your customers are likely to purchase gifts right up until they can’t get them delivered in time for giving.
This makes shipping cutoff days important to your shoppers and therefore vital in building customer relationships.
Announcing your last days for guaranteed fulfillment is likely part of your advertising and merchandising strategy. So, add it to your SMS strategy as well … with a 72-hour (Dec. 20th) warning followed by a last-day text (Dec. 22nd).
14. Come to the Rescue with Gift Cards + a Bonus
⏰ Time: 10 minutes 📅 Dec. 23rd (or earlier)
Once your Christmas season shipping cutoffs have come and gone, you’ll need a strategy for those last-minute shoppers.
The solution? Gift cards!
While Shopify offers native options, our favorite provider is Govalo. With Govalo, you can create gift-card-specific landing pages, fully branded cards and emails, as well as add “Send a Gift Card” options to your sold-out products.
Take this step even further by incentivizing it: Buy one (for them), get one (for you).
15. Give Them One Last (Post-Xmas) Chance
⏰ Time: 15 minutes 📅 Dec. 26th or 27th
Immediately after Christmas, the vast majority of ecommerce businesses go silent. They turn off ads; they stop sending emails; they hunker down to review last year and plan the next.
Retail, on the other hand, goes into overdrive, taking full advantage of dissatisfied holiday gift-givers and gift-getter alike.
You should do the same, with one (data-heavy) twist.
By now, you’ve probably compiled so much information you don’t know what to do with it. From open rates to revenue, you’ve seen exactly which campaigns yield which results.
Employ this data to identify your best-performing elements and create one last campaign to end the year with a bang:
Analyze the data
Use FOMO language
Set a clear end date and time
Optimize Your Strategy for the Best Results
Monitor the results of your SMS message efforts and identify the aspects to optimize. If you are not seeing positive ROI, consider the following:
Not converting enough traffic?
Redesign your popups or offer a different incentive.
SMS engagement low?
Hone your audience and use AI to send personal + relevant texts.
Great click-through but no purchases?
Try a different product, segment, or CTA based on other small wins.
The Channel That Will Boost Your Black Friday Is Waiting
With both the challenges and stakes greater than they’ve ever been, your Black Friday Cyber Monday must be profitable.
SMS marketing won’t make or break your business. But it will make every visitor, click, and customer worth more.
If you want to reap the rewards of higher conversion rates, more new customers, and better retention — but just don’t have the time …
We’ll set up these tried and tested SMS strategies for your business before the sales period hits.
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