BFCM emails: the best days to send, the impact of automations, and more

What if the best day to send your BFCM email isn’t Black Friday or Cyber Monday?

It’s one revelation from our analysis of Shopify brands that sent emails with Seguno Email during BFCM week 2024 (Monday, Nov. 25, to Monday, Dec. 2).  

We’re sharing performance insights of the eight days to illuminate how Shopify stores might build a smarter BFCM email strategy in 2025.

Key takeaways

No one can predict consumer tendencies. However, we can make strategic suggestions based on data from 2024 and consistent year-over-year trends. 

Our three biggest takeaways of the BFCM 2024 report:

• Shoppers are on the hunt early in the week and often spending more per order. So, start your BFCM campaign on Monday or Tuesday. Definitely send an email on Wednesday.
• Send an email on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They’re still good bets.
• Ensure you have automations turned on — at least a welcome and abandoned checkout email. Both automation types generated higher conversion rates and average order values (AOVs) than BFCM newsletters.

The days with the best ROI

What days get the most bang for your buck? 

Our simplified ROI calculator divides the daily revenue generated by the number of emails sent that day. Four days surpassed the eight-day ROI average: 

1. Wednesday, Nov. 27
2. Thanksgiving
3. Black Friday
4. Tuesday, Nov. 26 

#1 Wednesday is the winner

Emails sent on Thanksgiving Eve are the diamond in the rough. 

They resulted in the highest AOV by a lot ($155.57) — beating the second-highest AOV by $24 — and produced a great click-through rate. 

They accounted for just 10.67% of the BFCM sending but 15% of the revenue. Framed differently, 77% more emails were sent on Cyber Monday than on Wednesday. Yet Cyber Monday emails only generated 4% more revenue. 

#2 Thanksgiving holds its ground 

Aside from the No. 2 ROI slot, Thanksgiving was a dependable sending day. It ranked within the top half for every metric measured: click-through rate, conversion rate and AOV. 

#3 Black Friday is a critical sending day 

Black Friday led in the number of emails sent, which undoubtedly contributed to enormous orders and revenue (it generated 22% of BFCM revenue). A strong conversion rate makes up for a below-average AOV ($113.85).     

#4 Tuesday is the dark horse 

Besides the positive ROI score and highest click rate, Tuesday had the highest conversion rate. These are fantastic results, especially since it was the second-lowest sending day. 

Shoppers engage with emails sent earlier in the week

Promotions sent at the beginning of the BFCM 2024 week stoked interest and brought in higher cart values.   

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Aside from Wednesday’s massive AOV, Monday is worth noting. There are no other remarkable performance highlights for Monday emails, but we wonder if the overall data would look different if merchants sent more emails that day. It was the least popular sending day. 

Cyber Monday’s luster fades beyond revenue generation 

An Adobe report indicates that Cyber Monday spending historically outpaces Black Friday spending. 

The same hasn’t been true for Seguno merchants as a whole. Cyber Monday revenue has consistently taken a back seat to Black Friday since we initiated the BFCM report in 2022. 

We can’t pinpoint why this is the case. Perhaps our merchants simply can’t compete with the type of significant savings that consumers typically expect and get from huge, global brands.    

 Still, Cyber Monday emails are vital to Seguno customers’ BFCM performance. They contribute the second-highest sales and revenue, and have an above-average AOV ($120.36).  

However, their ROI is below average, they have the second-worst click rate, and they’re relatively low on the conversion rate scale. 

Our advice: Send on Cyber Monday, but put more effort into earlier emails.   

Welcome and abandoned cart automations = higher conversion rates + AOVs

Email automations ease your workload and make you money year-round because they’re based on the user’s actions. Just as in previous years, their value increased for BFCM 2024.

We looked closer at the two most popular automations — welcome and abandoned cart automations — and found that during BFCM 2024: 

• They comprised 0.48% of total emails but resulted in 8% of total revenue   
• Their conversion rates were much higher than the conversion rates of BFCM newsletters: 
  
  • Welcome emails: more than 11x 
  • Abandoned checkout emails: more than 24x

• Automation AOVs were much higher than the BFCM newsletter AOV:   
  
  • Welcome emails: $160.77 (+36.11%) 
  • Abandoned checkout emails: $148.73 (+25.9%)

Subject lines: what makes for higher open rates

Email subject line analysis isn’t as straightforward as pulling numbers. We’ve run a dozen queries to find what might attract an open.   

Most of our observations are consistent with findings from previous years: 

• Subject lines containing “BFCM” outperformed those with “Black Friday” or “Cyber Monday” — they had the highest open rate (plus conversions and revenue) and were also less common
• Shorter is better – subject lines of three words or less had the highest open rates, followed by those with four to seven words; subject lines with more than eight words had the lowest open rate
• Subject lines with no emojis had better open rates than those that had emojis

Methodology

All data stems from Shopify stores that operate in USD since they have long embraced BFCM as a sales vehicle. (Most USD plus non-USD data aligns, though values are generally lower.)  

‍Note: Merchants using Seguno email are primarily small- to mid-sized Shopify stores. Many operate with limited marketing resources and expertise. ‍