Black Friday Is Closer Than You Think: How to Prep for a Profitable BFCM

August might feel early to be thinking about Black Friday. It's not. The brands that have a genuinely profitable BFCM are the ones who started planning months ago, and if you're reading this in August, you're actually right on time.

So, let's get into it.

First things first, do you even want to go on sale?

This sounds like a silly question but I promise you it isn't. Every year, brands get swept up in the hype and slap a discount on their products without actually thinking it through.

Do you have the margins to go on sale? Is it right for your brand? Is it right for your customer experience?

There are so many options beyond a straight percentage off, and some of them perform incredibly well. A limited edition collection released purely for the BFCM period. A mystery box. A gift with purchase. Donating a portion of sales to a charity your audience cares about. Or doing nothing at all and being very intentional about that choice.

The worst thing you can do is go on sale because you think you have to, or because everyone else seems to be doing it. Do what genuinely makes sense for your brand, your pricing, and your customers.

Know your margins before you pick a number

This one is non-negotiable. The biggest mistake I see every single year is brands picking a discount that sounds good without actually running the numbers. When you see brands doing 50% or 60% off, it's because they can afford to. Can you?

Know your full cost base. Not just cost of goods, but postage, packaging, platform fees, ad spend, staff time, the lot. Work out the minimum you need to make on each order to still be profitable, and build your offer around that. There is absolutely no point running a sale that loses you money. The only exception to this would be if you're running a sale purely with the intent of clearing out stock to free up space and cash on things that aren't selling.

My take on BFCM timing for 2026

I have absolutely no idea what's going to happen, and anyone who tells you they do is guessing.

In previous years we've seen brands start their sales a full month or more early. Last year some went super early, others held their best offers for the Black Friday weekend itself, which genuinely frustrated a lot of shoppers (myself included) who had already spent their money on their "early BF sales". Buyer behaviour is shifting and I think we'll see a shortening of the extended sale period this year, but that's a theory not a guarantee.

My advice, don't make timing decisions based on what everyone else is doing. Make them based on what makes sense for your brand, your offer, and your customers. If your audience responds well to exclusivity and urgency, a tight sale window might work brilliantly for you. If they need more time to make purchasing decisions, a longer window could be worth it. Know your people.

Ad costs go up. Plan for it.

The BFCM auction gets expensive. Everyone is spending more, which means you're competing harder for the same eyeballs. If you're working with a smaller budget, the smartest thing you can do right now is start building your warm audiences before the costs spike.

Engagement campaigns, video views, building your email list, getting people into your ecosystem now so that when it's time to push, you're retargeting warm audiences rather than fighting for cold traffic at peak prices.

Which brings me to my favourite BFCM strategy.

Build your email list for early access

An early access offer to your email subscribers is genuinely one of the best things you can do for BFCM. It makes your sale feel exclusive, it rewards your most loyal customers, it builds your list in the lead up, and it means you don't have to rely as heavily on paid ads over the actual weekend because you can just email your list.

Start building that list now. Give people a reason to sign up. And then make sure the early access offer is actually worth something.

Sort your creative early and make it actually look like your brand

I'll say this every year until I don't need to anymore, please do not just make everything black with white text and call it your Black Friday creative. I know it feels on theme. It is not doing you any favours.

Your customers need to see what you actually sell. Clearly. They need brand familiarity, consistent visual themes, and content that looks like it came from you, not a generic Black Friday template.

We're also seeing a lot of brands using the same influencers right now, which makes everything start to blur together. If you can, keep a consistent face for your BFCM content, whether that's an influencer you have a genuine ongoing relationship with, your founder, or your team. Familiarity builds trust and trust converts.

Plan your creative early. It takes time to produce good content, and last minute scrambles almost always show in the final product.

Get your ducks in a row

A few practical things that are worth sorting well in advance:

Make sure your stock levels are actually ready for a spike in orders. Nothing worse than a wildly successful BFCM that you can't fulfil properly.

Brief your marketing team, your customer service team, anyone who is going to be involved, well ahead of time. Everyone should know the plan, the offer, the timing, and what to do if something goes wrong.

And please, try not to change things at the last minute. I know things come up, but last minute changes to offers, creative, or campaign structures right before a big sale period is a recipe for chaos and errors.

Work backwards from your goals

Know what you want to get out of BFCM before you build your plan. Are you trying to acquire new customers? Clear old stock? Hit a revenue target? Grow your email list? The answer shapes every decision you make about your offer, your budget, your creative, and your timing.

Know your margins, know your willingness to scale, know your goals, and work backwards from there. For more on working out your budget specifically, have a read of this [link to how much to spend article].

The brands that win at BFCM aren't always the ones spending the most. They're the ones who planned the best.