Every year when Black Friday & Cyber Monday roll around, Shopify stores go into overdrive. The dashboards light up, traffic spikes, ads get more expensive, and Shopify merchants pray their checkout doesn’t crash while customers are filling their carts.
But here’s the truth:Most ecommerce stores lose money on BFCM not because of tiny mistakes—same five predictable issues they repeat every single year.
If you want your store to actually profit this time (and not just run discounts for the sake of looking busy), avoid these five common Shopify pitfalls.
1. Treating Site Speed Like an Afterthought You know what kills conversions faster than a bad discount?
A slow Shopify store .
Every BFCM, merchants overload their sites with flashy apps, countdown timers, sticky bars, and animations. It looks exciting for five minutes—until your page takes seven seconds to load on mobile.
And shoppers don’t wait. They bounce.
Site speed is one of the most underrated revenue levers in ecommerce, and ironically, one of the easiest things to fix.
If you wouldn’t walk into a physical store that takes 10 seconds just to open its doors…
2. Forgetting to Add Upsells & Cross-Sells If there were ever a moment in the year when shoppers are ready to buy more, it’s Black Friday & Cyber Monday.
Yet so many Shopify stores leave the easiest money untouched—they forget to add simple upsell and cross sell offers
A customer already buying from you is the cheapest customer to increase revenue from. Not adding an upsell is like a barista forgetting to ask, “Want an extra shot?” Most people say yes.
Bundles, complementary products, cart upgrades, checkout bumps—BFCM is the perfect time to increase AOV without increasing ad spend. And honestly, it’s one of the smartest things you can do.
Shopify upsell pop-up example showing recommended products after an item is added to cart—an easy way to lift AOV during BFCM.
3. Running “Cute” Discounts Instead of Clear Ones Ever landed on a website offering:
15% off if you spend $50 25% off if you spend $120 30% off select items A free gift if the moon is full and Mercury is in retrograde? Confusing promotions ruin conversions.
During BFCM, shoppers don’t have time to do math. They want simple, straightforward offers. The stores that win aren’t always the ones with the deepest discounts—they’re the ones with the clearest ones.
4. Designing for Desktop (Even Though Most Traffic Is Mobile) Here’s the twist most Shopify merchants still ignore:
The BFCM shopper isn’t sitting at a laptop.
Tiny buttons, pop-ups that cover the whole screen, slow-loading images, and messy layouts send them straight off your site.
If your mobile experience feels like a chore, your checkout won’t see action—no matter how great your offer is. Mobile optimization isn’t optional anymore; it’s survival.
5. Not Preparing for Inventory Chaos Every year, stores spend all their energy on ads and campaigns…
Inventory problems ruin trust fast:
You oversell Customers wait weeks Refund requests flood in Support gets overwhelmed Your BFCM success depends on inventory just as much as marketing. The stores that thrive are the ones that plan before the chaos—not during.
Final Word: BFCM Isn’t Won by Fancy Tactics Black Friday & Cyber Monday don’t forgive poor preparation.
The Shopify stores that grow the most are the ones that:
Do this, and BFCM becomes a profit multiplier—not a stressful weekend of “I hope nothing breaks.”
