Black Friday checklist
The sale is four days.The website is three weeks.
Black Friday 2026 is Friday 27 November, and Cyber Monday is Monday 30 November. A website ready for them needs five things decided by mid-November: a real offer with a real end, written down with its timezone; a sale banner that switches on and off by itself; a popup for people about to leave; one countdown with one deadline; and four emails on a schedule. The checklist below puts each step on a date, and the sale planner writes the banner, popup, countdown and emails for you.
By the Builderify team
The sample plan from the planner: a Friday-to-Sunday sale, a Cyber Monday offer, four emails.
When is Black Friday 2026?
Friday 27 November.
Black Friday is the day after US Thanksgiving, which falls on the fourth Thursday of November. In 2026 Thanksgiving is Thursday 26 NovemberOPM, so Black Friday is Friday 27 November and Cyber Monday, the Monday after, is 30 November.
The date that matters for your website is earlier. Emails need a list that’s ready, codes need to exist in your shop, and everything needs testing on a phone. Work back from the 27th and the decisions are due in the first week of November.
| Date | What it is | On your website |
|---|---|---|
| Fri 6 Nov | Three weeks out | Offer, dates, timezone and codes decided |
| Fri 13 Nov | Two weeks out | Banner, popup, countdown and emails written and scheduled |
| Fri 20 Nov | One week out | Checkout tested with the code, on a phone |
| Tue 24 Nov | Three days out | The announcement email goes |
| Thu 26 Nov | Thanksgiving (US) | Many sales open early; decide if yours does |
| Fri 27 Nov | Black Friday | Banner and popup switch on; “it’s on” email |
| Mon 30 Nov | Cyber Monday | The last day for most sales; final email |
| Tue 1 Dec | The day after | Check everything came down |
The Black Friday checklist
for your website
15 steps, five deadlines.
Most Black Friday checklists are about hosting and checkout. Those matter, and your shop or host owns them. This one is about what visitors see and what lands in their inbox, in the order it has to happen. Tick as you go; nothing you tick leaves your browser.
Three weeks out: decide
Two weeks out: write and schedule
The week before: test
During the sale: watch
After: take it down
Plan your Black Friday sale
in one go.
Enter your dates, your offer and your timezone. The planner writes the sale banner, the popup, the countdown’s end time in your timezone (and what that is elsewhere), and four emails with their send times. It starts with a sample sale so you can see a finished plan; change it to yours, then copy the lot. Nothing leaves your browser.
The offer
The dates
Cyber Monday
Your list
Sale banner (Topbar)
Schedule Fri, Nov 27 to Mon, Nov 30Black Friday: 25% off everything with code BLACKFRIDAY25. Ends Sunday, Nov 29 at 11:59pm ET.
On Monday morning, change it to
Cyber Monday: 15% off everything with code CYBER15. Today only, until 11:59pm ET.
Popup
Template: Exit Offer- Headline
- Before you go: 25% off everything
- Text
- Leave your email to see your code. The sale ends Sunday, Nov 29 at 11:59pm ET.
- Button
- Show me the code
- After
- Your code: BLACKFRIDAY25. Use it at checkout before 11:59pm ET on Sunday, Nov 29.
- Schedule
- Fri, Nov 27 to Sun, Nov 29
Countdown end time
Black Friday sale ends
Sunday, November 29, 11:59pm ET
Block setting: 2026-11-29 23:59
- Mon 30 Nov, 04:59 UTC
- Los Angeles: Sun 29 Nov, 20:59
- London: Mon 30 Nov, 04:59
- Sydney: Mon 30 Nov, 15:59
Cyber Monday ends
Monday, November 30, 11:59pm ET
Block setting: 2026-11-30 23:59
- Tue 1 Dec, 04:59 UTC
- Los Angeles: Mon 30 Nov, 20:59
- London: Tue 1 Dec, 04:59
- Sydney: Tue 1 Dec, 15:59
A countdown counts to one moment for every visitor; the times above are that same moment in other places. Set your website’s timezone to the one you picked here before you enter the block setting.
Email schedule
4 emails-
01
Announce Tue, Nov 24, 10:00am ET
Our Black Friday sale starts Friday
25% off everything, Fri, Nov 27 to Sun, Nov 29. Cyber Monday has its own offer. Here’s what’s in it.
-
02
Sale starts Fri, Nov 27, 8:00am ET
It’s on: 25% off everything
Use BLACKFRIDAY25 at checkout. Ends Sunday, Nov 29 at 11:59pm ET.
-
03
Last day Sun, Nov 29, 10:00am ET
Last day: 25% off everything
Code BLACKFRIDAY25. Until 11:59pm ET, then prices go back.
-
04
Cyber Monday Mon, Nov 30, 8:00am ET
Cyber Monday: 15% off everything, today only
Code CYBER15. Until 11:59pm ET.
4 emails × 800 contacts = 3,200 sends, 1,600 credits at 0.5 a send. After the 250 free monthly credits, 1,350 credits, about $12.15 at the Starter rate ($9 for 1,000).
The copy is a first draft. Put it in your own voice, and never promise anything your shop can’t do, such as delivery by a date.
Send times are a habit, not data. Morning sends for the start and Cyber Monday, mid-morning for the rest. Move them to when your customers read email.
Cyber Monday is said up front. The announcement names it, so Monday’s offer is a plan your customers knew about, not a surprise “extension”.
Which Black Friday popup,
and when should it open?
One popup, shown once.
Pick the popup by what you want from the visitor. If you want their email, trade it for the code. If the sale is open to everyone, just say so loudly. Either way, show it once per visit and schedule it to the sale’s dates. On a desktop, opening it on exit intent catches people on their way out; phones have no cursor, so use a scroll or page-view trigger there. The guide to exit-intent popups has the detail and a demo.
Exit Offer
Catches a leaving visitor, takes their email, then shows a code they can copy on the thank-you screen. The address goes into your lead list.
Use it when the code is the reward for signing up.
Bold Offer
Full-width and high-contrast, with one call to action. No form, no code to hide.
Use it when the discount applies automatically or the code is in the banner anyway.
Discount Code
Email for a coupon. Choose “One code for everyone”, or “Unique code per signup” and paste in single-use codes you created in your shop. The same address asking twice gets its own code back, and a fallback code covers you if the pool runs out.
Use it when you don’t want one code shared around coupon sites.
Your shop still does the discount. Builderify hands the code to the visitor; your shop decides whether it works. If you set an expiry on unique codes, the popup tells the visitor, but it is your shop’s own expiry setting that enforces it. Each new address a popup captures costs 1 credit, and page loads with the widget on them cost 10 credits per 1,000.
Keep it to one. A popup on the way in, another on the way out and a third for the newsletter is how a sale page becomes a page nobody reads. Switch off your everyday signup popup for the sale’s dates and let this one do the work.
Black Friday emails:
four, on a schedule.
Written now, sent later.
Four emails cover a Black Friday sale without wearing out your list: one to announce it, one when it starts, one on the last day and one for Cyber Monday. Write them in the second week of November and schedule them, so the sale weekend is for answering replies, not writing copy.
Broadcast sends campaigns to your lead lists from your own domain, once SPF, DKIM and DMARC check out. You can schedule each one for later, and pause and resume a send without anyone being emailed twice. Each email to each person costs 0.5 credit, so four emails to 1,000 contacts is 2,000 credits.
-
Only people who opted in
A sale doesn’t change who you may email. Every Broadcast email carries an unsubscribe link and your business name and postal address, and unsubscribed and bounced addresses are skipped. For the US rules, see the CAN-SPAM checklist.
-
The end time, with its timezone
Every email says when the offer ends, the same way the banner does: “11:59pm ET”, not “midnight”.
-
The code in the text, not only in an image
Images are often blocked, and a code people can’t select is a code they retype wrong.
-
A send time in the right timezone
Check the time zone shown when you schedule each campaign, so “8am” is your customers’ 8am.
-
A test to yourself
Send one to your own address first and click every link, on a phone.
Is your Black Friday discount real?
Three rules to check first.
A discount has to be measured from a price you really charged, and a deadline has to be real. These are the rules most often in play for a Black Friday sale on a website. This is a summary, not legal advice; your country may have more.
| Where | The rule | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| EU and EEA | When you announce a price reduction, the “before” price is the lowest price you applied in at least the 30 days before it (Article 6a of the Price Indication Directive). The Court of Justice ruled on 26 September 2024 that the percentage itself must be calculated from that price.CJEU | Look up each product’s lowest price since late October before you write “25% off”. Don’t raise prices in November to discount them. |
| United States | The FTC’s pricing guides treat a former price as a fair comparison when it is “the actual, bona fide price at which the article was offered to the public on a regular basis for a reasonably substantial period of time.”16 CFR 233.1 | Compare with the price you normally charge, not a list price nobody paid. |
| EU and UK | Falsely saying a product or offer is available only for a limited time is banned outright in the EUUCPD and the UK.DMCC Act | One real end for everyone. No timer that restarts per visitor, and no planned “extension” sold as a surprise. |
After Cyber Monday,
take it all down.
Then write down what worked.
Scheduled pieces come down on their own; check that they did. On 1 December, load your site in a private window on a phone and look for the banner, the popup and the countdown. Then take the sale wording off product pages and your FAQ, and note how many people the popup signed up and what each email brought in, while you still remember.
If you close for the holidays in December, the same scheduling runs the notice for those days: see the holiday closure message guide for the wording.
What Builderify does
- A sale banner (the Topbar) with a start and end date
- Exit Offer, Bold Offer and Discount Code popups, scheduled the same way
- One code for everyone, or a unique code per signup from your shop’s codes
- A countdown to one end time in your website’s timezone
- Scheduled emails to your opted-in lists
- Every popup signup saved in a lead list
What it doesn’t
- Change your prices or your checkout
- Create discounts in your shop; it hands out the codes you made
- Keep your site up under load; that is your host or platform
- Know your stock or delivery dates
- Promise inbox placement for your emails
Every account gets 250 free credits a month and there is no monthly fee. One-time packs start at $9, and purchased credits never expire, so credits left after the sale are still there next November. See the pricing page for the whole rate card.
Black Friday, before you ask.
Friday 27 November 2026, the day after US Thanksgiving on Thursday 26 November. Cyber Monday is Monday 30 November. To have your website ready, decide the offer, dates and codes by about 6 November and schedule the banner, popup and emails by about 13 November.
Write one line with the offer, the code and the end time with its timezone, then use a bar that switches on and off by itself. In Builderify that is the Topbar: add the script tag to your site once, write the line and give it a first and last date in your website's timezone. The schedule runs in whole days, so a sale ending at 11:59pm fits it exactly.
Yes. The Discount Code popup can give one code to everyone, or a unique code per signup from single-use codes you create in your shop and paste in. The same email address asking twice gets its own code back, and a fallback code covers you if the pool runs out. Your shop still applies the discount; Builderify does not change prices or checkout.
Each email to each person costs 0.5 credits, so four sale emails to 1,000 contacts is 2,000 credits. Every account gets 250 free credits a month, one-time packs start at $9 for 1,000 credits, there is no monthly fee and purchased credits never expire. Only email people who opted in.
A countdown to the real end of a real sale, the same for every visitor, is fine. Falsely saying an offer is available only for a limited time is banned outright in the EU and the UK, so avoid timers that restart for each visitor and planned extensions sold as a surprise. This is not legal advice.
Sources
- OPM Federal Holidays, U.S. Office of Personnel Management (Thanksgiving Day, Thursday 26 November 2026)
- CJEU Press release on Case C-330/23, Aldi Süd: a price reduction must be calculated from the lowest price in the last 30 days, Court of Justice of the EU, 26 September 2024
- 16 CFR 233.1 FTC Guides Against Deceptive Pricing, former price comparisons (Legal Information Institute copy)
- EUR-Lex Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC, Annex I, point 7
- legislation.gov.uk Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20, paragraph 7
The dates and rules were read on 29 October 2026. The Builderify details come from the module pages and the rate card on this site. The planner’s send times are a habit, not research, and none of this is legal advice.
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