BFCM lessons, winners, and holiday season media opportunities

In partnership with

Hey, Rockstar!
Only a few hours to go before we’re officially out of the BFCM madness! So, how about a mini post-mortem of the weekend to figure out what lessons we can extract for the rest of the holiday season going forward?

In today’s bid to rev up your sales by at least 1%, here’s what we’re chatting about:

• BFCM in numbers (+ winning products for the season!)

• Post-BFCM Help: Customer service hacks that save your sanity

• Weekly Challenge

• Hot Trend Alert: Scent beads

• Bonus: Holiday season media opportunities for your store

Cyber Monday dominates the shopping season, apparently

According to research, Cyber Monday alone will rake in $13.93 billion in U.S. eCommerce sales this year. In total, all five days are expected to bring in sales of $41.43 billion this year (+5.6% from 2023).

This means that if you own a Shopify store, you’re doing something right as the market continues to trend in favor of ecom merchants like you and me. All we need to do is play our cards right to direct some of the traffic our way.

With that being said, who’s winning this season (and what are they selling?)

Black Friday Winners: Soft, Luxe, and Oh-So-Comfy

According to Shopify bosses, Shopify merchants took in $5bn over the last five days. Within this group of winners (hey! 👋), these products were the best sellers:

• $117 Bamboo Pajama Set from CozyEarth. (If you jumped on this trend when I wrote about this back in May, high five! 🙌)

• $208 Sateen Bed Sheets from Brooklinen

• $102 Luka Duffel Bag from Calpaktravel

• $58 The Initial necklace from Baublebar

💡 What We Learned:
With the exception of jewelry, people seem to want quality, practical gifts.

When built on a solid foundation of quality/luxury-presenting products, bold messaging is a game-changer. The top-performing stores nailed this with big, bold BFCM messages showcasing their juicy deals front and center of their homepages.

Your Move:
Take these lessons and make them yours. Retro-design your site for the holidays and communicate all your discounts, perks, etc, directly on your homepage to squeeze the value out of your organic SEO efforts and advertising spend.

Post-BFCM Growth Hack: Taming the Customer Service Beast

BFCM might leave you swimming in sales (yay!) but also drowning in customer emails (ugh). If you’re dreading the prospect of having to deal with customer service in the next few days, here’s what you need to do to get your service gears grinding for you:

1. Automate Like a Boss

   • Set up Shopify Inbox (if you haven’t done so) to zap out instant, (pre-configured) answers to commonly asked questions. Plus, it’s a free Shopify app, so there’s no additional overhead!

   • Add AI quick replies to cut your email time in half.

   • Offer self-service order status and let customers track their own orders

2. Hire Backup (that won’t break the bank):

   • Snag a Virtual Assistant for around $5/hour.

   • Do the math: If 100 hours = $500, could you make >$500 by using those 100 hours to grow your biz? Probably. So get a VA.

Weekly Challenge

Take 60 minutes this week to set up Shopify Inbox and save yourself some much-needed hours!

Trend Watch: Scent Beads Are the New Laundry Hack

Scent beads are tiny laundry fragrance boosters that are blowing up on social media. Searches for one brand (Downy beads) jumped 433% in the past five years, thanks to TikTok and #LaundryTok accumulating over 262.7K videos.

Here’s how you can ride this trend:

• Test scent beads with a twist. Get influencers to create a scent and promote to their followers for an affiliate commission

• Explore eco-friendly scent bead alternatives

From our friends

Scale your paid social with authentic UGC whitelisting

Grapevine empowers high-growth brands to break through plateaus and reach new audiences. Our platform streamlines whitelisted campaigns, connecting you with top creators and publishers for authentic, high-performing UGC. Trusted by more than 150 brands, we reduce CPAs by 25% while scaling reach. Expand your team's capabilities without increasing headcount – let us transform your paid social strategy.

Elevate your campaigns today

Media Opportunities

1. Brightside is seeking his and her holiday gifts. Highlight your products, from fashion and accessories to gadgets and wellness items, perfect for men and women. If you’d like your products featured, please reach out to Elizabeth on 919-891-0145 with a brief description of the gift idea.

2. For their Christmas newsletters, articles and posts The Version UK is seeking products for our gift guide, advent calendars, food and drink, homeware and tech! Get in touch via [email protected]

Enjoy this? Forward it to your crew, because who doesn’t love a win-win? 💌

P.S If you’re looking for a growth-marketing newsletter to supercharge your business in 2025, check out FunnelVision.