The Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend is prime time for ecommerce businesses.
In 2024, online consumers in the US spent a record $10.8 billion on Black Friday. Shopify merchants alone saw a combined $11.8 billion in sales worldwide over the 2024 BFCM weekend, a 24% increase from the year prior.
But Black Friday is the day with the highest number of emails sent all year. And with fierce competition from ecommerce brands leaning on advertising platforms like Facebook to reach holiday shoppers, advertising budgets are quickly exhausted—while returns diminish.
Personalized campaigns are the way to go. They use the data you’ve already collected on a customer to tailor the messaging, offers, and discounts they receive—so you can maximize profits and increase holiday sales.
In this guide, discover how to create customer segments ahead of the holiday season, along with 13 segment examples you can implement in a personalized marketing strategy for Black Friday.
What is Black Friday customer segmentation?
Black Friday customer segmentation is a holiday marketing strategy that divides customers into distinct groups based on qualities they share. This can include promotional emails during the BFCM period that use the recipients’ purchases, engagement levels, customer loyalty status, or demographics to tailor the content.
Your audience’s inboxes and social media feeds are already overflowing with “20% off everything this Black Friday” messages. Sending those same, generic offers won’t help you stand out. By segmenting your email list and social media audiences, you can hyper-customize each Black Friday email: reward your most loyal customers, nudge those on the fence to finally make a purchase, and feature the most relevant products based on previous browsing sessions or purchases.
This approach means you don’t need to rely on luck or worry that your competitors will outshadow you. You’ll deliver the right message and products to the right people at the right time—and turn your emails into profit.
How to create customer segments for Black Friday marketing
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to build customer segments, and how to use them for Black Friday campaigns.
1. Unify customer data
Customer segmentation requires clean data. However, 7 in 10 internet users actively decline cookie tracking—the JavaScript code that shines a light on what visitors do when they interact with your website.
First-party data is the solution to this challenge. It’s willingly contributed from your customers through data sources such as purchase history, quizzes, forms, email marketing tools, and loyalty program apps, making you no longer reliant on customers opting in to cookie tracking.
Shopify’s unified commerce functionality gives you access to this data at your fingertips. It creates a unified customer profile each time someone shares their phone number or email address with your brand. Any supplementary first-party data you collect, whether through native Shopify features or app integrations, syncs back to this unified profile in real time.
“Data is extremely important to our business,” says Ieva Urbonaite, global head of ecommerce at waterdrop. “We track things like orders, revenue, conversion rates, average order value as well as cohorts and retention rates on a daily basis. Shopify provides us with reports that are very easy to use as well as the analysis. Understanding these metrics and analyzing them helps us understand our customers even better and offer them a smoother user experience.”
2. Assemble customer segments
Choose an audience-segmentation tool that integrates with your customer data platform to divide your audience based on qualities they share. Shopify merchants have access to these features by default. Choose from prebuilt segment templates (e.g., VIP customers or first-time shoppers) or build your own segments with the ShopifyQL query editor.
For Black Friday segmentation to work effectively, segments must be dynamic and updated in real time. The last thing you want is to send a discount for an email subscriber to redeem with their first purchase a few hours after they already completed the purchase at full price.
Because Shopify’s segmentation relies on real-time data updated in each customer’s unified profile, customers automatically join and leave segments when their details change.
3. Put segments to use
Now that you’ve got your segments, put them to work by personalizing every aspect of the online holiday shopping experience. That includes:
- Email marketing campaigns: Almost 70% of consumers prefer to hear from brands over email. But inboxes are packed during this time of year. The more relevant you can be in your emails and the less inbox clutter you create, the better. Tools like Klaviyo and Yotpo integrate with Shopify, so you can run tailored marketing campaigns to each Shopify segment.
- Social media ads: Use Shopify Audiences to retarget your customer segments on advertising platforms like Meta, TikTok, and Google Ads. It’s been proven to increase retargeting conversions by up to 2x and slash customer acquisition costs by up to 50%. On Google, in particular: if a retargeting ad is powered by a Shopify segment, it updates immediately when someone completes a purchase—so as soon as they do, they leave a segment of "people who have viewed but not bought this product” and you stop spending money targeting them.
- Personalized storefronts: From announcement bars to product recommendation widgets, continue the personalized shopping experience once holiday shoppers reach your website.
To avoid losing money through discount leaks, attach your discount to each segment you’ve built. Shopify checks automatically at checkout to validate eligibiltiy—so if the “VIP” code you’ve created for your highest value customers gets leaked, for example, only people who fit that segment’s criteria can redeem the promotion.
Lalo, for example, uses Shopify Flow to personalize the ecommerce experience for specific segments. Repetitive manual tasks—such as adding customer or order tags based on custom triggers—are now automated. The baby and toddler product retailer also built custom Scripts that allow holiday shoppers to unlock special offers at checkout and confirm that discounts are always applied where appropriate.
“Shopify Flow and Scripts have been critical to our success during high-traffic periods such as Black Friday Cyber Monday,” says cofounder Michael Wieder. “The tools are very user-friendly, so we don’t have to rely on specialists. Our team is empowered by the ability to use these tools.”
Black Friday customer segmentation strategies
- Seasonal shoppers
- Recent email openers
- Loyal customers
- Product browsers
- Category buyers
- Engaged non-buyers
- Recent purchasers
- Email ignorers
- Almost purchasers
- Geographic targets
- Low-value customers
- Gender-based segments
- Cart abandoners
Here are the 13 Black Friday customer segment examples to consider this holiday season:
1. Seasonal shoppers
Seasonal shoppers are people who bought from you during last year’s BFCM campaign or another holiday shopping event. Retargeting this segment gives you a chance to remind them of the deals they got last time around and prepare them for what’s coming this Black Friday.
You can even further segment this group of customers to send more personalized messages. For example:
- Top customers by revenue
- Customers who purchased at full price
- Repeat customers
- One-time holiday shoppers
- Coupon code users
- Different spend ranges
- Product category
Further segmentation lets you nail your messaging to match what shoppers expect from a Black Friday sale. For example, the segment of BFCM shoppers who only bought during a free shipping offer last year might receive a similar offer this year. Those who took advantage of a flash sale might be first in line for a new product drop this Black Friday.
💡Tip: Segment customers who returned the products they purchased during a holiday sale and have dedicated emails for them. Or, exclude them from your BFCM campaign entirely to limit the inevitable influx of post-holiday returns.
2. Recent email openers and engaged subscribers
People who open your emails and click on the links inside them already know you and your products. They’re interested—and they have been for months or even years. Encourage them to buy during the BFCM weekend with early access to exclusive discounts, a greater discount than what’s available publicly on your website, or a free product with their order.
For example, luggage brand BÉIS used Shopify’s customer segmentation tools to identify which products consumers began their customer journey with, and which items they browsed subsequently. This allowed for greater personalization during the holiday season—so much so, that 40% of the brand’s customers shopped multiple times throughout their Black Friday promotion.
3. Loyal customers
VIP customers are your most valuable customer segment. What VIP means is specific to each business, but it usually includes one or more of these factors:
- Regular purchases for years
- High spend
- High number of orders
- Plenty of referrals sent your way
Give your VIP customer segment the special treatment—and use targeted campaigns to call out the fact they’re receiving it. Show them how much you appreciate their business through an extra discount, more time to shop your offers, early access to new products, or by waiving their shipping fees. Then use Shopify’s automatic eligibility verification so only those who apply your VIP code can redeem the discount at checkout.
CityLocs, an ecommerce store that sells customized hats, t-shirts, and accessories, built a VIP customer segment for their Black Friday campaign that included engaged customers who purchased more than three times, spent more than $500 in a single order, or were tagged as B2B customers.
Customized orders take two weeks from order date to delivery, so CityLocs gives their VIPs access to special discounts three to four days before the BFCM weekend.
“This does three things,” says Tabish Bhimani, CEO of Mastrat Digital, the agency that runs these campaigns for CityLocs. “It gives preferential treatment to loyal or big customers, allows the production team to anticipate and plan for big orders, and reduces the ’Where’s my order?’ tickets.”
4. Product browsers
Potential customers are likely browsing multiple ecommerce sites to find the best holiday deals. Your chance to win them over lies in emailing those product browsers who haven’t made a purchase yet.
Retarget these people with emails that take their browsing behavior into consideration. They’re an excellent way to get back on your visitor’s radar: your products and Black Friday offers can be the best out of everything they’ve seen, but they might get overwhelmed or distracted and miss out. A gentle reminder paired with a Black Friday discount is the way to go.
5. Category buyers
The category buyers segment takes your customers’ previous purchases, browsing journeys, and product preferences into account. You can promote products related to the ones they’ve purchased, newest products from that category, or products complementary to the ones they already own.
For example, if someone previously bought a formal dress, you can promote the latest styles of shoes and bags that would go with it. If they bought a kitchen appliance, you might feature accessories or a cleaning kit for that product.
The beauty of category segmentation is that it encourages product discovery. The more products a customer tries, the more likely they are to find exactly what they’re looking for. This can increase customer lifetime value and subsequent purchases after the Black Friday weekend ends.
6. Engaged non-buyers
Ads targeting engaged non-buyers are similar to those aimed at recent email openers, with one key difference: they emphasize the fact that this recipient hasn’t purchased yet, and that they’ll get rewarded for making that first purchase.
The Pro’s Closet, a company selling new and used bikes, offered a $20 credit for a first purchase over $100 with a custom discount code. Right below this call to action, they included a promotion of additional Black Friday deals, nudging those on the fence to become first-time customers.
7. Recent purchasers
Discounting your products is a common practice during this peak shopping season, but there’s almost nothing that frustrates holiday shoppers as much as a discounted product they’ve just paid full price for.
Create a customer segment of people who’ve purchased from you recently. These people have shown that they trust in your product enough to pay its full price, giving you a larger profit margin and increasing your customer base despite the fact that BFCM was just around the corner.
The time frame for this Black Friday customer segment depends on the typical purchase frequency for the products you sell. Fragranced candles might need a monthly refill, while a pack of laundry tablets could last for three to six months. Whatever frequency applies to you, exclude those customers that bought that product less than that many weeks or months before the start of your holiday marketing campaigns.
8. Email ignorers
Sometimes you just can’t cut through the noise of Black Friday for one reason or another. It’s quite possible that among the dozens of emails a subscriber received, they skipped right over your holiday sale.
Create a special segment just for those who ignored (didn’t open) your earlier emails. The three main ways to make this email successful are:
- Timing—i.e., send when things get less chaotic
- A click-worthy subject line
- An incentive like a discount or freebie
Scarcity is the way to go with email ignorers, so emphasize that this is truly the last chance to get BFCM benefits. That’s what Three Ships Beauty, a natural skincare company, did with this email that featured a minimalistic design and an emphasis on their buy one, get one free (BOGO) discounting strategy.
9. Almost purchasers
What about those email subscribers who have opened your BFCM emails, but haven’t made a purchase? Instead of sending the same catchall emails that promote your bestselling products and offer a generic discount, send your Black Friday email openers a follow-up that mention their previous email engagement.
You can use email copy to remind them of it, list the products they’ve viewed, or both. The goal is to make their journey personalized and relevant, so they can pick up right where they left off—even if it was earlier that day or the day before.
10. Geographic targets
Thanks to the shipping and billing details you collect at every sale, you already have access to a mountain of location data. Use it in your BFCM marketing strategy by taking into account the location of your recipients.
Some ways you can use location-based segments include:
- Shipping: Customize your messaging based on distance/shipping duration (“Order before X to receive your order in [state] on time”) or cost (“We ship for free to [state] when you spend more than $X”).
- Climate: Recommend different products based on weather and typical activities for that time of year.
- In-store offers: If you have physical stores, encourage customers near them to take advantage of offers limited to those locations. You could also promote holiday pop-up shops, or customize cart abandonment emails for shoppers close to a retail location. This can promote in-store shopping for local online browsers who might want to view a product in the flesh before they buy.
11. Low-value customers
In the segments so far, you’re rewarding loyalty, customer engagement, and interest. What about those subscribers and customers that haven’t been as active, or spent as much money on your products? They may no longer be interested in your products for one reason or another.
While it may sound harsh, the truth is that these customers are less valuable to your business. It wouldn’t be fair toward your high-value customers to offer them the same benefits. Instead, you can focus on tactics that won’t significantly lower your Black Friday profit margins, while still nudging them toward another purchase.
For example, you can offer a smaller discount compared to your VIP customers, like 10% or 15% compared to 25% or more. Alternatively, make a coupon redeemable for a shorter time period, like 24 hours.
12. Gender-based segments
Gender-based segments are nothing revolutionary, but in a busy BCFM season of emails, they can make a tremendous difference.
If you sell products tailored to both men and women, this type of audience segmentation is table stakes—you’re at risk of spamming your subscribers otherwise. The success of your campaign relies on them viewing the product as a good gift for a loved one.
Here’s where gender-based segmentation can make a significant difference: Kent Brushes, a brand of handmade hair brushes, promoted the same beard-grooming products to male and female recipients, but with different messages. Men got a “Get ready for The Kent 2020 Shave” message, while women received a “Give the gift of a perfect shave” message.
Swanky, a Shopify agency that ran this campaign, reported fantastic results: an 88.9% and 73.7% open rate for women and men, respectively, compared to 54.5% for recipients of a non-personalized message.
13. Cart abandoners
During Black Friday promotions, cart abandonment rate tends to hover between 77% and 82%, which is higher than the average of around 70% year-round. To make sure your holiday cart abandoners don’t slip through the cracks, remind them of the products they left in their shopping cart.
Take the luxury streetwear brand Represent, for example. “Black Friday has always been part of our DNA—it’s a big part of the overall strategy,” says Stefan Lewis, chief digital officer. “The company sees site traffic skyrocket by 25x and conversions rising by 8x. It’s a really powerful moment for the brand.”
What’s interesting about Represent’s approach to holiday cart abandoners, however, is that it doesn’t rely on the usual sales tactic of discounting. The brand kept their automated cart abandonment emails promotion-free and still drove an 8.3% purchase rate during Black Friday.
Bonus tips for successful BFCM customer segmentation
Check out these bonus tips to nail your Black Friday campaign efforts:
Establish data collection in advance
The month before Black Friday isn’t the time to take stock of your customer data and start assembling segments. Treat the months leading up to holiday season as an opportunity to bolster your unified customer profiles and collect data you can lean on for Black Friday customer segmentation.
To collect holiday season first-party data:
- Incentivize account creation when browsing your website.
- Invite customers to add products to a virtual wishlist.
- Run quizzes in exchange for personalized product recommendations.
- Automate post-purchase feedback surveys.
- Encourage loyalty program participation.
Use dynamic segmentation
Dynamic segments update in real time to avoid the awkward situation of sending a personalized email after a customer completes an action that should remove them from the segment.
Say, for example, that you’re targeting the “Almost purchasers” segment with a social media campaign that highlights the products they’ve shown an interest in. You’ve offered a 25% coupon to seal the deal—the highest discount you’ve given that’s exclusive to this segment.
However, customer Sarah already made her purchase off the back of a 10% discount code you gave to email subscribers. This contributes to a negative experience: not only is Sarah disappointed she missed out on the extra 15% discount, but there’s a risk of her overwhelming your already-stretched holiday customer support team to get the difference refunded.
Shopify solves this problem with segments that automatically update as the information in a customer’s unified profile changes. In this example, Sarah would’ve been automatically removed from the retargeting audience, avoiding the situation entirely.
Segment out Black Friday purchasers
Use segmentation to make sure that customers who made a purchase on Cyber Weekend do not continue to receive further promotional emails. Of course,transactional, informational, and onboarding emails about the items they just purchased are fine.
This is a good strategy to improve deliverability and maximize advertising budgets—those who have already purchased probably won’t be opening more promo emails from you—and to maintain a good brand experience. How would you feel if you just made a purchase and you continued to get treated like the transaction never occurred?
Employ predictive analytics
Customers often surprise us. Previous behavior isn’t always indicative of what they want.
Predictive analytics uses data you’ve already collected to forecast future behavior. It relies on large datasets—such as your unified customer profiles in Shopify—and machine learning to assemble a roadmap of what future interactions might look like.
We can see this in practice with Mia, a customer who was lumped in your “Category buyers” segment. She received a marketing email to offer exclusive access to a new premium Pilates machine product that retails at much higher price than your other products. But the campaign didn’t convert—Mia didn’t buy it.
Predictive analytics tells us that customers similar to Mia—those who’ve had three separate website sessions and spent an average of two weeks evaluating each purchase—don’t spend more than $100 per purchase. However, they are open to a monthly subscription box: 45% of people with a similar customer journey opt in to your subscription when presented with the offer.
This data-driven insight helps you fine-tune your Black Friday customer segmentation strategy. Instead of promoting the new machine in personalized emails, you offer customers similar to Mia a different offer: the first month of their subscription for free.
Master segmentation to cut through the Black Friday noise
The weeks leading up to BFCM are go-time for your ecommerce store. By taking the time to thoughtfully segment and prepare more targeted messaging, you can increase your open rates, improve deliverability, and ultimately increase revenue.
Shopify’s unified customer profiles and segmentation features let you automate and streamline this process with custom attributes, locations, purchase habits, and customer behaviors. This way, you can connect with high-value customers, reward repeat buyers, and convert abandoned checkouts.
Read more
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- Best Holiday Campaigns with Advertising Examples from 335 Years of Retail
- What to Do After You've Lost a Loyal Customer
- How to Avoid the Hidden Cost of Black Friday, Cyber Monday Sales and Increase Customer Lifetime Value through Personalized Email
- Ecommerce Chatbots: 22 Ways to Increase Sales, Conversions & Retention
- How to Use a What-if Analysis to Measure the Effects of Your Decisions
Black Friday consumer segmentation FAQ
What is the marketing strategy of Black Friday?
Black Friday is the busiest time for online shoppers in the entire year, so it’s worth investing in your Black Friday marketing strategy. This can include limited promotions for high-value (VIP) customers, influencer marketing campaigns, social media ads, and product recommendations based on previous purchases and browsing sessions.
When should I start marketing for Black Friday?
You should start warming up your email audience to your BCFM deals around a week before Cyber Weekend. On social media, you can start even earlier to build anticipation and grow your email list. For this to be successful, start planning your Black Friday Cyber Monday marketing activities in the months leading up to November.
How do you retain customers after Black Friday?
To keep your new customers coming back even after Cyber Weekend, ensure a fantastic customer experience. That includes a smooth checkout process, timely emails like transactional, shipping, and feedback-soliciting emails, as well as a simple and transparent return process. Segment your new customers based on what they shopped for, so you can send relevant emails and product recommendations to them in the long run.
