From Revenue Spikes to Retention Wins (Smarter BFCM Strategies)

How to turn bargain hunters into loyal VIP customers this BFCM.

Author

Pietro Saccomani
September 18, 2025

Most ecommerce brands come into Black Friday & Cyber Monday chasing a big revenue spike.

That’s a mistake.

Zeroing in on revenue as the goal usually means sacrificing what really matters — profit.

When you run blanket 80% off promos and slash prices to Temu levels, you lose out on margin, while devaluing your brand and acquiring customers who never come back.

On the podcast this week, we talked with Andrew Maff about (among other things) building a BFCM strategy that skips the huge discounts and focuses on results that actually matter to your business.

A lot of his thoughts overlapped with what’s covered in the BFCM Mobile App Playbook — sustainable strategies such as VIP early access & app exclusives, plus taking a long-term approach to the weekend (acquiring customers who stick around, rather than disappearing come December).

You can get the free playbook below:

I highly recommend watching or listening to the full episode with Andrew too. Check it out below on YouTube, or head to Spotify if that’s easier.

Now let’s get into it.

The Problem With Your Discount-Led BFCM Strategy

Most ecommerce brands default to one play on Black Friday: slash prices, drive sales, celebrate the spike.

This promotion strategy tends to create more problems than it solves:

  • Margin erosion: Blanket %-off promos inflate top-line revenue but destroy profit. Even worse, they condition customers to wait for sales instead of buying at full price.

  • Brand devaluation: Deep discounts send a signal that your products are overpriced or cheap to begin with, undermining trust and long-term brand value.

  • The Q1 hangover: Leadership chases shiny Q4 numbers, but in January, you’re left with one-time bargain hunters, no retention strategy, and a flatline in LTV.

That’s not to say that discounts (even deep discounts) never work. There’s a time and a place for everything.

The key issue here is that you’re optimizing for the wrong thing: revenue, which (on its own) is nothing but a vanity metric.

What Actually Matters

Revenue looks good in a headline, or on a dashboard.

But if you’re doing $1M a month but burning $1.5M to get it, that’s not growth. It’s building a business on ice that’s about to crack.

The real wins come from focusing on the metrics that drive profit and retention:

  • Contribution margin per order → what’s left after promos, COGS, shipping, and ad spend.

  • LTV & repeat rate by cohort → are your BFCM buyers actually coming back, or just disappearing after the sale?

  • CAC payback window → how quickly can you recoup acquisition costs? If you need a decade of purchases to break even, you’re in trouble.

  • AOV & items per order → bundling and thresholds that lift the average ticket size without crushing margins.

  • Audience-building signals → engaged email subscribers, app installs, push subs, repeat purchase velocity. These are leading indicators of Q1 and beyond.

These are the things you want to focus on.

If “revenue” is the goal, you’ll find yourself doing whatever it takes to get there — including making a loss on sales.

That’s why getting your target metrics right is the first step towards a successful BFCM.

How to Run Promos Without Killing Margins

Winning BFCM doesn’t mean avoiding promotions. It means running smarter promos.

Your customers are expecting something special. That doesn’t have to mean an 80% off discount.

Here are some ways to build your BFCM promo that don’t evaporate all your profit.

1) Tiered “Spend X, Get Y” (not %-off)

  • Set thresholds based on your margin math (what can you give up and still stay profitable?).

  • Rewards can be $$ credit, free gifts, shipping upgrades, or VIP early access, not flat site-wide cuts.

2) Subscription commitments

  • “Subscribe and save” deals often end up in a single purchase, followed by a quick cancellation.

  • Instead, offer discounts on 6–12 month subscription periods to lock in longer-term cash flow.

3) Partnership promos

  • Run cross-brand campaigns: “buy here, get code there.”

  • Share audiences with complementary brands to add value without killing margin.

4) Loyalty multipliers

  • Offer 2x points on bundles or thresholds.

  • Tie perks to lifetime spend (not just points burn) to encourage repeat purchases.

5) Exclusivity

  • Give your VIP customers, app users, email list, or other specific segments exclusive deals or early access to your sales.

  • This drives excitement by making your customers feel important, rather than just slashing prices — maintaining margins while also driving loyalty.

The key?

Drive value up, rather than prices down.

Turning BFCM Customers into Long-Term Buyers

After you’ve earned the sale, now you need to earn the second, third, and fourth.

This is where brands that do it right get real, lasting gains from BFCM.

They get their customers to come back. BFCM is not just a short term sales spike, but a boost that carries on long after November ends.

One of the keys to doing this is treating the post-BFCM comedown the right way.

Don’t jump straight to the next promo. Focus on education, onboarding, helping your customers get value from their purchase, and staying in touch.

This period is not so much about getting the next sale — it’s about not losing the customer.

Give them a reason to stay on your list, or keep your app installed.

Maintain contact with them, so that your next promo doesn’t hit out of the blue.

This is one of the reasons apps are so powerful. They keep that connection in place, with push notifications that keep the conversation going, with better visibility than email and zero sending cost.

Final Thoughts

BFCM doesn’t have to be a race to the bottom.

It’s possible to run promos that drive meaningful, long-term results, while staying profitable in the short term.

The important thing is what you focus on.

If you build your whole strategy around driving revenue, you’re going to end up chasing the wrong things.

Focus on what really matters.

  • Contribution margin

  • LTV

  • CAC payback

  • Retention

That’s how you make BFCM a launchpad for growth.

Ready to win Q4? Start here.

  • 📘 Download the BFCM Mobile App Playbook → Practical tactics & templates for app-led holiday campaigns. Get the playbook.

  • 🎙️ Listen to the podcast w/Andrew Maff → Andrew & Eric do a deep dive on promo math, partnerships, and retention strategies to help you build your BFCM strategy the right way. Listen now.

  • 🚀 Book a strategy call → Launch your app in time for the holiday season. Get on a quick call to see what’s possible.

Quick Hits

Graza’s $240M Funnel, Broken Down

Our friends at DTC Daily just mapped out Graza’s entire funnel — ads, landing pages, emails, and tech stack — step by step.

If you want to see how a $240M DTC brand turns first-time buyers into repeat customers, this teardown is worth 5 minutes of your time.

The Only CX Playbook You Need Before Black Friday

Thought this was a brilliant breakdown from Eli on doing CX the right way. He shares what he learned from running CX teams at Olipop and Jones Road Beauty, from picking the right people, to using CX to drive higher LTV.

As I discussed a few weeks ago, CX can be a growth lever, not just a cost center. This is how.

The Mistakes That Made Simple Modern a Global Brand

They say every mistake is a lesson. And Simple Modern co-founder Bryan Porter shares some of the biggest they’ve made, which he says cost them “millions” — but also played a major part in turning Simple Modern into the massive brand it is today.

Black Friday Tips & Checklists: Insights from Ridge & Jones Road Beauty

This edition of the Operators newsletter has some great advice from Cody Plofker (CEO @ Jones Road Beauty) and Connor MacDonald (CMO @ Ridge) to follow this BFCM.

5 Insights from Obvi’s 2024 BFCM

Still trying to nail down your strategy? Get a look at some of the lessons a $100M brand learned from last year’s BFCM data.

Talking Points from Beanstalk

Some of ecom’s top operators came together recently at Beanstalk. Sean Frank (Ridge) gives a look at what people were talking about.

Holiday Sales Projected to Grow

Deloitte released their US holiday sales projections.

The firm is predicting a little over $1.6 trillion in sales from November to January — an increase of 2.9-3.4% compared to 2024.

Ecommerce growth is expected at a higher clip, between 7% and 9%, with sales projected between $305 billion and $310.7 billion.

The Future of Ecommerce

Some big names in ecom are predicting a massive shift coming with AI-driven shopping.

How to Do Instagram SEO

If you missed it, Google has recently started indexing Instagram posts.

I’ve already started seeing posts start to show up in search results. And if your brand is posting on Instagram, it’s crucial that your posts are optimized for this.

The key? If nothing else, make sure you include some relevant content in the post description, so Google’s crawler knows what your post is about.

That’s all for now.

I’ll be back in touch next week, with more on how successful brands are doing CX and retention right.

Remember — pick up your copy of the BFCM Mobile App Playbook now, to learn how to keep more of your sales this Black Friday/Cyber Monday.

Also, make sure you follow the podcast. We’ve got some great guests lined up, including some successful operators who are going to give us a look behind the curtain of their business.

If there’s any topic you’d like to see us dive into, for either the newsletter or the podcast, just shoot me a message here.

Until next time,

Pietro and The Retention Edge Team

PS: want to boost retention, revenue and profitability? If so, launching your own app could be the best move you make this year.

See how: go to our website to get a preview of your app for free, or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to talk about it.