Black Friday generates billions in sales, but you’re leaving money on the table waiting for Thanksgiving weekend. Starting early bird Black Friday campaigns in October lets you reach customers when they’re researching and planning, not panic-buying.
While others prepare for a one-day frenzy, you’re already banking revenue from shoppers who prefer avoiding the chaos altogether.
Early sales events like Amazon’s October Prime Days and Target’s November 7–9 Early Black Friday prove the market has already shifted. Customers now expect deals before traditional Black Friday, making early bird campaigns essential rather than optional.
Join us below to discover how early bird Black Friday campaigns capture high-value customers, protect profit margins, and create operational breathing room.
Automate your early Black Friday emails for maximum sales with Omnisend
Early bird Black Friday moves holiday deals into late October and early November. You’re selling Black Friday merchandise weeks ahead of the traditional shopping weekend, capturing customers before they even start comparing competitors.
Customers get the inventory they want without stress. Full stock means their first choices remain available. Multiple shopping trips replace one expensive day. Orders ship immediately rather than joining December’s delivery backlog.
You benefit from spreading sales across weeks instead of days. Revenue arrives earlier, improving cash flow before year-end and maximizing ROI. Operations handle normal order volumes rather than crisis-level spikes. Teams work regular hours, maintaining service quality.
Early sales provide market intelligence when you can still act on it. Product performance data guides reordering decisions, campaign results shape upcoming promotions, and buying patterns inform inventory commitments before they’re locked in. Understanding why this shift matters requires looking at how early bird Black Friday strategies impact your competitive position and bottom line.
The traditional shopping weekend represents the climax, not the entirety, of holiday sales. Here’s why early bird Black Friday matters for ecommerce:
First-mover advantage in a crowded market
Early campaigns land in manageable inboxes with fewer competing marketing emails, plus your customers have full budgets and the mental bandwidth for considering purchases. After buying from you in early November, they ignore later promotions in that category.
The psychology of exclusive access
Early bird positioning creates loyalty dynamics that general sales can’t match. Customers interpret early access Black Friday as a benefit rather than inventory liquidation. They tell friends about deals because sharing exclusive finds builds social capital.
Revenue optimization across the season
Early November pricing at 20% off maintains healthy margins while still converting customers who are actively shopping. You also avoid the race to the bottom that happens when every brand offers its deepest discounts, forcing you to choose between profitability and visibility.
Operational excellence under pressure
An early Black Friday prevents the operational disasters of compressed sales windows — websites stay online, warehouses ship on schedule, and support teams provide human answers instead of rushed copy-paste responses.
The cumulative effect changes holiday retail completely — better experiences for customers, sustainable operations for teams, and predictable revenue for planning. Early bird strategies turn Black Friday from an endurance test into a strategic advantage.
When do early bird Black Friday sales start?
Most early bird sales launch between late October and the first week of November. The sweet spot falls around October 25 to November 7, giving you three to four weeks of selling before traditional Black Friday hits.
Starting in early November captures customers in research mode. They’re comparing options, reading reviews, and building wish lists. Once they commit to a purchase, they exit the market for that category (for the time being).
Timing also varies by industry:
Fashion brands often start the earliest, knowing customers want to wear new items before holidays
Electronics retailers cluster around early November to align with product releases
Beauty brands spread offers across the month, capitalizing on gift-buying patterns that start earlier each year
There’s a pattern to when early bird black friday sales start — velocity builds from Halloween through Thanksgiving. Early November captures the steepest part of this growth curve. Waiting until mid-November means competing for customers who’ve already spent their budgets.
When to start your early Black Friday sales
In most cases, before the second week of October. However, optimal start dates also depend on customer behavior, not just calendar traditions. Track when searches for your products spike and when your email engagement peaks.
Most brands discover their ideal window falls earlier than expected, somewhere between Halloween candy sales and pre-Thanksgiving grocery runs.
Early bird Black Friday marketing ideas and strategies
These Black Friday marketing strategies will help you capture early holiday shoppers while maintaining profitability:
VIP early access for loyal customers
Launch exclusive 48-hour sales for your highest-value customers before public promotions begin. Design professional emails fast using Omnisend’s newsletter templates, which include Black Friday options you can edit to match your brand:
Start November at 15% off to capture high-margin early sales, increase to 25% mid-month for fence-sitters, then match competitor depths at 35% for Black Friday holdouts who prioritize maximum discounts over selection.
Loyalty points multiplier week
Double or triple loyalty points on purchases made before November. Customers earn accelerated rewards while you capture early sales. The points help generate future purchases, creating value beyond the immediate transaction.
Gift-ready product bundles
Create pre-packaged sets combining your bestsellers into giftable collections. Price these 20% below individual items but above your cost basis. Position your bundles as problem-solvers for early Black Friday shopping. For instance, “Complete gift sets, no wrapping needed.”
Free gift escalation
Offer increasingly valuable freebies with purchase thresholds during November. Week one — free shipping over $50. Week two — gift with $75 purchase. Week three — premium gift at $100. Your customers will increase their order values to qualify.
Member-only shopping experiences
Build password-protected landing pages that feature curated selections tailored to different customer segments. Send accountholders personalized links in emails and test early Black Friday deals without site-wide promotions that train customers to wait for discounts.
Countdown timers and inventory counts
Display inventory counts when stock drops below a threshold that matters for your products — perhaps 50 units for fast-movers or 10 for premium items. Add countdown timers for fixed-date promotions like “Early bird pricing ends November 28.”
Segment your customers
Early bird Black Friday success depends on understanding which customers shop early versus those who wait for deeper discounts. Look beyond purchase history to engagement patterns, browsing habits, and past holiday behavior to identify these groups.
Omnisend’s segmentation tools let you build these audiences using multiple data points — combine purchase frequency with email engagement, or layer browsing behavior onto order values to create highly targeted audiences.
You can build segments from scratch, ask Omnisend’s AI segment builder to create one for you, or select a pre-built segment, such as one of these:
Image via Omnisend
Once configured, segments update automatically as customer behavior changes, keeping your early bird targeting accurate.
Combine email and SMS for the best results
Email educates while SMS activates. Send detailed product stories, gift guides, and early sale previews via email throughout the week. Reserve SMS Black Friday marketing for time-sensitive alerts when sales are about to go live or inventory runs low.
Omnisend lets you build separate campaigns for email and SMS, and automation flows combining both channels. For instance, your welcome flow might tease your early bird Black Friday sale in an email, followed by an SMS after 24 hours.
Why automate both across channels? Because in 2024, automated emails drove 37% of sales from just 2% of email volume, while SMS and push campaigns saw similar trends, with 18% from 9% and 15% from 3%, respectively.
Campaigns and automations in Omnisend have separate reporting capabilities, letting you track opens, clicks, placed order rate, revenue, and more.
Early bird Black Friday turns November from frantic last-minute scrambling into steady, profitable selling that benefits both you and your customers.
October campaigns reach customers before inbox competition explodes with every brand pushing identical Black Friday offers.
Give loyal customers exclusive early access as genuine rewards, not marketing gimmicks. Set up automated flows for cart recovery, browse retargeting, and product recommendations to maintain momentum leading up to Black Friday.
Early bird benefits multiply quickly:
Sales data reveals bestsellers, while you can still reorder
Pricing adjustments happen based on performance, not guesses
Warehouse ships manageable daily volumes instead of crisis-level spikes
Customer service maintains quality standards without overtime stress
Marketing budgets stretch further before ad costs surge
Omnisend provides the automation and segmentation tools that make early bird email marketing strategies work, helping you maximize Black Friday revenue across the entire season.
Use Omnisend to promote your early Black Friday sales with email campaigns and automations
Milda is a Senior Content Marketing Manager at Omnisend, with extensive experience in communication, helping brands establish a unique and authentic online presence.
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