Black Friday and Cyber Monday (BFCM) are two of the biggest shopping events of the holiday season. For Print on Demand sellers on Shopify, they offer a great opportunity to reach more customers, introduce new products, and increase sales.
However, getting ready for BFCM involves more than simply setting up discount codes. Sellers also need to choose the right products, prepare their listings, optimize their stores, and make sure their fulfillment workflows can handle a potential increase in orders.
In 2026, Black Friday falls on November 27, followed by Cyber Monday on November 30. If you're running a POD business on Shopify, now is a good time to review your workflow and prepare for the upcoming shopping season.
Here's a checklist to help you get ready for BFCM 2026, from product research and listing to order management and fulfillment.
1. Research Products and Choose the Right Ones for BFCM
Before deciding which products to include in your BFCM promotions, start by reviewing your sales data and understanding market demand.
Instead of discounting your entire catalog, focus on products that have performed well or match the interests of your target customers.
Here are a few things to consider:
- Which products are generating consistent sales?
- Which niches or themes are relevant to the holiday shopping season?
- Which products have potential for additional variations?
- Which products have enough profit margin to support discounts?
You should also review data from previous campaigns to identify products that attracted customers and delivered solid profits.
Manage your product catalog with DodgePrint: Smart Catalog helps sellers organize designs, mockups, and product information in one place, making it easier to prepare their catalogs for upcoming BFCM campaigns.
2. Prepare Your Designs and Product Mockups
Once you've selected your products, the next step is to prepare the designs and visuals for your listings.
For POD products, customers often rely on images to evaluate a product before making a purchase. Your mockups should be clear, accurately represent the design, and help customers visualize what the product will look like in real life.
Before BFCM, make sure you have:
- Mockups for your key products.
- Images showing different product angles or variations.
- Lifestyle images that fit your target audience.
- Consistent visuals across products in the same collection.
Preparing mockups in advance can also save time when you need to publish multiple products within a short period.
Create mockups with DodgePrint: AI Studio helps sellers create mockups, change backgrounds, remove backgrounds, and process designs in bulk, making product image preparation more convenient.
3. Bulk List Products on Shopify
As your catalog grows, creating listings one by one can take up a lot of time, especially when you need to prepare multiple products for the BFCM season.
Instead of publishing products individually without a plan, organize your listings by collection or product category. Prepare your content, images, pricing, and publishing schedule in advance so your catalog is ready before the sale begins.
Here are a few things to check:
- Clear and relevant product titles and descriptions.
- Complete product images.
- Accurate pricing and product variants.
- Consistent product types and information.
- Publishing schedules that align with your marketing plan.
Bulk listing with DodgePrint: Bulk & Scheduled Listings lets sellers publish multiple products to Shopify at once and schedule product launches. Smart Catalog also helps organize designs, mockups, and product information before publishing.
Explore DodgePrint Shopify Integration
4. Optimize Your Shopify Store Before the Sale
An easy-to-navigate store helps customers find products and complete their purchases with less friction. Before BFCM, review the shopping experience on both desktop and mobile devices.
Optimize your product pages
Make sure titles, descriptions, images, prices, and product options are displayed clearly. Keep product information consistent and avoid details that could confuse customers.
Organize your collections
Create collections such as Best Sellers, BFCM Deals, Holiday Gifts, or New Arrivals to help customers find products more easily.
Test your checkout
Place a test order to check payment methods, shipping fees, discount codes, and the overall checkout process.
Update your store policies
For POD products in particular, clearly communicate production times, shipping estimates, return policies, and refund policies so customers know what to expect before purchasing.
Shopify also recommends reviewing your store experience, checkout, policies, and order processing workflows before major sales events.
Learn more: Shopify – Preparing for seasonal sales
5. Plan Your BFCM Discounts Without Sacrificing Profit
Discounts can help attract customers during BFCM, but higher revenue doesn't always mean higher profit.
Before setting up promotions, calculate the actual costs of each product, including:
- Blank product and printing costs.
- Fulfillment costs.
- Shipping fees.
- Payment processing and platform fees.
- Advertising expenses.
Then choose promotional strategies that fit your profit margins.
Here are a few options to consider:
Product-specific discounts: Focus on products that perform well or have enough margin to support a promotion.
Order-value discounts: Encourage customers to buy more by offering discounts based on their total order value.
Bundle deals: Combine related products into bundles to increase average order value.
Shopify allows sellers to create automatic discounts and discount codes directly in Shopify Admin. Make sure to review the discount conditions, start dates, and end dates before your campaign goes live.
Learn more: Shopify – Preparing for seasonal sales
6. Prepare Your Order Management and Fulfillment Workflows
For POD sellers, products are typically made after a customer places an order. This means that when order volume increases during BFCM, managing print partners and tracking order status become especially important.
Before the sale, review the following:
- Your current fulfillment partners.
- Production times for different product types.
- Each partner's capacity during peak season.
- Shipping destinations and estimated delivery times.
- Your process for handling failed or delayed orders.
If you're working with multiple suppliers, establish clear order-routing rules to reduce errors when processing a high volume of orders.
Automate Order & Fulfillment with DodgePrint: Order Router helps automatically route Shopify orders to suitable suppliers based on criteria such as product type, location, or cost. Sellers can also track order processing status through the platform.
DodgePrint connects sellers with 30+ printing and fulfillment partners, giving them more options for managing their POD operations.
Explore DodgePrint Shopify Integration
7. Track Your Store Performance During BFCM
Once your campaign goes live, don't focus on revenue alone. Monitor key metrics to understand how your products, promotions, and operations are performing.
| Metric | What It Tells You |
|---|---|
| Store Traffic | The number of visitors to your store |
| Conversion Rate | The percentage of visitors who complete a purchase |
| Average Order Value (AOV) | The average value of each order |
| Best-selling Products | Products generating the most sales |
| Cart Abandonment | How often customers add products to their carts but don't complete checkout |
| Fulfillment Status | The progress of production and shipping |
| Profit Margin | The actual profit remaining after costs |
Track your store performance with DodgePrint: The Shopify Analytics Dashboard helps sellers monitor sales trends, revenue, and best-selling products. Use these insights to evaluate performance and adjust your product catalog for future campaigns.
8. Review Your BFCM Results and Prepare for the Holiday Season
BFCM isn't the end of the holiday shopping season. After Cyber Monday, sellers still have opportunities to reach customers during Christmas and other year-end promotions.
Once your campaign is over, take time to review:
- Which products generated the most sales?
- Which discount strategies performed best?
- Which products had high revenue but low profit margins?
- Which fulfillment partners handled orders most efficiently?
- What issues came up during the campaign?
Use these insights to adjust your product catalog, pricing, and product strategy for the rest of the holiday season.
BFCM 2026 Checklist for Shopify POD Sellers
Before BFCM
- Review sales data and identify promising products.
- Prepare product designs and mockups.
- Organize your catalog and plan bulk listings.
- Check product titles, descriptions, images, and variants.
- Test your mobile shopping experience and checkout.
- Calculate costs and profit margins before setting discounts.
- Set up discount codes or automatic discounts.
- Confirm fulfillment partners and production times.
- Update shipping and return policies.
During BFCM
- Monitor store traffic and conversion rates.
- Check your best-selling products.
- Track order statuses.
- Monitor production and shipping progress.
- Respond to customer questions.
- Evaluate the performance of your promotions.
After BFCM
- Analyze sales and product performance.
- Review actual profit margins.
- Identify fulfillment issues.
- Prepare your catalog for the Christmas season.
- Improve your workflow for upcoming campaigns.
Conclusion
BFCM is a major opportunity for Shopify POD sellers to grow their sales. But making the most of the shopping season requires preparation across your entire workflow, from product selection and listing to order management and fulfillment.
Instead of handling every process separately, a well-organized workflow can help you save time, reduce repetitive tasks, and maintain better control of your business as order volume increases.
DodgePrint – An all-in-one platform for Print on Demand connects key parts of your POD workflow, including Product Management, Listing, Order, Fulfillment, and Analytics, helping sellers manage their operations in one place.
Explore DodgePrint and get your POD workflow ready for the holiday shopping season:
