BFCM Discount Strategy & Pricing: How to Set the Right Discount for Every Phase

Here is a fact that surprises most merchants. In 2025, the brands with the lowest BFCM discounts saw the highest growth rates. Not the deepest discounters. The smartest ones. Your bfcm discount strategy is not about how much you give away. It is about who gets what discount, when, and how.

This black friday pricing strategy shopify guide covers the exact numbers. Category benchmarks from 2025. The descending discount model. Product-level pricing versus coupon codes. Tiered discounts for AOV. And the profit leak that costs most stores thousands in margin every BFCM weekend.

The average BFCM discount in 2025 was 24%. Shopify merchants generated $14.6 billion. The average cart price was $114.70. But 83% of online shoppers admit they have used a discount code when they would have paid full price. That is not conversion. That is margin waste. A smart bfcm discount strategy fixes that problem. These shopify bfcm pricing tips show you how.

The Descending Discount Model: Start High, Taper Down

Most stores run a flat discount all weekend. 25% off from Friday morning to Monday night. Same deal for everyone. There is a better way. Your black friday pricing strategy shopify should follow the descending model. Start with your strongest offer for VIP customers. Then reduce the discount as the deadline gets closer.

Why does this work? Early in the BFCM window, your customers have full wallets and many stores to choose from. A strong early-bird offer captures their budget before competitors do. By Cyber Monday, the customer who has not bought yet will still purchase at a smaller discount. The deadline does the heavy lifting. They are running out of time. They do not need a bigger discount. They need a reason to stop comparing.

In 2025, VIP early-access customers spent 2x more per order than regular BFCM shoppers. They had 65% higher email open rates and double the conversion rate. When done right, early access generates 35-40% of total BFCM revenue. This is the foundation of any strong bfcm discount strategy.

Discount Depth Benchmarks by Category (2025 Data)

Every merchant asks the same question: "How much should I discount?" The answer depends on your product category. Here are the real numbers from BFCM 2025, based on data from Adobe, Salesforce, and DataWeave. Use these as your ceiling, not your floor. Your bfcm discount depth should match your category, not exceed it.

Notice something about beauty brands. They kept pre-BF discounts at just 7.1%. Then they reserved their biggest jump for BF week itself (+4.8 points). That is strategic timing. Not every category needs early deep discounts. Match your black friday discount percentage to how your category actually shops.

The most important number in this table is not the average. It is the fact that brands offering the lowest discounts in 2025 saw the highest growth rates at +14% year over year. You do not need to match the category average. You need to find the minimum bfcm discount depth that converts your specific customers. Test your black friday discount percentage before BFCM with A/B testing.

Product-Level Pricing vs Coupon Codes

This is one of the most overlooked shopify bfcm pricing tips. During BFCM, ad costs go up 2-3x. Every click is more expensive. The difference between product-level pricing and coupon codes decides whether your ad gets clicked or scrolled past.

What Is Product-Level Pricing?

When you change the actual product price and set a Compare At price on Shopify, Google Shopping and Meta Ads automatically show your sale price with a strikethrough. "$200, now $149." The customer sees the deal before they even click. With a coupon code, your ad just shows "$200." Your competitor's ad shows "$200, now $149." Which one gets the click?

Why This Matters During BFCM

During normal months, this difference is small. During BFCM, when CPMs double or triple, it is the difference between profitable ads and wasted spend. Product level pricing bfcm makes your discounts visible at every touchpoint: Google Shopping, Meta Ads, your product page, and your cart. The customer never needs to remember or type a code.

It also gives you strategic control. Discount hero products at 25%. Keep premium items at 10%. Leave new arrivals at full price. Coupon codes are all-or-nothing. Product-level pricing lets you choose exactly which products get which discount. Growth Suite's Product Price Editor lets you set prices per product and roll everything back with one click when BFCM ends.

Tiered Discounts to Increase AOV During BFCM

A flat discount gives every customer the same deal whether they buy one item or ten. Tiered discounts reward bigger carts. In 2025, the average Shopify BFCM cart was $114.70. Tiered spend thresholds push shoppers above that average. Stores that used tiered discounts during BFCM saw AOV increase by 30-40% without reducing profit per order. This is a key part of your black friday pricing strategy shopify.

The golden rule for setting tiers: look at your current AOV and set the first tier just above it. If your customers usually spend $60, set the first tier at $75. Keep it to 3 tiers maximum. More than that confuses shoppers. Growth Suite's Tiered Storewide Discounts let you configure these thresholds, and the Cart Drawer shows customers their progress toward the next tier. That progress bar is what turns a $90 cart into a $125 cart.

The Profit Leak: Why Blanket Discounts Cost More Than You Think

This is the section that changes how you think about bfcm margin protection. Here is the problem with blanket discounts. 83% of online shoppers say they have used a discount code when they would have paid full price. That means for every 100 customers who use your BFCM code, around 40 of them were going to buy anyway. You just gave away margin for nothing.

The Math That Matters

Let us say you run a 25% blanket discount during BFCM. You get 1,000 orders at $100 AOV. That is $100,000 in revenue. You gave away $25,000 in discounts. Sounds fine. But 400 of those customers were dedicated buyers. They would have purchased at 15% off or even full price. On those 400 orders, the extra 10% discount cost you $4,000 in pure margin waste. That money bought you zero extra conversions.

Now imagine a different approach. You run a 15% Scheduled Campaign for everyone. Then you add Trigger Campaigns that show a personalized 25% offer only to walk-away visitors. Dedicated buyers pay 15%. Walk-away visitors get 25%. Across 47 brand audits, this shift from blanket to behavioral discounts lowered the average discount from 27% to 16% while increasing conversion by 12-18%. That is the power of bfcm margin protection.

Growth Suite's Trigger Campaigns do exactly this. When a visitor's behavior shows they are about to leave without buying, they receive a personalized, time-limited offer. The unique discount code is deleted from Shopify when the timer expires. Dedicated buyers who show strong purchase intent never see the extra discount. They buy at the standard campaign price. Your margin stays protected at scale.

8 Common BFCM Pricing Mistakes

These are the shopify bfcm pricing tips that most guides skip. Not what to do. What to stop doing. Every mistake here has a real cost, and every fix maps to a specific approach in your black friday pricing strategy shopify.

The most expensive mistake on this list is number one. Blanket discounting everyone. Across 47 brand audits, stores that switched from blanket codes to behavioral targeting lowered their average discount from 27% to 16% while conversion went up 12-18%. That is the data behind smart bfcm margin protection.

The second most common mistake is number four. Using only coupon codes during BFCM. When ad CPMs are 2-3x higher than normal, your competitor's ad shows a strikethrough price while yours shows full price. The click goes to them. Product level pricing bfcm makes your discounts visible where it matters most.

Putting It All Together: Your BFCM Pricing Framework

Your complete bfcm discount strategy has four layers working together. Each layer handles a different part of the pricing puzzle.

The descending model captures wallet share early. Product-level pricing wins the ad click. Tiered discounts grow the cart. And Trigger Campaigns protect your margins by showing the extra nudge only to visitors who need it. Together, these four layers give you a black friday pricing strategy shopify that converts more customers at a lower average bfcm discount depth than a simple blanket discount ever could. That is the complete bfcm discount strategy in one framework.