What to put on sale for Black Friday on Shopify
Last November's orders already named the products worth discounting. Read the eight days around Black Friday as one window, then judge each candidate on four things: the margin that survives the cut, the stock behind it, whether the photo works at thumbnail size, and whether it brings a second item along.
You open the product list to decide what goes on sale, and it is the same length as your catalog. The thing that sold hardest last year carries your thinnest margin. You are about ten minutes away from settling this on a feeling.
Which days count as the Black Friday window?
Eight days, not a month. Wednesday before Black Friday through the Tuesday after Cyber Monday, because that is when shoppers actually buy, and a monthly total blurs it.
Set an ordinary eight days from the same autumn beside it. Without a comparison window every number from the sale looks impressive, and none of them tells you whether the product outran the store. A product that doubled is interesting. A product that doubled while the whole store tripled went backwards.
Shopify's sales reports take a custom date range, so both windows are a few clicks away. They will not rank products by what the discount cost you: the reports hold revenue and units, not your cost per unit. That column is yours to add.
What makes a product worth discounting?
Four tests, and a product that fails two of them belongs at full price. Fail the first one and it belongs there on its own.
Margin at the sale price is the first test: write the cost per unit next to the price you intend to charge. If what is left will not cover picking, packing, and the click you paid for, the product is not on sale, it is being given away with extra steps.
Stock depth is second. Discounting raises the rate, so a product that moved 200 units in that window last year and has 60 on the shelf sells out on Friday morning. It spends the rest of the weekend as a grey card on your busiest page.
Third is whether it reads at thumbnail size. Sale traffic scans, it does not study, so a product that needs a paragraph loses to one that works in a grid. Open your own collection grid on a phone and see which cards you would actually tap.
Fourth is whether it pulls something else along. Shopify's own BFCM 2025 press release, published 2 December 2025, put the average cart price at $114.70. So pull your own order history and look for what shows up beside it: the product that earns its discount is often the one that arrives next to something at full price.
New to Black Friday, with no last year to read? Two of the four tests above do not need one. Margin only needs your cost per unit today. Thumbnail readability only needs your own eyes on the grid. For stock depth, pull your own Shopify sales reports over the last 30 days instead of last year's BFCM window. Or let Sledge merchandising boost by best seller over a 7 to 30 day window, and read the list it returns. Skip the pulls-a-second-item test. You have no order history to read it from yet, and this Black Friday is what starts building one.
Which products should never go on sale?
A discount only earns its keep if it changes what a shopper does. Two groups fail that test, and each costs money in a different way.
Anything already selling out at full price: the discount buys nothing except a thinner margin on demand you had regardless, and it teaches a returning shopper to wait for November.
The product people start a subscription with: a first order discounted to the floor sets the anchor for every renewal conversation that follows it.
What does your search data say that your order data does not?
Order data records what shoppers bought. Search data records what they asked for and did not get, and that second list is where the discount decisions hide.
Two readings matter here. Terms searched often and bought rarely are demand you have not priced, which makes those products strong sale candidates. Terms that keep coming back empty are demand for something you do not carry, so write them down for the buying conversation in January rather than the discount one.
Sledge Analytics keeps the terms shoppers typed and the ones that returned nothing. Shopify's own reports hold the empty ones too. Neither hands you the searched-but-not-bought list ready-made: walk your top terms one at a time and ask what each results page sells. Repairing an empty term is a separate job from this one.
How do you turn the shortlist into a decision you can defend?
One sheet, five columns, one line per product. Product, sale price, margin at that price, stock depth, and the reason it is on the list.
A line you cannot fill in is a product that has not earned its discount. The sheet argues back in November, when someone suggests adding six more products the day before launch.
Keep the sheet after the sale. It is what you read the results against, and next year it turns a blank page into an edit.
The four tests, and under them the check that overrides all four.
| The check | Where you read it | What disqualifies a product |
|---|---|---|
| Margin at the sale price | Your cost per unit against the price you intend to charge | Anything that will not cover picking, packing, and the click |
| Stock depth | Units on hand against last year's units in the same eight days | Fewer units than you sold last year at full price |
| Reads at thumbnail size | Your own collection grid, on a phone | A product whose appeal needs a paragraph |
| Pulls a second item | Order history, items that arrive together | A product that only ever sells alone |
| Full-price demand | This year's sales at the undiscounted price | Anything already selling out without help |
The shortlist has to survive all of this
- Both windows are open side by side: last year's eight days, and an ordinary eight days.
- Every candidate carries a cost per unit, not just a price.
- Stock on hand exceeds what the product sold in that window last year.
- Nothing on the list is currently selling out at full price.
- Nothing on the list is the first step into a subscription.
- The terms that came back empty are written down for the buying conversation, not the discount one.
- Every line has a reason in it, in words, that someone else could read.
Questions, answered
How do I decide what to discount for Black Friday?
Read last year's sale window rather than this month's bestseller list. Four tests decide it: the margin that survives the cut, the stock depth behind the product, whether it reads at thumbnail size in a collection grid, and whether it pulls a second item into the order. A product that fails two of the four belongs at full price.
Should I put my bestsellers on sale?
Not automatically. A product already selling out at full price gains nothing from a discount except a smaller margin on demand you had anyway. The stronger candidates are products with healthy stock, a workable margin, and a habit of appearing in orders next to something else.
How much stock do I need before discounting a product?
More than you sold in the same window last year, because discounting raises the rate. Compare last year's units in that eight-day window with what you hold now. If the second number is smaller, the sale ends early and the collection page spends the rest of the weekend showing something nobody can buy.
Which Shopify report shows last year's Black Friday sales?
The sales reports let you set a custom date range, so the Wednesday before Black Friday to the Tuesday after Cyber Monday reads as one window. Set an ordinary eight days from the same autumn beside it, otherwise every number looks impressive and none of them is comparable.
Can search data tell me what to put on sale?
Yes, and it says something order data cannot. Terms that shoppers search and then do not buy are demand you have not priced. Terms that come back empty again and again are demand for products you do not carry, which is a stocking question rather than a discount one.
How many products should go on sale?
As many as pass all four tests above, no more. Six products that pass is a six-product sale; sixty that pass is a sixty-product sale. A shortlist you can defend line by line beats a sitewide percentage, because a sitewide percentage pays the same discount to the shopper who was going to buy anyway as to the one you needed to persuade.
What if this is my first Black Friday and I have no sales history?
Run margin and thumbnail readability as written: neither needs a prior year. For stock depth, pull your own Shopify sales reports over the last 30 days, or let Sledge merchandising boost by best seller over a 7 to 30 day window. Skip the pulls-a-second-item test for now. You will have real order history to read it from by next Black Friday.
The shortlist is already in your order history.
Install free. Growth Intelligence weighs which of your products already sell together, prices the pairing in dollars from your own orders, and opens it as an offer you review and save. Then it grades that estimate against what actually sold.
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