What is Cyber Monday?
Cyber Monday is a global shopping event that happens the Monday after American Thanksgiving. Alongside Black Friday, which happens the Friday before Cyber Monday, the event is recognized as one of the most important online shopping days of the year.
Cyber Monday began in the early 2000s as an online version of Black Friday’s success in physical retail. Today, it’s a critical sales event for many B2C brands, particularly those in retail and ecommerce.
Sometimes Cyber Monday is paired with Black Friday as the same event. In that case, you’ll hear about it as “Black Friday Cyber Monday,” or “BFCM.”
Why Cyber Monday matters for B2C brands
Cyber Monday isn’t just a sales event—it’s an opportunity to build brand awareness and customer relationships that can last year-round.
Here’s why Cyber Monday matters for B2C brands:
- It attracts shoppers who are ready to buy. Cyber Monday shoppers aren’t browsing—they’re buying. Weeks of intent have built up across email, SMS, social media, and other marketing channels, and your ability to convert that demand just depends on how well you can leverage that buzz. Marketers who have laid the groundwork with smart audience segmentation and timely campaigns are poised to capture outsized value.
- It drives Q4 and end-of-year sales. For many brands, Cyber Monday closes out the year with a bang—and starts the next year with strong revenue. Cyber Monday performance can inform inventory decisions, retention strategies, and marketing investments in Q1. It’s your chance to finish strong and set the tone for what’s next.
- It’s an opportunity to show customers you’ve been listening to them all year. Cyber Monday shoppers aren’t just looking for the deepest blanket discounts. They’re looking for early access, offers that have been personalized to them, and messages that reflect how they’ve been interacting with your brand all year. Cyber Monday is your chance to show your customers you know what they want—so they continue to shop with you year-round.
What makes Cyber Monday different from Black Friday
While Black Friday has historically been associated with in-store deals, Cyber Monday is entirely digital, which means it’s particularly important for online-first and omnichannel brands.
Here’s how Cyber Monday stands out compared to Black Friday:
1. Cyber Monday doesn’t depend on in-store deals
Unlike Black Friday, which still includes a strong in-store component, Cyber Monday is inherently online. Shoppers are browsing websites, checking emails, and comparing brands across tabs and devices. For ecommerce brands, this creates both opportunity and competition.
While Cyber Monday may be more accessible, here’s the trade off: on Monday, US consumers are often back at work. Adjust the timing of your messages, keeping in mind, for example, that most people make purchases via SMS in the evening.
2. Cyber Monday isn’t for browsers—it’s for buyers
Cyber Monday shoppers are not browsing aimlessly. They’re acting with purpose: searching for specific products, checking for loyalty rewards, and jumping on exclusive deals. This means behavioral data—like product views, abandoned carts, or previous purchases—is especially valuable. Mine this data so you’re getting the most out of people’s intent to buy.
On Cyber Monday, plan for strategic, segmented campaigns for people who browsed but didn’t buy on Black Friday, for example, or even those who engaged but didn’t purchase from your Veterans Day campaigns. Sweeten the deal with product bundles or exclusive promotions (while remaining profitable).
3. Cyber Monday has global reach
Though it started in the US, Cyber Monday drives sales across the globe. Brands everywhere use the occasion to reach international audiences, often extending promotions through what’s now considered “Cyber Week” or blending them with local shopping events.
So, make sure to include your international audiences when you’re running your Cyber Monday campaigns. You may even want to create region-specific offers based on country-wide shopping habits, so you can gather location-specific customer data you can use all year round.
Common challenges for B2C brands during Cyber Monday
Even seasoned marketers can struggle during Cyber Monday. High traffic, tight timelines, and rising customer expectations put pressure on teams to execute perfectly.
Here are a few common challenges—and solutions that can help:
| Challenge | Why it hurts | What to consider |
| Scattered data across tools | It’s hard to segment audiences and act quickly on real-time insights. | Centralize customer data and integrate marketing tools to speed up accurate decision-making. |
| Low personalization | Generic messages fall flat when consumers expect 1:1 offers. | Use customer behavioral data and stated preferences to drive automation and tailor deals. |
| Weak attribution | It’s hard to know what’s working across email, SMS, and ads. | Look for platforms that unify performance tracking across channels. |
| Pressure to grow with less | Small teams face big expectations. | Automation and templates can help you scale without hiring. |
If you face some of these challenges during Cyber Monday, be sure to document them. When the event is over, it’s time to assess performance and even start planning for the new year. What went well and what went poorly on Cyber Monday can inform how your team and your brand show up differently in 2026.
4 Cyber Monday marketing strategies that work
There’s no single formula for success, but stand out brands typically follow these best practices:
1. Plan early and segment often
Top-performing brands build their Cyber Monday campaigns and automations well in advance, using customer data to define who they’ll target and with what offers. Instead of blasting the same deal to their entire list, they create segments based on:
- Purchase history (e.g., VIP customers vs. first-time buyers)
- Product interest (e.g., viewed but not purchased)
- Engagement level (e.g., active subscribers vs. lapsed)
This approach leads to more relevant messages—and more revenue.
2. Personalize the experience
During Cyber Monday, every customer wants to feel like they’re getting a deal made just for them. Personalized messages include:
- Product recommendations and bundles based on browsing behavior
- Special offers for loyalty program members
- Cart abandonment reminders with personalized incentives
Even small tweaks like referencing a past purchase can make a message feel more human.
3. Review your automations—and turn some of them off
There’s a lot happening before, during, and after Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It may even be the busiest time of year for people’s inboxes, so you’ll want to make sure you’re sending only essential messages.
This is why many brands turn off their non-Cyber Monday email and SMS automations so as not to overwhelm their audience. And if you are going to keep some essential automations on, such as your abandonment and post-purchase flows, make sure they’re holiday-focused. Once the holiday is over, you can turn everything back on and make them evergreen again.
4. Prioritize mobile marketing
Cyber Monday isn’t just digital—it’s mobile. As more people shop directly from their mobile phones, make sure your Cyber Monday marketing is reaching them there, too.
Don’t sleep on mobile marketing as a way to increase Cyber Monday sales. Run campaigns specifically tailored for:
- SMS: Send early access to VIP customers.
- Push notifications: Create offers tailored to app users who browse certain products.
- WhatsApp: Connect shoppers directly to your WhatsApp catalog.
- TikTok and Instagram: Use countdown stickers for limited-time deals.
Cyber Monday metrics to watch
Cyber Monday performance is about more than just sales volume. Here are key metrics to track and optimize:
- Subscriber growth: How many new contacts are you adding to your list?
- Click rate: Which messages and offers are driving website visits?
- Conversion rate: Are visitors turning into customers?
- Average order value (AOV): Are customers spending more per order?
- Multi-channel attribution: Which campaigns are actually driving revenue?
Tracking these metrics in real time can help you adjust your strategy on the fly and double down on what’s working.
How Klaviyo helps brands win on Cyber Monday
For brands looking to go beyond one-off campaigns, Klaviyo, the only CRM built for B2C, turns Cyber Monday into a strategic growth moment. With Klaviyo, marketers and business owners can:
Unify data for real-time action
Klaviyo Data Platform (KDP) brings your email, SMS, and ecommerce data together in one place. This makes it easy to segment based on behavior, trigger automations, and launch campaigns without switching platforms.
Automate smarter
Klaviyo’s email, SMS, and push automations make it easy to deliver personalized flows to thousands or even millions of customers, like personalized abandonment messages that nudge people toward a sale. Klaviyo also makes it easy to review existing automations, suppress audiences during big events, and change content to reflect Cyber Monday.
Personalize without the extra effort
With AI-driven segmentation and predictive analytics, Klaviyo helps brands reach the right customer with the right message without needing a large team. You might, for example, trigger a limited-time SMS promotion only to VIPs who viewed a certain product in the last 3 days.
Track what’s working and what’s not
Klaviyo offers real-time reporting and cross-channel attribution, so you always know which campaigns are driving revenue. See the exact impact of your Cyber Monday offers by list, channel, or customer segment.