Common eCommerce Marketing Mistakes to Avoid This BFCM 2025

Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the biggest revenue-generating sales of the year for e-commerce businesses. The months bring billions of dollars in revenue to the businesses worldwide. And if we see it from a broader perspective, we all know e-commerce has become a huge part of our lives in recent years. We order everything online, be it clothes, groceries, accessories, home décor, and much more.

According to Statista, from 2024 to 2029, the USA eCommerce market is predicted to grow by $657.8 billion, increasing by 53.79%. And when it comes to black Friday and Cyber Monday, the stacks are a bit high for e-commerce stores. Success is crucial during this period to achieve record-breaking profits, whereas failure can lead to missed opportunities and lost profits.

Many businesses are switching online to grow their businesses. The competition is too big, and with all the BFCM sales and a competitive market, companies will end up making BFCM 2025 mistakes. These eCommerce marketing mistakes can cost you customers, time, money, and business opportunities.

But we have created this blog to help you avoid those eCommerce marketing mistakes, so that your brand can thrive during Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Let’s Talk Numbers

BFCM in 2024 created a new milestone for the eCommerce store, which showed that consumer behavior has changed, and so have the spending patterns. Here are the numbers:

Black Friday 2024

• In the USA, the online stores’ sales reached around $10.8 billion, a 10.2% increase compared to last year.
  
  
• Overall global spending reached $74.4 billion, 5% increase from 2024
  
  
• The Buy Now, Pay Later option has created $686.3 million in sales, 8.8% growth. This means it’s growing every year.
  
  
• Merchants using Chatbots have seen a 9% increase in sales conversions.
  
  
• 87.3 million people made online purchases.
  
  
• 69% of shopping happened through mobile phones.

Cyber Monday 2025

• $13.3 billion was generated by e-commerce stores during the Cyber Monday sales.
  
  
• Increased by 7.3% in 2024
  
  
• 57% of sales came from mobile phones, which means around $7.6 billion in earnings happened through phones.
  
  
• Even AI-powered chatbots are creating a positive impact on sales of these events, as they define how shoppers shop online. Compared to 2023, traffic increased by 1950% in 2024.

Common eCommerce Mistakes to Avoid During BFCM 2025

You already know how big BFCM 2025 is gonna be. It’s not just a shopping weekend anymore; it’s basically the Super Bowl for online stores. But…. while some brands make crazy profits, others end up losing money or missing opportunities just because of common BFCM mistakes. Here we have listed some of the most common BFCM mistakes to avoid. If you want to be in that winning group… make sure you avoid these mistakes.

Not Researching Your Target Audience

The most important aspect of starting and running an online business is knowing your target audience. Without having a proper understanding of who you are selling to or who your target audience is… You are just wasting time and money.

A lot of brands think “everyone” is their customer. Truth is… not everyone cares about your product, and if you don’t know who you are talking to, your campaigns will feel generic and won’t click.

For example… if you sell luxury watches, your messaging should feel different than if you sell budget headphones. Do your homework and look at your customer data, such as age, gender, location, and shopping habits. You must create campaigns that actually talk to them. We have seen many e-commerce stores making BFCM ad campaign mistakes. Now it’s time to fix it..

Waiting Too Long to Start

This is the biggest BFCM mistake most e-commerce stores make. Too many brands wait until mid-November to start planning for BFCM ad campaigns and then wonder…. why the marketing ad costs are high, nothing is ready on time, and we are not getting any customers.

Most of these BFCM ad campaign mistakes happen because businesses underestimate the whole market and their competitors. Results… by then, your competitors already warmed up their audiences with offers and their customers, which could be yours… have been bombarded with 20 different deals.

So the lesson is, you need to start building the hype months before. August/September is not too early; read your audience, check the previous year’s results. All this research will help you plan better this year.

Underestimating Website Traffic & Performance

When you plan everything at the last minute, you often overlook important details, which can have a significant impact on the website, customer experience, and sales. You have planned an ad campaign just a few days before the BFCM and now imagine… Your ad goes viral, and thousands of people rush to your site. However, it crashes because you didn’t have enough time to optimize your website to handle the huge traffic. Or worse, it loads so slowly that people leave before even seeing your products.

This happens more than you think. So… test your website before BFCM. Use tools to simulate heavy traffic, check loading speed, and fix weak points. Even shaving off 2–3 seconds in page load can mean hundreds of extra sales.

Not Giving Importance to Mobile Optimization

Different types and sizes of businesses have had e-commerce websites for decades. However, as technologies continue to update, the e-commerce ecosystem is becoming increasingly challenging. We are in 202,5 and mobile shopping is king. Still… many stores only test their designs on desktop, because they never cared for Mobile optimization. This is the big mistake that many brands make.

• 57% of shoppers made purchases through mobile phones during Cyber Monday 2024.
  
  
• And 69% of shopping happened through mobile phones during Black Friday 2024.

So approximately 70% of traffic during BFCM is predicted to come from phones in 2025.  Check your website on phone – If your site looks messy, buttons are too small, or checkout feels like a puzzle on mobile, you will lose sales fast. Now is the time to get it fixed. Always test your full shopping experience on multiple devices, including phones, desktops, tablets, laptops, and more.

Check out our 10 BFCM Marketing Strategies for eCommerce Stores in 2025

Avoiding Speed Optimization of Your eCommerce

Loading, loading, loading… this is something we have seen on many websites, and it is literally frustrating when you see this on shopping websites. Imagine trying to order a product, but the images won’t open. It’s just loading…. You will leave that website and look for the products on any other website. Speed and mobile optimization are linked, but speed deserves its own spot. And shoppers have zero patience when it comes to BFCM deals. If your site takes 5–6 seconds to load, you have already lost them.

To optimize your website, you should compress images, remove unnecessary apps, and choose a fast hosting provider. Remember, a faster site not only improves conversions but also reduces ad waste – because what is the point of paying for traffic if people bounce before buying?

Ignoring Upsell & Cross-Selling Strategy

If you have neglected upsell and cross-sell strategies for your e-commerce business, you are definitely going to miss out on revenue opportunities. Many brands just push discounts and forget about average order value (AOV). That is literally leaving money on the table. Upselling and cross-selling can significantly impact customer satisfaction, as customers may not be aware of related products or additional add-ons they might need.

There are many upsell and cross-sell apps available on the Shopify app store, but our client’s favorite is Wiser AI. It’s an AI-based personalized product recommendation app that works perfectly for upselling and cross-selling on Shopify stores. The app will suggest products where they’re needed the most. So, you are not leaving any room for your customer to go elsewhere because you are giving them everything in one place.

For example, If someone is buying a laptop, offer them a mouse or a laptop sleeve. If they are buying skincare, suggest a bundle. These Simple upsells and cross-sells can increase revenue without any extra ad spend. During BFCM, people are already in buying mode – make it easy for them to add more to the cart.

Offering Discounts That Hurt Profit Margins

We get it, everyone looks for deals during BFCM, because the time is known for discounts, but offering 60–70% off without calculating profit margins can seriously kill your business. Do not offer blindly because your competitors are giving much better prices. You need to take care of your margin, too… plan products that have high demand and better margins. You can run different offers to get more, like buy 3 and get 1 free, if you have enough margin. Maybe buy one and get 20% off on the second one, sort of deals. Instead of just slashing prices, think smarter:

• Offer bundles instead of huge discounts.
  
  
• Give free shipping or gifts with purchase.
  
  
• Reward loyal customers with exclusive deals instead of sitewide cuts.

Remember, it’s not just about sales numbers; it’s about profitable sales.

Not Keeping Track of Your Inventory

You cannot be short on products when it’s about BFCM deals. Imagine running a killer ad, customers rush to buy… and the product is out of stock. Nothing frustrates a customer more than placing an order that later gets cancelled. You need to stock up, and when we say stock up, we don’t mean that you should stock up on everything.

Do some market analysis, check what was your best-selling product last year, what’s new in the market, what people actually want, and based on that, manage the inventory.

Check your inventory levels early. Forecast based on past sales and order extra stock if needed. Most importantly, have backup plans – like suggesting alternatives when something sells out.

Launching Campaigns Just 2 Days Before (Big No-No)

Oh, we have time, will do it! This statement can cost serious money to your business. It’s another rookie mistake – waiting till Black Friday itself to go live. By then, customers’ inboxes are already drowning with emails from every store. You will get lost in the noise.

And by then, most of the shoppers have already made their purchase, and they know the best offer out there. So even though you start with the best offer, you won’t stand a chance of getting the amount of sales others have.

Start early. Launch teaser campaigns weeks before, run early access offers for VIP customers and spread your sale over a longer period. If you show up too late, you will only catch the leftovers.

Get Ready to Break the BFCM 2024 Record. Don’t Wait.. Start Now.

Blak Friday and Cyber Monday are too big an opportunity to mess up. If you want your eCommerce business to break the record, you need to strengthen your marketing game. By avoiding these mistakes.. You can literally see the difference between record-breaking sales and a stressful flop.

We know you should have started earlier, but no worries.. You can start now, know your customers, prepare your site, and focus on profitability – not just vanity sales numbers. If you get these basics right, the rest of your strategy will definitely give you results.

If you need guidance from professional Shopify experts, connect with Expert Village Media. We have 14+ years of experience in the e-commerce industry, and we are the trusted e-commerce marketing experts serving in 30+ countries. From designing and developing to marketing and establishing your business as a brand, our marketing experts handle it all.

Email us at – info@expertvillagemedia.com

Call us at – +1 929 600 6830

Book a meeting with us – https://calendly.com/discuss-your-project/explore-solutions