In short
- The median store started its Black Friday sale six days before the day. 57% started in the final week.
- The busiest single start day was Thanksgiving, not Black Friday.
- 60% of these campaigns were built on the day they went live. That is where most of the risk sits.
Most Black Friday advice says to start two or three weeks before the day. So we looked at when stores actually start.
We took every Discounty campaign that opened in November 2025 and was still running on Black Friday, 28 November. That covers thousands of Shopify stores. Then we asked one question per store: on which day did its first Black Friday campaign go live?
The median store started six days before Black Friday. 57% started in the final week, and one in four started on Thanksgiving or on Black Friday itself. The median sale then ran for 10 days, and only 6% lasted for Black Friday alone.
Black Friday 2026 is Friday 27 November. Thanksgiving is Thursday 26 November and Cyber Monday is 30 November. Every date below is shifted to match.
When do Black Friday sales start?
Here is the day each store's first Black Friday campaign went live, grouped into five windows.
Three things stand out.
The busiest single start day was Thanksgiving. More stores opened their sale on the Thursday than on Black Friday. Shoppers browse on Thanksgiving evening, and stores that wait for Friday morning miss it.
About a fifth of stores started in the first half of November. That is the "early bird" group, and it is a minority. Most stores still treat Black Friday as a week, not a month.
A quarter started on the day. Those are the stores with the least room to fix anything before shoppers arrive.
How long do Black Friday sales last?
Of the campaigns that had an end date, the median ran for 10 days. 39% ran a week or less.
16% had no end date at all. A Black Friday sale with no end date runs until someone remembers to switch it off, usually after a few days of selling at the sale price for no reason.
When do Black Friday sales end?
35% of the campaigns ended on Cyber Monday or at midnight after it. That is the most common single end point, and it makes sense: Black Friday and Cyber Monday are one long weekend for most shoppers.
Only 6% ended on Black Friday itself. A one-day sale is rarer than the name suggests.
Most sales were built on the day they went live
This is the finding that matters most for your own store.
60% of these campaigns were created on the same day they started. Only 16% were created a week or more ahead.
So most Black Friday sales are built under pressure, on the busiest day of the season, with no time to look at the result before customers do. That is when a discount misses a collection, applies to the wrong variant or never gets an end date.
The safest Black Friday sale is one you built a week early and checked on a quiet day. Building early is what gives you the quiet day to check it.
When to start yours in 2026
The data says what most stores do. It does not say what is right for yours. Here is how to pick your dates.
1. Decide the window, not just the day
Pick one of three shapes:
- The weekend: Thanksgiving evening to the end of Cyber Monday, 26-30 November. This is where most stores land.
- The week: from Monday 23 November to Cyber Monday. Catches early browsers without running for weeks.
- The early start: from mid-November. Only worth it if you have a reason, like slow shipping or a product people research before buying.
2. Set both dates when you create the campaign
Put in the start date and the end date at the moment you build it. In Discounty, both dates are in your store's time zone, so a sale set to end at 23:59 on 30 November ends at midnight for your store, not somewhere else.
3. Build it a week ahead and check it
Build the campaign by Friday 20 November and schedule it for your start date. Then check, while it is quiet:
- Open three products that should be in the sale and three that should not.
- Add a discounted product to the cart and go as far as checkout.
- Check the campaign's end date one more time.
4. Plan how it ends
Decide now whether the sale ends on Cyber Monday or carries into December. If it is a markdown, make sure the prices come back on their own when it closes rather than relying on someone to switch it off.
Worked example: a store selling 40 products wants the weekend shape. It builds a bulk price editor campaign on 18 November: 20% off the "Winter" collection, starting 26 November at 18:00 and ending 30 November at 23:59. On 19 November it checks six product pages and one checkout. On 1 December the prices are back to normal without anyone touching them.
How to undo it
A campaign that is still Scheduled can be deleted, and nothing on the store changes. Once it is Active, you can still move its end date and end time, but nothing else. To change anything else, deactivate it, edit, and switch it back on. Deactivating a Bulk price editor campaign puts the prices back to what they were.
How we counted
- The population is campaigns that started between 1 and 28 November 2025 and were still live on 28 November, across thousands of stores.
- Always-on discounts that started before November were left out. They are running on Black Friday, but they are not Black Friday sales.
- For each store we used its first campaign in that window as the store's start date.
- Dates are in UTC. For stores in the Americas, a campaign that ended at local midnight on Cyber Monday shows as the next day, which is why that day is counted with Cyber Monday.
- All figures are totals across stores. No single store can be identified from them.
Questions
When do Black Friday sales usually start?
Across thousands of Shopify stores in 2025, the median store started its sale six days before Black Friday. More than half started in the final week, and the busiest single start day was Thanksgiving.
Is it too late to start a Black Friday sale on Black Friday?
No, about one store in nine started on the day in 2025. But a sale built that morning has no time to be checked before customers see it. Building it earlier and scheduling it to start on the day gives you the same start without the risk.
How long should a Black Friday sale run?
The median sale with an end date ran for 10 days, and 35% ended on Cyber Monday or the night after. Running through Cyber Monday is the most common choice.
Is a Black Friday sale only one day?
Rarely. Only 6% of the Black Friday campaigns we looked at ended on Black Friday itself. The median ran for 10 days, and the most common end point was Cyber Monday.
When is Black Friday 2026?
Friday 27 November 2026. Thanksgiving is Thursday 26 November and Cyber Monday is Monday 30 November.
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