Black Friday Cyber Monday 2025 proved that mobile isn't a trend—it's the table stakes. Across the Shopify ecosystem, merchants generated a record $14.6 billion in sales over BFCM weekend, up 27% year-over-year. And Tapcart merchants didn't just keep pace—they powered through peak demand without missing a beat.

Tapcart merchants' BFCM 2025 highlights:

• $135.4M in app-driven sales during Cyber Week (Nov 23–Dec 1, 2025)
• $71.7M in app-driven sales during BFCM Weekend alone
• 1.17M orders placed via apps during Cyber Week
• 1.06M unique app shoppers during Cyber Week
• $115.29 Cyber Week AOV—and session conversion rates upwards of 40%
• Zero downtime. Zero critical issues—even at peak traffic.
• Top categories: Fashion & Apparel, Home & Hobby, Beauty & Cosmetics, Food & Beverage, and Health & Wellness
• Top countries: U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada, Spain, Germany, France, Ireland, Mexico, and New Zealand

2025 wasn't a spike year—it was a durability year. After a breakout 2024 (Tapcart merchants grew Cyber Week sales +26.5% YoY), 2025 sustained that momentum even as the broader market normalized. The brands that held the line—and grew—were the ones with a deliberate, app-first strategy in place long before November.

The stories below are from that 2024 breakout year. They're the strategies that drove those gains, validated by what came after. Use them as your blueprint for 2026.

Snarky Tea leveraged two app exclusives to get customers spending during BFCM

Snarky Tea, a brand designed to help coffee and soda lovers kick back on caffeine and discover high-quality, flavorful teas that genuinely taste great, wanted to create app experiences customers couldn't get anywhere else—including the website. The goal: increase AOV and drive app adoption.

Plans for BFCM started months in advance, back in September—which, in such a competitive space, is right on time. (Brands with fewer downloads might want to start even earlier.) By October, the team had landed on two app-only offers: early access to a 35% off site-wide sale, and an app-only gift-with-purchase offer.

To execute the gift-with-purchase seamlessly, Snarky Tea and Tapcart collaborated on a Custom Block that automatically added two free gifts when specific cart thresholds were met.

The strategy paid off. App downloads and sales spiked significantly, and the free gifts became Snarky Tea's top-performing product. During BFCM, Snarky Tea saw its average order value increase by 40%, and Tapcart became its highest-performing channel for the first time.

Key Takeaway: Customers expect a lot from brands these days—and building truly fun, native app experiences can make shopping a joy. Add a layer of exclusivity (app-only early access, gifts with purchase) and BFCM becomes a win for both the brand and its customers.

Well ahead of BFCM, RtA prioritized driving app downloads, then perfected its push strategy to boost AOV

RtA is a global fashion and lifestyle brand rooted in the rebellious, vibrant aesthetics of Los Angeles.

Together, RtA and Tapcart agreed to get hyper-focused on acquiring net-new customers to download the app before BFCM—marketing the platform across all channels, including paid ads. They also identified high-margin product categories to run flash sales on, and worked to nail down the push notification strategy: the most effective brand tone, copy, and cadence for best results.

The brand ultimately deployed a four-phase launch strategy:

1. Early awareness: Pre-BFCM push across paid and organic channels
2. Acquisition: Driving app downloads and engagement to build the audience before the holidays
3. Engagement: Testing and refining push notification strategy using data and analytics
4. BFCM Execution: Flash sales, high-margin products, real-time push communication

Holiday sales started as early as early November and ran through December 3rd. During BFCM, 30% of the brand's sales came through the mobile app—three times the benchmark.

Key Takeaway: Drive customers to the app well before BFCM. Once they're there, perfect your push communication strategy and know which products to promote—so you're ready to command the best possible AOV when it counts.

Volcom leverages push notifications to drive long-term success

Volcom, a skate, surf, and snowboarding lifestyle brand, saw an impressive increase in app sales over BFCM—and the afterglow from that strategy is still being felt. Over the 30 days following BFCM, Volcom's total in-app sales increased 1,290%, and nearly 18% of their total sales are now coming through the app. This resulted from promoting the app for just a few weeks with tailored BFCM push notifications.

Volcom also marketed its app through email campaigns, website download banners, and Instagram—an omnichannel approach that drives better adoption and incremental revenue. They also took advantage of the Searchspring integration, which powers in-app search and PLP merchandising with personalized data to boost conversion.

Why are push notifications so powerful? According to Tapcart's BFCM Consumer Shopping Trends research, mobile app push notifications are:

• 181.5% more likely to elicit a purchase than paid ads
• 94.9% more likely to elicit a purchase than SMS

These notifications drive instant traffic and conversion spikes, while also helping to offset high customer acquisition costs (CAC). And if you're willing to invest in growing your app audience like Volcom did, the compounding effect is real: a long-term cohort of loyal customers who are primed to convert on your next drop.

After the holiday rush, Courtney Meehan, Digital Marketing Director at Volcom, shared that their "daily average user traffic is increasing at a steady rate post-BFCM with their increased brand exposure from promoting their app during the BFCM season, ultimately leading to a long-term return rather than a temporary spike."

Integration Shoutout: Searchspring → An in-app search and PLP merchandising solution that delivers more personalized shopping experiences and boosts conversion.

Sunday Swagger leverages in-app exclusives and saw a serious return

Sunday Swagger kicked off their annual BFCM early access exclusively through their mobile app on the evening of Thursday, November 16th at 7 PM PST. App shoppers got first access to 13 new products, with targeted push notifications directing them straight to the "New Arrivals" collection. The result: a record-breaking single highest sale day in the brand's history—before sales had even opened up to any other channel.

The ripple effect extended well beyond that single day: 1,354 new app downloads, an 82% surge in daily active users, a 107% uptick in sessions, and a 25% increase in app conversion rate.

Sunday Swagger complemented its early access strategy with a multi-page gift guide and a brand refresh—updated app icon and launch screen—to build BFCM hype ahead of the sale.

Kyle Moloo, Director of Ecommerce at Sunday Swagger, put it well: "I'm proud of our Gift Guide multi-page and love how easy it was to build (as opposed to our website gift guide landing page, which took considerably more time to put together). We also released 13 new products (~1/day) between 11/17 and 11/27 — giving our app users first access to each via push notifications that led directly to our New Arrivals collection."

The brand powers push notifications with the Klaviyo integration, enabling automated, segmented, and personalized push campaigns—all from the same platform as email and SMS.

Key Takeaway: App-exclusive early access doesn't just drive sales—it drives installs, sessions, and loyal customer engagement that compound well past the sale itself. The app becomes the VIP channel your best customers want to be in.

ASRV leveraged in-app exclusives to drive hype and incentivize downloads

Pro tip: Brands that start earlier don't run out of juice.

ASRV, a men's performance fashion brand known for its premium shorts, joggers, and bags, ran one of the most disciplined app-exclusive BFCM strategies on record. To kick off peak season, they launched their 60% off sale one day early—exclusively in the app for VIP customers. On Black Friday itself, they dropped a limited edition product available only in the app, which increased single-day sales by 171%.

From the start of their early access window through Cyber Monday, total app sales hit a record $1.04 million.

How did they get there? Leading up to Cyber Week, ASRV used Custom Blocks to build a branded countdown timer that built awareness and urgency. When the sale launched, they promoted app exclusives across email and push campaigns. One early access push notification alone drove a 30% open rate, $163K in sales, a 3.7% CVR, and 691 orders.

Key Takeaway: The countdown timer, the VIP early access, the exclusive product drop, the omnichannel promotion—none of it was accidental. If you want results like these, the work starts months before Black Friday.

Brown Sugar Babe personalizes the shopping experience with Custom Blocks "Build a Box"

Brown Sugar Babe, a skincare and aromatherapy brand, launched its BFCM sale at midnight on November 17th—earlier than most—complete with a BFCM-themed app logo refresh. The brand opened strong with $73,000 in day-one app sales, building to an impressive $275,000 in new app sales across the week and making it their most lucrative month to date.

The strategy combined several layers: targeted push notifications to build early hype, Capture Kit website banners to drive installs from web traffic, a custom "build a box" Custom Block delivering an on-brand, interactive bundling experience, and a gift-with-purchase offer to close the loop. The brand also uses the Gorgias in-app help desk to keep customer satisfaction high by answering questions instantly.

Key Takeaway: The "build a box" experience is a great example of what's only possible in a native app—interactive, on-brand, and personalized in a way that a mobile website just can't replicate. Pair it with the right push strategy and you've got a formula that converts.

How ecommerce brands can build toward BFCM 2026

The 2025 numbers tell a clear story: the brands winning the biggest weekends in commerce aren't just running better campaigns—they're running better mobile experiences, earlier, on more reliable infrastructure.

Whether BFCM 2025 was your brand's best holiday season ever, or your team feels like some revenue was left on the table, now is the right time to lay the foundation for 2026. Build your app audience before Q4. Lock in your app-exclusive strategy. Test your push cadence well before November.

The brands in this post didn't win on the weekend—they won in the months leading up to it.

Curious what your BFCM numbers could look like with the right mobile strategy behind them? Let's chat and build your 2026 playbook now.