A few years back we thought we’d cracked the BFCM code...
Day 1... $150,000 in sales.
Day 2... another $100,000.
We were buzzing... high-fives in the office... feeling like we’d finally “made it.”
But when the dust settled, here’s what was left:
Margins? Gone.
Cash flow? Tighter than ever.
And worst of all... those “new customers” never came back.
They came in for the deal... grabbed the discount... and disappeared.
We’d basically cleared old inventory, gave away margin, and bought ourselves a dopamine hit.
And that’s the trap so many brands fall into every single Black Friday.
The BFCM Mirage
On the surface, big sales numbers feel like a win.
But without retention... without profitability... without a plan for what happens after...
It’s just noise.
The brands that win BFCM aren’t the ones who sell the most in a weekend.
They’re the ones who turn seasonal intent into long-term revenue.
What the winners are doing differently
When Wunderkind sent me their BFCM Treasure Map, it clicked.
The brands who are winning in 2025 are focused on three things:
Identity resolution... stop letting anonymous traffic slip through the cracks
Agentic AI... quit running static journeys that don’t adapt to customer behavior
Outcome-driven strategy... no more vanity metrics... focus on real revenue impact
And here’s the thing...
In 2024, 60% of shoppers delayed purchases to wait for BFCM deals.
That number’s only going up in 2025 with inflation and tariffs making shoppers more deal-conscious than ever.
So the opportunity isn’t just in getting the sale.
It’s in building systems that make those customers stay.
My biggest “aha”
The stop on the map that hit home for me was around first-party data capture. (more of that coming soon for a SAAS I’m starting btw)
Because BFCM is the single biggest traffic spike of the year...
And if you don’t use it to fuel your email and SMS retention machine... you’re giving away your future growth.
That’s what we missed back when we did that $250K in 2 days.
We weren’t building a system... we were just chasing a number.
The takeaway
BFCM shouldn’t just be about clearing shelves.
It should be about building the kind of business you actually want to run... one with loyal customers and repeatable revenue.
That’s why I recommend you check out Wunderkind’s online BFCM hub. It’s not theory... it’s a literal blueprint for making this season count.
👉 Here’s the map: BFCM TREASURE MAP!
Because $150K in one day might feel like a win...
But building systems that make customers stick?
That’s where the real win is.
Let me know what you think!
Jordan West
Ps. I just dropped a new video on how to find high GMV affiliates