The Battle for the BFCM Shopper
Exclusive original research into how price, promotions, channels and AI are reshaping the path from discovery to conversion
Turn Spending Intent Into Revenue
Strong spending intentions create opportunity, but retailers still need to earn their share of consumers’ planned BFCM budgets. The priority is identifying which shoppers are showing the strongest intent and responding before that demand shifts elsewhere.
Recognizing returning shoppers and understanding behaviors such as repeat product views, cart activity and price sensitivity can help retailers distinguish casual browsers from higher-intent prospects. Rather than defaulting to blanket BFCM promotions, brands can use these signals to trigger more relevant email and text experiences, personalize offers and prioritize high-value audiences, turning planned spending into a stronger opportunity for conversion and revenue.
How Do You Expect Your BFCM Spending to Change From Last Year, and How Much Do You Plan to Spend?
Make Value Relevant, Not Just Cheaper
BFCM shoppers are willing to spend but remain sensitive to price and value, making relevance as important as promotion. Deeper discounts should not be the default route to conversion.
Product views, repeat visits, cart activity and engagement with discounted items can reveal where intent and price sensitivity intersect. Retailers can use these behavioral signals to trigger relevant email and text experiences, including price-drop and product-specific messaging, helping capture demand while protecting margin where possible.
Which factors are influencing your BFCM spending plans this year?
Turn Category Interest Into Relevant Journeys
BFCM demand spans multiple categories, making one-size-fits-all promotions less effective. What shoppers browse, cart and revisit can reveal the products and categories they are actively considering.
By recognizing shoppers and connecting behavior across sessions, retailers can trigger more relevant email and text experiences based on demonstrated interest. These signals can also support cross-sell opportunities, helping brands convert immediate BFCM demand while building richer customer profiles to inform personalization beyond the peak shopping period.
Which categories are you most likely to purchase during Black Friday or Cyber Monday?
Recognize the Intent Behind the Behavior
BFCM shoppers generate valuable intent signals through email capture, repeat product views, clicks and cart abandonment. The challenge is connecting those behaviors to the same shopper across sessions.
Wunderkind’s identity resolution and behavioral intelligence can help retailers build richer customer profiles and activate timely email and text journeys through existing platforms. Brands can respond to demonstrated intent with relevant products and offers, rather than automatically escalating discounts whenever shoppers abandon carts or return.
Which shopping tactics do you typically use to find the best deals?
Connect Fragmented Discovery to Recognizable Intent
Retailers cannot control where BFCM discovery begins as shoppers move across social, search, advertising and AI. The opportunity is to connect what happens next.
Recognizing returning visitors and behaviors such as product views, repeat visits and cart activity can reveal intent beyond acquisition source. Retailers can use these signals to trigger relevant email and text experiences, building continuity across visits and turning fragmented discovery into identifiable demand that brands can nurture toward conversion.
How do you usually discover Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals?
Optimize for Relevance, Not Message Volume
During BFCM, winning attention is not about sending more messages or undercutting competitors at the expense of margin. Retailers need to understand how individual shoppers engage and use those signals to determine when and where to communicate.
Wunderkind’s identity and behavioral intelligence helps brands recognize shoppers and use real-time intent to trigger timely email and text through their existing stack, creating fewer, more relevant touches rather than adding to peak-season promotional noise.
Which channel is most likely to get your attention when brands promote Black Friday or Cyber Monday offers?
Identity Turns Price Changes Into Conversion Moments
A price drop is only valuable as a trigger if retailers can connect it to the shoppers who previously demonstrated interest. That requires recognizing consumers across visits, understanding product-level behaviors and activating against those signals when something meaningful changes.
Wunderkind can help retailers connect identity with behaviors such as product views and cart activity, then power triggered email and text campaigns when relevant products drop in price. Rather than broadcasting a sitewide BFCM promotion, retailers can reach shoppers with a message tied directly to demonstrated intent, creating a more relevant reason to return while potentially reducing reliance on indiscriminate discounting and paid retargeting.
If you do not purchase immediately, which type of reminder is most likely to bring you back?
Protect the Path to Direct Conversion
With marketplaces and major retailers competing aggressively for BFCM purchases, brands cannot assume product interest will translate into a transaction on their own site. Every unidentified visitor who leaves represents potential demand that may convert elsewhere.
Recognizing shoppers and capturing behavioral intent gives brands more opportunity to continue that direct relationship after a visit. Product views, carts and repeat browsing can power timely email and text journeys designed to bring shoppers back to the brand site. For retailers, the opportunity is not simply generating more BFCM traffic, but making better use of the audiences they have already acquired, helping protect direct revenue and share of wallet from outside channels.
Where do you expect to make most of your purchases?
Give Shoppers a Compelling Reason to Buy Direct
Brands may struggle to replicate the breadth and convenience of marketplaces, but the findings show they have other levers to protect the direct customer relationship. Price, loyalty, exclusivity and personalization can all contribute to a differentiated direct experience.
Recognizing shoppers and understanding their behavior can help brands determine which of those levers is most relevant. Instead of presenting every visitor with the same BFCM proposition, retailers can use identity, browsing behavior, purchase history and intent to personalize journeys and trigger relevant email and text experiences. This can help brands bring shoppers back to their owned properties, strengthen direct relationships and protect share of wallet from outside channels.
Why do you prefer buying from brands, marketplaces or online retailers directly?
Use BFCM to Acquire, and Build Recognition Beyond the First Purchase
BFCM gives retailers an opportunity to win customers from competitors, but discounts alone may not be enough to shift established preferences. Brands need to recognize when new visitors demonstrate meaningful intent and make the experience relevant enough to convert that interest.
Capturing and recognizing these shoppers can also make the first BFCM transaction more valuable over time. Behavioral signals can inform subsequent email and text journeys, helping brands nurture first-time buyers based on what they browse and engage with rather than immediately returning to generic promotions. The goal is to turn peak-season acquisition into an identifiable customer relationship that can support repeat purchase and lifetime value beyond BFCM.
During Black Friday and Cyber Monday, are you more likely to…
Win the Shopper Before AI Makes the Shortlist
As AI becomes another layer between consumers and retailers, brands need to think beyond AI adoption itself. The data suggests shoppers are most receptive to AI when it helps them evaluate value, compare options and narrow choices, not simply replace their decision-making.
That raises the importance of recognizing intent when AI-influenced shoppers reach owned properties. Product comparisons, repeat visits, price sensitivity and browsing behavior can help brands understand what a shopper is considering and respond with relevant email and text experiences. The opportunity is to turn signals generated during an increasingly AI-assisted consideration journey into direct customer relationships and conversion opportunities.
Have You Used AI for Shopping, and Which Tasks Are You Most Comfortable Using It For?
