7 questions every Shopify store should answer before BFCM 2026

Seven questions. That is what The Better BFCM Shopping Experience boils down to, a free report that seven Shopify app teams wrote together before BFCM 2026, and each question is one place where a holiday shopper quietly gives up. Can they find the variant they want? Do the reviews answer what is stopping them? Will it fit? Can they send it as a gift?

Disclosure first, because it matters here: Craftshift is one of the seven partners. We wrote Chapter 1, the variant selection chapter, as the team behind Rubik Variant Images. The other six chapters come from Loox, Fit Quiz by Easysize, Giftnote, GoodAPI, Cleverific and Returnista, and Easysize ran the project. Everything below is summarised from the published report, and every number keeps the source the report itself credits.

You can read the whole thing here: The Better BFCM Shopping Experience report, free on the Easysize site. This post is the short tour, one section per question, with what we would actually do this week if it were our store.

What should a Shopify store fix before BFCM?

Short answer: fix what makes a shopper hesitate after they arrive: hidden variants, reviews that skip the real question, guessed sizes, awkward gifting, rigid orders and unclear returns. Start with the product page, because Rubik Variant Images shows each variant its own photo set and swatches, and finish changes by 20 November.

In this post

1. Can shoppers find the variant they want?
2. Do reviews answer the question stopping the sale?
3. Can shoppers choose a size without guessing?
4. Is gifting easy to add to the order?
5. Can the order do something good too?
6. Can customers fix an order after checkout?
7. Are you ready for the returns that follow?
8. The BFCM 2026 dates in one table
9. The partner offers
10. FAQ

1. Can shoppers find the variant they want?

This is our chapter, so take the enthusiasm with a pinch of salt. But the argument holds up on its own. A shopper can want the product and still stall on which version to buy, because colour, material, finish and size change the look, the price and what lands in the cart.

The chapter makes four points:

1. Show the options without a dropdown. In a desktop A/B/C test that Blend Commerce ran for Azuna, replacing a dropdown with visible swatches lifted conversion by 3% and revenue per visitor by 4%. One test, one store, desktop only. Still, a dropdown hides choices until someone opens it, and swatches put them side by side.
2. Show the images that match the selected variant. Baymard Institute found that 56% of shoppers in product page testing started by exploring the images. Shopify links one featured image to each variant by default, so on a product with 12 variants and 6 photos each (an illustrative example), all 72 photos stay in the gallery whatever the shopper picks.
3. Show variants on collection pages. In a 2023 Baymard benchmark, 57% of mobile ecommerce sites did not show all colour variations in the product list. If the red one only appears after a click, some shoppers never see it.
4. Test every variant before BFCM. The chapter suggests 20 November as the deadline for product page changes, one week before Black Friday on 27 November.

Why did we pick this chapter? Because it is the support question we get most, in some form, every single week: “I picked navy, why is the gallery still showing the red one?” We built per variant galleries for exactly that reason, after watching stores with big catalogues try to solve it with image ordering and give up somewhere around the fortieth product. And honestly, a 72 photo gallery on a phone is not a gallery. It is homework.

Want a quick read on where your own product pages stand? Run a bestseller through the free product page grader, and use the product image audit on the products with the largest galleries before you touch anything else.

2. Do reviews answer the question stopping someone from buying?

Loox wrote this one, and the opening number is blunt. According to PowerReviews, 45% of surveyed shoppers say they will not buy a product without reviews, and 56% say they do not trust a star rating without written reviews behind it.

The useful bit is where the reviews sit. The chapter describes a Shopify store selling swords that put short review excerpts beside its buy button and recorded a 17.8% conversion lift in a month long A/B test, with 46 additional orders and $8,941 in additional revenue. Nielsen Norman Group’s research puts 57% of page viewing time above the fold, which explains why a review buried under the description does so little. The chapter also cites BlendJet, which has collected more than 200,000 customer reviews with an average of 4.9 out of 5 using Loox.

The homework is small: pick three reviews for each featured product, one about quality, one about everyday use and one about gifting, and pin them to the top. Gift sets and new products with almost no reviews need feedback collected now, not in December.

3. Can shoppers choose the right size without guessing?

This chapter comes from Fit Quiz by Easysize. Coresight Research found that 53% of surveyed apparel brands and retailers cite size or fit as the leading reason for online apparel returns, and Narvar’s 2021 study found 58% of shoppers bought several versions of an item planning to return some.

A size chart alone, the chapter argues, asks too much of a hurried shopper: find a tape measure, measure correctly, then account for fabric and stretch. Two case studies from the report: menswear brand Under 5’10 reported 78% higher conversion among shoppers who engaged with Fit Quiz, and Peaceful Hooligan reported a 22% improvement in return rate after adding product specific sizing recommendations beside the size selector. PowerReviews adds that 70% of shoppers who read reviews look for sizing information when buying clothing and shoes, so size purchased and fit feedback in reviews do real work too.

4. Is gifting easy to add to the order?

Giftnote’s chapter starts with the recipient, which is the part most stores forget exists. Their gift audit found that 74% of gift recipients are not on the brand’s email list, gift orders carry a 25% higher average order value, and gift card recipients spend about 30% more than the card’s value.

The case study is The Oodie, which processed more than 15,000 gifts in its first few months with Giftnote, more than $2 million in gifted revenue, and over 100 recipients who became first time customers. The practical test is free: place a gift order on your phone and follow it all the way to the recipient’s message. Does the recipient know who sent it and how to exchange it?

5. Can the order do something good too?

GoodAPI’s chapter is about cause campaigns at checkout. Engage for Good found 47% of surveyed companies named short, cause specific campaigns as their most successful checkout fundraising format. The case is VEGDOG, a vegan pet food brand that added optional donations for animal welfare nonprofits. It expected customers to round up; many chose to give 3 or 5 euros instead, and the community raised more than 6,000 euros in the first few weeks.

One date worth noting: Giving Tuesday falls on 1 December 2026, the day after Cyber Monday, and GivingTuesday reports an estimated $4 billion in US donations on the 2025 edition. Write that follow up email before the sale starts. You will not have time after.

6. Can customers fix an order after checkout?

Cleverific covers two things that happen after the payment button: post purchase upsells and self service order editing. A UK consumer goods brand reported 7.3% upsell conversion in its first two weeks and a 29% increase in average order value by the end of the campaign. Peter Manning NYC, which had been handling more than 100 monthly order change requests, saw those requests fall by 99% once customers could edit orders themselves.

The detail I liked most is the editing window. McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams used 15 minutes and estimated at least 65% fewer address change requests. Your window depends on how fast the warehouse picks, and the chapter is right that you should test an address change, a size change and an accepted upsell end to end before BFCM rather than during it.

7. Are you ready for the returns that follow BFCM?

Returnista closes the report with a forecast based on 5.9 million returns from 2022 to 2025. Return volume is expected to start rising on 21 November, peak around 2 December at about 70% above average, come back in a second wave on 28 to 30 December, and stay near 75% of peak through January.

Their consumer survey of more than 1,000 people found 70% are willing to pay a return fee and only 18% think the store should always cover return costs. So the problem is not that customers refuse rules. It is that nobody wrote the rules down. TOV Essentials, which handles more than 1,000 return requests a month, turned its policy into rules by reason and order date and now handles 45% of return decisions without a person, saving 4 to 5 hours of support time each week.

The BFCM 2026 dates in one table

The report scatters its dates across seven chapters, which is sort of inevitable with seven authors. Here they are together, with our own freeze guide’s dates alongside.

Date	What happens	Source
20 November	Finish planned product page changes	Chapter 1, Rubik
21 November	Return volume starts rising; holiday return policy should be final	Chapter 7, Returnista
27 November	Black Friday
30 November	Cyber Monday
1 December	Giving Tuesday	Chapter 5, GoodAPI
2 December	Projected busiest return day of 2026	Chapter 7, Returnista
28 to 30 December	Second return wave, around 80% of the first peak	Chapter 7, Returnista

If your team needs one date to rally around, make it 20 November. We wrote a whole post on why a Shopify code freeze on 20 November is the sane choice, and the peak season calendar puts the weeks either side of it in order.

What we would do first, and what we would skip

Seven chapters is a lot for three weeks. Here is our honest ordering, and yes, it starts with our own chapter, but not for the reason you think. Product page problems hit every visitor; returns and gifting problems hit a fraction of them. Fix what everyone sees first.

We would skip anything that needs a new theme section or a theme update this late. Most blogs get this backwards and recommend a “BFCM redesign” in November. Don’t. Use the time on data and settings: pinned reviews, sizing notes, a written return policy, a tested gift flow. And if your variant galleries show every colour at once, this is the one change worth making before the freeze, because Rubik Variant Images filters the gallery per variant without editing theme files. It is free to install and holds 5.0 stars across 499 App Store reviews.

“We’ve tried several solutions for managing variant images, but Rubik Variant Images stands out. It’s like giving our product pages a much-needed declutter. Customers now see only the images that match their selection, which has noticeably reduced the ‘Is this the right color?’ support queries. The setup was intuitive, and the results were instant. It’s one of those behind-the-scenes tools that quietly makes a big difference. Love it!”

Livspace Home, India, July 2025, Rubik Variant Images on the Shopify App Store

Collection pages are the other half of Chapter 1. If your colours are separate products rather than variants, Rubik Combined Listings groups them into one listing with swatches on every product card. For the variant side, the Black Friday variant image checklist walks through the test from collection page to cart. You can see both running in the demo store, and setup is in the getting started docs.

What are the partner offers in the BFCM report?

Each partner put an offer on the report’s last page. As listed there:

Partner	Offer in the report	How to claim
Rubik Variant Images & Swatch	20% off the first three months	Install via the report link, then mention the BFCM report in live chat
Loox	20% lifetime discount off all paid plans	Install via the report link
Fit Quiz Size Recommender	20% off for 3 months, new merchants	Email Easysize support and mention the report
Giftnote	20% off the per gift fee, new merchants	Email Giftnote and mention the report
GoodAPI	50 free trees or impact units	Permanent free tier, no monthly subscription
Cleverific	20% off and $500 credit, new customers	Book an onboarding session

The exact links and contact details are in the full BFCM report. If you plan BFCM discounts of your own, the bulk price editor and the UTM link builder save a surprising amount of fiddling.

FAQ

What is The Better BFCM Shopping Experience report?

A free report published by Easysize on 21 October 2026, written with seven Shopify app partners: Rubik, Loox, Fit Quiz, Giftnote, GoodAPI, Cleverific and Returnista. It covers seven questions about the shopping experience before and after BFCM, with case studies, sourced statistics and partner offers.

What is the best way to show variant images before BFCM?

Give each variant its own set of photos so the gallery shows only the version the shopper picked, and show the options as swatches rather than a dropdown. Rubik Variant Images does both through a theme app extension, holds 5.0 stars across 499 reviews and is free to install.

When should product page changes be finished for Black Friday 2026?

By 20 November 2026, one week before Black Friday on 27 November. That leaves a full week of real traffic on the final setup, which is the window Chapter 1 of the report suggests for testing every variant from collection page to cart.

When do BFCM returns peak?

Returnista’s forecast in the report expects return volume to start rising on 21 November 2026, peak around 2 December at about 70% above average, return in a second wave on 28 to 30 December, and stay near 75% of peak through January.

Is the BFCM report free?

Yes. It is free on the Easysize site, opens after you enter a work email, and a PDF copy is sent by email. The partner offers on its last page are optional.

Who wrote the variant selection chapter?

Craftshift, the team behind Rubik Variant Images and Rubik Combined Listings. Its figures come from a Blend Commerce swatch test for Azuna, two Baymard Institute studies and the Shopify Help Center, all listed on the report’s sources page.

Related reading

• Shopify code freeze before Black Friday
• The Shopify peak season calendar
• The wider Black Friday game plan for Shopify stores
• Black Friday product images: export, fix, re upload
• Black Friday collection page prep

Writing one chapter of a seven chapter report taught us something slightly humbling: our problem, the wrong photo on the wrong variant, is only the first of seven places a BFCM shopper can walk away. Read the other six. Then pick the one your store is worst at, because that is probably the one costing you the most.