Black Friday 2026 discount checklist for Shopify

The checklist, by date

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, Black Friday is November 27 and Cyber Monday is November 30, 2026. Work through these steps in order. Each date leaves a few days to fix what the step finds.

1. By Nov 13: count your automatic discounts. In Shopify admin, open Discounts and count the active automatic discounts. Shopify allows 25 at once, and discounts created by apps count toward the 25. Deactivate old ones you no longer need, so your sale discounts have room.
2. By Nov 13: do the margin math. Shopify applies product discounts first, then order discounts on the reduced subtotal. If a 25% order code is allowed to combine with a 20% automatic product discount, the shopper gets 40% off if the 20% covers every item. Check that the price still covers your cost on your lowest-margin product.
3. By Nov 20: build and schedule. Give each sale discount a start date and an end date, for example start date November 27 and end date November 30 with end time 11:59 PM, so Cyber Monday is covered. You can also add discounts to a Shopify rollout, which schedules when they turn on and off. After you save, reopen each discount and check its dates.
4. By Nov 20: set combinations. For each pair of discounts that should stack, allow the combination on both discounts. Shopify applies them together only when both allow it. Leave it off for pairs that must not stack, for example a sitewide automatic discount and your old welcome code.
5. Nov 23 to 25: place a test order. Use Shopify's test payment gateway or Shopify Payments' test mode, and put the exact combination in the cart: same products, same codes. You aren't charged for test orders. Check that every discount line shows at checkout. Shoppers can't place live orders while your payment provider is in test mode, so test at a quiet hour and turn test mode off right after. The test gateway needs a paid Shopify plan. You can also pay with a real card, then cancel and refund the order (processor fees may apply; Shopify Help Center).
6. Nov 26: final check. Open each sale discount once more and check its dates, its combinations and its usage limits.
7. Nov 27 to 30: watch the first orders. Open the first real Black Friday orders and check that they show the discounts you expected.
8. Dec 1: clean up. Check that every sale discount has ended or is deactivated. If you later reactivate expired discounts in bulk, they come back with no end date, so set one.

What Shopify does on its own

Most of the checklist runs on Shopify's own settings. Each item below links the Shopify page it comes from (checked 2026-10-23).

Where native Shopify stops

• No merchant preview that we found. In a Shopify Community thread, a Shopify Partner asked for a Script Editor style preview for discount functions; a Shopify staff reply suggested testing with a customer tag. A test order with your real combination is the closest check.
• Discounts that don't combine: the better one wins. When two automatic discounts apply to the same cart and don't combine, Shopify gives the shopper the better one (Shopify Help Center). See why a discount isn't applying.
• No sale-window rule for codes. To reject typed codes by a rule of your own, for example every code during Black Friday, you need a discount function from an app, such as a Discount Genie rejection rule (below). Shopify says rejecting codes “can only be used if the function is backed by an automatic discount” (shopify.dev).

The Discount Genie way

Discount Genie adds two things to a Black Friday plan: blocking codes for the sale window, and capping how much a discount takes off. Its product, order and shipping discount forms keep the dates and combinations you know from Shopify, and its code discounts keep usage limits.

• Block every code during the sale. A rejection rule with Limit codes in cart set to No codes allowed keeps shoppers on the offer you promote. Give the rule start date November 27 and end date November 30 with end time 11:59 PM, so it turns on and off by itself and covers Cyber Monday. Rejection rules are included on every plan, including Free.
• Allow a few codes instead. With Limit codes in cart set to Allow specific quantity, a rejection rule keeps the first codes up to the Number of codes allowed, for example 2. To cap influencer codes, use Reject codes based on title matching rules for codes that Starts with INF, with Keep only the newest matching code: shoppers get one influencer code, and other codes are unaffected.
• Cap the discount (paid plans). Discount Genie's product, order and shipping discounts can have a maximum discount amount, for example 20% off up to $100. Caps are on paid plans (Core and up), not Free.
• Set dates, combinations and usage limits. Discount Genie's product, order and shipping discount forms have active dates and combinations on every plan. Code discounts also have usage limits. Both discounts must allow a combination for Shopify to stack them; see combine discounts.

Related

• Combine discounts on Shopify
• Limit and block discount codes on Shopify
• Tiered and volume discounts on Shopify
• Customer tag discounts on Shopify
• Best Shopify discount apps (2026)
• Discount code rejection rules (Discount Genie docs)
• Combine (stack) discounts (Discount Genie docs)