The BFCM live shopping checklist

A good BFCM live show is mostly decided before you go live: lock offers and inventory a month out, promote reminders for two weeks, test the day before, and have your replay and follow-up ready for the moment the show ends. Use this checklist to work through it in order.

Four weeks before: what should you decide?

Date and time. Pick one or two shows across Black Friday to Cyber Monday. A show on the Thursday evening before Black Friday can catch early shoppers before inboxes overflow.
The offer. Decide what's discounted, by how much, and whether there's a live-only code on top. Start from your margin per product, not from a round number.
Hero products. Choose five to ten products to feature. Prioritize items with enough stock and good margin.
Inventory. Confirm stock levels and reorder lead times for hero products.
Plan and minutes. Estimate your audience. Thirty viewers for an hour is 1,800 viewer minutes, plus replay viewing. Compare against the plans; the Free plan's 300 minutes a month won't cover a busy BFCM. A live show is never cut off if minutes run out, but plan ahead anyway.
Host and guests. Decide who hosts and whether you'll bring on a guest. Remote co-hosting is available on Growth and Pro.

Two to three weeks before: set up and promote

Set up

Schedule the show in LiveShoply so the live page and reminder sign-up are ready.
Create live-only discount codes. They're real Shopify codes, valid for 24 hours and once per customer.
Add products to the show in the order you'll present them.
Turn on the live pop-up mini-player so visitors browsing your store during the show can see you're live.
Write a run sheet using the show script template.

Promote

Announce the show in your newsletter with a reminder sign-up link.
Use the welcome video bubble on your storefront to tease the show.
Post the date on your social accounts and link to your live page.
On Starter and above, set up email reminders and sync sign-ups to Klaviyo. See email reminders and Klaviyo.
Run a smaller sneak-peek show to build your reminder list.

More promotion ideas are in how to promote a live shopping event.

The week of: test everything

Private test show. Same device, same room, same time of day as the real show. Watch the recording on a phone.
Connection. Use a wired connection if you can, and ask others not to upload large files during the show.
Audio. Use an external mic if possible. Viewers forgive average video sooner than bad sound.
Lighting. Late November evenings are dark. Don't rely on window light.
Discount codes. Test each code at checkout on a real order or a test order.
Products. Confirm every featured product is published, in stock and has correct pricing.
OBS users. If you stream from OBS on Starter and above, check your RTMP settings. If multistreaming to Facebook and YouTube on Growth or Pro, test those destinations too. See OBS and RTMP setup.
Backup. Have a phone charged and logged in so you can switch to the browser studio if your main setup fails.

During the show

Start on time. Open with the offer and what's coming, not a long wait for viewers.
Pin each product while you talk about it, and say its name and price out loud.
Share the live-only code early and repeat it every few minutes for late joiners.
Run a poll early to get chat moving.
If you're running a keyword giveaway, explain the keyword and when you'll draw.
Have someone else watch chat and answer questions if you can. One person hosting, one moderating is ideal.
Close with a recap of the products and the deal deadline.

After the show: replays and follow-up

Replay. On paid plans, the replay is stored and stays shoppable. Put it at the top of your live page and on featured product pages.
Follow-up email. Send a "watch the replay" email the next morning to reminder subscribers.
Clips. Cut short highlights for your video feed. On Growth and Pro, AI highlight clips can do this for you.
Export. Download your subscriber CSV so the audience you built is in your own hands.
Insights. Review attributed orders, peak viewers and watch time. Note which products and moments drove sales. See measuring live shopping ROI.
Fulfilment. Make sure orders from the show are flagged and shipped on schedule.

Common BFCM mistakes to avoid

First show on Black Friday. Practice at least once beforehand.
Too many products. Ten products done well beat thirty rushed ones.
Discounts set up on camera. Create codes in advance and test them.
No replay plan. Many shoppers will see the replay, not the live show. Decide where it goes before you start.
Underestimating viewer minutes. Check your plan before your biggest week, not after.

Assign owners

If more than one person is involved, put a name next to each item on this list. Someone owns the discount codes, someone owns stock checks, someone owns the follow-up email. The most common reason a checklist item gets missed during BFCM is that everyone assumed someone else had it. Even in a two-person shop, splitting host and moderator roles for the show itself makes a noticeable difference: the host can focus on products while the moderator answers sizing questions, repeats the code and flags anything urgent.

Keep a shared note during the show of questions you could not answer. Those questions are good material for product page copy, FAQ entries and your next show.

Print this list, tick it off, and keep it for next year. For a refresher on the basics, see how to do live shopping on Shopify.