5 Must-Have Apps for Black Friday 2024

Let's get your online business BFCM-ready.

To implement your pre-, during, and post-BFCM campaigns, you need the best apps.

Below, find five apps rated the best by folks like you on Shopify App Store and G2, Capterra. They will help you cover the entire customer journey by taking care of paid ads, onsite engagement, email and SMS marketing, abandoned cart recovery, and customer support.

Wisepops — Grow marketing lists with popups, share limited-time offers and discounts, recommend products with AI, increase average order value

Rating: 4.9 (Shopify App Store), 4.9 (Capterra)

Main benefits for BFCM: Drive maximum conversions and sales on your website before, during, and after BFCM with multiple channels thanks to visitor targeting and ecommerce properties

Wisepops is a platform made to engage and convert visitors on every stage of the customer journey. You can can quickly create targeted campaigns for different visitor groups, such building your Black Friday email list, promoting a limited-time offer, or driving visitors to the sale page.

You get six onsite channels:

• Popups

• Onsite notifications

• AI Wishlist

• Website bars

• Embedded forms

• Push notifications

Wisepops is an easy-to-use platform designed for marketers and growth managers to speed up lead generation and sales by personalizing shopping experiences.

The popup builder is drag-and-drop, with all customization features appearing when you click the element you want to change. So, you don't have to be an expert to create good-looking campaigns that convert.

The advanced targeting options are a super helpful feature for helping you increase sales during the holiday period.

They allow you to set up specific triggers for onsite campaigns, such as viewed pages, visitor's location, device type, and shopping cart content.

For example, below are campaign display settings for targeting visitor groups:

One of the standout features of Wisepops is AI Wishlist.

This feature uses data sources such as browsing activity, visitor profiles, and sales performance to predict purchase intention. It automatically showcases the products each visitor is most likely to buy based on those they have previously viewed (see below).

Using AI Wishlist can be one of your best decisions for BFCM 2024.

Why?

Because a) it works on autopilot, so you don't have to do anything; and b) it's making up to 5% of sales for many ecommerce stores.

Here's how the message looks when opened (note that the visitor can choose sizes and add products to the cart in a couple of clicks):

Best features:

• Six onsite channels to convert visitors

• Goal and revenue tracking

• 100+ campaign templates to choose from

• Spin-to-win wheel popups for giveaways and gamification

• Audience targeting (new/returning visitors, organic visitors, paid ad visitors, etc.)

• AI Wishlist that uses machine algorithm to display product recommendations

• Advanced ecommerce features: built-in Shopify discount codes and Klaviyo segment targeting

• Plenty of campaign display options (immediately, with time delay, upon reaching a certain page depth, on click, etc.)

• Integrates with a wide range of marketing apps (and has a deep integration with Klaviyo)

• Campaign performance analytics and deep A/B testing (test 5+ campaign variants)

Key BFCM strategies with Wisepops:

• Capture emails for early access to a Black Friday sale

• Run product giveaways, wheels of fortune, and other gamified campaigns with prizes

• Reduce cart abandonment with exit intent campaigns with reminders and extra incentives

• Drive FOMO by running popups and bars with countdown timers to remind shoppers where the sale or an offer ends

• Share limited-time offers such as "deal of the hour" or BOGO in popups and onsite notifications to maximize engagement

• Improve product discovery by allowing shoppers to access visited products on any page with AI algorithm that predicts conversion

• Share personalized discounts (including unique ones from your Shopify account) in popups and embedded forms anywhere on your store

• Give personalized discounts and offers to your loyal and VIP customers in popups that appear only to them

• Increase the average order value by creating campaigns with extra incentives that are displayed to shoppers who added items to the cart

Examples of Black Friday campaigns made with Wisepops

More than 5,200 online businesses use Wisepops (here are some of their stories). The scope of campaigns is so wide that it's impossible to cover everything here.

But—

Here are some examples with links to guides on how to create similar campaigns:

How to create a spin to win campaign

How to create a discount popup

How to make a countdown timer popup

Pricing

You can use Wisepops for 14 days for free with all premium features.

The paid plans begin at $49/mo.

See full pricing.

A special offer is available for enterprises: Wisepops ONE.

If you'd like to try Wisepops on your store, grab a free account today and take advantage of the 14-day free trial:

Klaviyo — Engage your email and text message subscribers with targeted campaigns and recover abandoned carts

Ratings: 4.6 (Shopify), 4.6 (Capterra)

Main benefits for BFCM: Engage your audience with targeted campaigns through email and text messages. Collect and display customer reviews to increase trust.

Klaviyo is one of the best apps to drive more sales with email and SMS marketing campaigns. It offers advanced tools for subscriber segmentation, lead generation automation, and analytics. Its email marketing features include customizable templates, A/B testing, and automated workflows, which are particularly beneficial for ecommerce businesses aiming to maximize personalization and reduce cart abandonment not just on Black Friday.

Klaviyo also has this awesome BFCM resource center to help its users maximize revenue during the holiday period. You can get actionable tips from conversion optimization experts as well as examples of successful campaigns:

And, of course, you get nice BFCM templates you can use to prepare campaigns to engage your customers with:

Key BFCM strategies with Klaviyo:

• Build anticipation with pre-BFCM email sequences

• Use countdown timers in emails to create urgency

• Set up cart abandonment flows with BFCM-specific messaging

• Create VIP segments for early access to deals

• Implement browse abandonment recovery for high-intent window shoppers

Best features:

• Automated email workflows (welcome, cart/browse abandonment, newsletter, win-back, and post-purchase)

• Collect reviews from customers on autopilot to display them on your store

• Advanced segmentation to create highly targeted customer groups based on purchasing behavior, email engagement, and demographic data

• SMS marketing tools that allow you to send timely, personalized messages directly to customers' phones

• Comprehensive ecommerce integrations, such as Shopify, allowing seamless connectivity for enhanced marketing efforts

• In-depth performance metrics and reporting, ensuring you can measure the success of your campaigns through detailed analytics dashboards and reports

• Predictive analytics to forecast sales trends, optimize marketing spending, and maximize customer lifetime value

Pricing:

Klaviyo offers a free plan that allows you to email up to 500 contacts. The pricing depends on the number of contacts and the features you need. Paid plans begin at $45 per month for essential email functionalities.

View full pricing

Sign up for Klaviyo

Gorgias — Get your customer support ready with best-in-class live chat, chatbots, helpdesk, and automation

Ratings: 4.6 (G2), 4.3 (Shopify)

Main benefits for BFCM: Be available for any requests and questions from customers during BFCM via live chat, automate sharing discounts and special offers with chat widgets

Gorgias helps ecommerce businesses provide a customer service experience that not only meets but exceeds expectations, particularly during high-traffic periods like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. By implementing Gorgias, you can ensure that your customer support team is prepared to handle increased inquiry volumes swiftly and efficiently.

The first and foremost reason to use Gorgias is the live chat. Close to one-third of online shoppers expect to see live chat on ecommerce stores, so it's a must for BFCM.

Next, the built-in automation will help you to speed up the response time for FAQs and free up your agents to work on the tickets. Your customers can chat with you and get helpful answers right away.

Here are a few examples—

In this one, I asked the bot if there were any promos available, and it asked me if I was interested in sales or bundles. After choosing, the bot offered a few options of product types to narrow down the search:

Here, I asked about how to choose the right size of te jewelry and the bot asked which category of products I was interested in and provided the size guide:

But you can use Gorgias for more than improving your customer support. There's an option to add marketing messages to the chat widget and increase conversions and signups.

Thanks to built-in visitor targeting and exit intent detection, you can offer personalized discounts and special offers.

Key BFCM strategies with Gorgias:

• Pre-create response templates for anticipated BFCM questions

• Set up automated responses for order status, shipping times, and deal information

• Use chat campaigns to proactively engage high-intent visitors

• Leverage customer history to personalize support and recommend products

• Monitor social media mentions to engage with customers and resolve issues quickly

Best features:

• Centralized communication hub that aggregates messages from multiple channels, including email, social media, and live chat, into a single dashboard for efficient management

• Customizable chat widgets that allow you to personalize and automate responses according to customer inquiry nature

• Advanced reporting and analytics tools that provide insights into response times, customer satisfaction, and agent performance

• Integration with ecommerce platforms such as Shopify, ensuring seamless connection with your store environment for streamlined operations

• Multilingual support capabilities, enabling you to serve a diverse customer base in their preferred language

Pricing:

Gorgias pricing is based on the number of customer support tickets per month.

The starter plan for 500 tickets, for example, costs $60/mo.

View full pricing

Sign up for Gorgias

Yotpo — Drive conversions by using social proof and customer loyalty programs

Ratings: 4.8 (Shopify), 4.6 (G2)

Main benefits for BFCM: Use user-generated content on your store, drive customer loyalty and increase conversion rates through social proof and rewards programs.

Yotpo is a powerful ecommerce marketing platform that helps businesses maximize their BFCM potential through reviews, visual marketing, and loyalty programs. It enables brands to build trust and engagement with customers when competition is at its peak during the holiday shopping season.

Here are a few most popular use cases:

Add a list of filterable reviews to product pages, so shoppers can find exactly what they’re looking for (source: Colourpop):

Next—

Birdy Grey, a bridesmaid dress boutique, offers a visual gallery to inspire customers with real wedding photos. By utilizing various branded hashtags, the store showcases stunning images of actual brides, providing lots of inspiration:

Best features:

• Reviews & ratings: Automatically collect and display customer reviews to boost credibility during high-traffic BFCM periods

• Visual user-generated content: Curate and showcase customer photos and videos to create authentic shopping experiences

• Loyalty & referral programs: Incentivize repeat purchases and referrals with customizable rewards programs specifically tailored for BFCM

• SMS marketing: Send targeted text messages to engage customers with time-sensitive BFCM offers

• AI-powered insights: Analyze customer feedback to identify trends and optimize your BFCM strategy

• Social proof: Display real-time notifications of purchases and reviews to create urgency during BFCM sales

Key BFCM strategies with Yotpo:

• Launch pre-BFCM review collection campaigns to bulk up social proof

• Create exclusive VIP tiers in your loyalty program for early access to deals

• Leverage user-generated content in your holiday marketing materials

• Set up time-sensitive SMS campaigns for flash sales

• Display review snippets on product pages to boost conversion rates

Pricing:

The pricing for Yotpo depends on the number of monthly orders.

The starter plan costs $79/mo for 500 orders.

View full pricing

Sign up for Yotpo

PageFly Landing Page Builder — Create high-converting BFCM landing pages with no coding required

Rating: 4.9 (Shopify)

Main benefits for BFCM: Quickly create and deploy professional, high-converting landing pages for Black Friday deals. A/B test different layouts to maximize holiday sales without technical expertise.

PageFly enables merchants to build stunning, conversion-optimized landing pages crucial for Black Friday Cyber Monday success. With its drag-and-drop interface and BFCM-specific templates, you can create compelling pages that turn holiday traffic into sales:

Best features:

• BFCM-Optimized Templates: Ready-to-use designs specifically created for holiday sales

• Countdown Timers: Create urgency with customizable countdown elements for time-sensitive deals

• Mobile Optimization: Ensure your BFCM pages look perfect on all devices

• A/B Testing: Test different layouts and content to maximize conversion rates

• Speed Optimization: Fast-loading pages to handle high BFCM traffic

• Custom Code Integration: Add third-party apps and tracking for enhanced functionality

Key BFCM strategies with PageFly

• Create dedicated landing pages for different promotions

• Use scarcity elements to drive conversions

• A/B test different layouts before the big day

• Utilize countdown timers for flash sales

Pricing:

PageFly has a "pay as you go" plan with $4.8 per published page. There's also a plan with unlimited pages for $99/mo.

View full pricing

Sign up for PageFly

Keep on selling!

These resources will help you set your business up for success during the holiday season:

• Best popup software

• AI tools for ecommerce stores

• Lead generation software and tips

• How to get sales on Shopify [10+ strategies]

• Guide to product recommendations for ecommerce