Kait Spong

Strategic Content Marketing Manager

Chaos, caffeine, and lessons from BFCM

Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Peak Season. The Retail Hunger Games.

Whatever you call it, BFCM is on the horizon. 

Though I’ve never experienced the phenomenon directly as an ecommerce marketer, I’ve gained a whole new perspective on the biggest promotional event of the year (for most brands, anyway) from the customers I am lucky enough to chat with at Bloomreach. 

From what I’ve heard, BFCM for practitioners looks a lot like:

☕Coffee as a food group

💬Living in Slack, rent free

😄“We’ll laugh about this later” moments

☝🏽Just one more update” (at 1:47 a.m.)

🏐Survival mode as the only mode

But what stands out isn’t just the chaos — it’s how predictable that chaos can be. 

Every year, familiar pain points resurface during BFCM: manual processes stretched too far, disconnected systems causing broken experiences, personalization that doesn’t feel very personal, and the scramble to patch problems reactively instead of preventing them in the first place.

These “oops” moments are actually stress tests in disguise, for both your team and your technology stack.

They expose where systems buckle, where workflows need reinforcement, and where teams deserve better tools. Because without smarter foundations, even the best strategies can crumble under the pressure.

Let’s be real — BFCM will always come with a some chaos. The late nights, the quick fixes, the broken links… It's part of the game. 

But every last-minute scramble comes with a lesson. And even though the stakes are high and the timelines are short, burnout doesn’t have to be part of your strategy.

Take those lessons from BFCM and turn them into smarter processes. With a little help from AI and automation, you can move past survival mode and actually build something that lasts long after the biggest sales of the year are over.

Outside of my 9-to-5

• What Meal I Cooked for My Chef Partner: Coconut Chicken Curry. I’ve been craving soups and stews, so I thought curry would be a nice even ground. I loaded it up with spices, topped it with coconut milk, and had plenty of garlic naan for dipping. 
• What I’m Watching: Lurker. This is one of my favorite films of the year (and you know I watch a lot of movies). A dark, unsettling, yet somehow beautiful psychological thriller that critiques rampant celebrity worship and unsettling parasocial behavior… oh, and did I mention it has an insane twist? 👀
• What I’m Obsessing Over: Duolingo! French and Spanish student, reporting for duty. 🫡 I finally revived my account from 2020, and I’m staying motivated by my brother and his partner, who keep giving me endless high fives. What can I say? I love a little external validation.

Learn from these BFCM burns before peak season hits

Meet the Bloomreach Burn Book, our not-so-secret diary of the biggest BFCM fails, straight from the experiences of marketers and merchandisers. From clunky site search to accidental email sends, these BFCM “burns” not only frustrate shoppers but also cost brands serious $$$ and practitioners serious headaches.

Each entry spills the tea on what went wrong, why it matters, and how to do better next time. It’s tough love with a side of practical advice — because while we can look back and laugh at our mistakes, the lessons from them are where the real glow-up happens.

👉 Get the all deets here

Always love chatting with y’all, but I’ve got to squeeze in my daily Duolingo lesson — can’t break my friend streak! See you for the October 2nd issue of The Edge.