Prep Your Shopify Tech Stack for BFCM: The Retention-First Checklist (ESP, SMS, Analytics, and Your Partner Ecosystem)

Required Baseline: Shopify + Klaviyo

Shopify (required)

• Theme performance: Lighthouse/Lab speed for PDP/cart. Remove blocking scripts; defer non-essential widgets until interaction.
• Checkout continuity: Ensure deep links from email/SMS restore cart and applied incentive. Test guest + logged-in paths.
• Inventory logic: Back-in-stock rules, pre-order flags, and OOS fallbacks wired to messaging flows.
• UTM governance: Standardize UTMs; confirm they persist from PDP → checkout for analytics integrity.

Klaviyo (required)

• Core events flowing: Started Checkout, Placed Order, Viewed Product, Active on Site; verify test fires and profile attaches.
• Rate-limit headroom: Inspect recent peaks; schedule sends to avoid congestion with SMS cadences.
• Flow preflight: Abandoned checkout, post-purchase education, browse recovery, win-back, subscription + loyalty journeys—ON and QA’d.
• Quiet hours & Smart Sending: Align with SMS; disable Smart Sending where time boxes matter (cart recovery), keep ON where frequency discipline matters.
• Deliverability: Confirm SPF/DKIM/DMARC, dedicated sending domain, and warmed segments; create a BFCM high-engagement segment for offers.

SMS Readiness (Consent, Capacity, and Choreography)

• Consent artifacts: Opt-in language, TCPA-compliant capture, keyword flows (START/STOP/HELP), and recorded consent in profile.
• Number strategy: Verified sending number(s); quiet hours by timezone; escalation plan for reply handling during peak.
• Cart recovery duet: Stagger SMS and email (15–30 minutes). SMS = nudge/clarity; email = proof/details. Deep link to checkout, not home.
• Throttling: Frequency caps across channels; VIPs get fewer touches + more control cues.

Analytics & Event Hygiene (Prove Incremental Revenue)

• Event schema: checkout_started, checkout_completed, subscription_created, points_earned/redeemed, review_submitted, shipment_update.
• Identity: Resolve email/phone to a single profile; reduce duplicate profiles before traffic spikes.
• Holdouts: 10–20% randomized control on cart/browse/win-back to prove lift during BFCM week.
• Dashboard: Real-time recovery funnel, second-purchase rate (30D), add-on attach, unsubscribes/complaints.

Your Partner Ecosystem: What to Check Before BFCM

These are the integrations we see most often in high-performing retention stacks. Use the checks below as your go/no-go gate. (If you need help coordinating vendors, our team can run a pre-BFCM war room and QA sprint—start with Tech Stack Services.)

On-Site Testing & Personalization

• Shoplift — Site + price testing for PDP/cart promos. Check: experiment goals, variant traffic split, and rollback plan.
• Rebuy — Dynamic bundles, cart/checkout cross-sell. Check: top SKUs configured, inventory rules, A/B for “most-paired” logic.
• Zaymo — Interactive/shoppable email modules. Check: fallback rendering, tap targets, and tracking back to product/checkout.
• Digioh — Forms/quizzes/pop-ups. Check: events map to ESP fields; double-check mobile UX and consent copy.

Loyalty, Reviews, and Social Proof

• Yotpo (loyalty) — Earn/redeem events into Klaviyo; VIP tier messaging. Check: points/tier sync + zero-party fields available for targeting.
• Okendo — Reviews + UGC. Check: variant-level review snippets in email modules; Q&A feed active on PDP.

Subscriptions & Post-Purchase

• Recharge — Subscribe & Save + pause/swap/skip flows. Check: upcoming charge triggers, swap inventory rules, and save-on-cancel logic.
• Malomo — Branded shipment tracking. Check: event triggers for “label created / out for delivery / delivered,” + message hooks.

Support, Feedback, and Save Plays

• Gorgias — Helpdesk. Check: macros for BFCM FAQs, SMS reply routing, and “pause/swap” save macros for subs.
• Okendo (again, for post-delivery asks) — Check: review request timing by product type and region; MMS ask for photo/video.

Donations, Community, and Direct Mail

• Inspired Donations — Donation/impact modules. Check: on/off rules by SKU/collection; confirmation messaging in post-purchase.
• PostPilot — Direct mail retargeting. Check: audience feeds (cart abandoners, high-AOV first timers), creative templates, and mail-date cutoffs.

Data & Revenue Intelligence

• Hiro Analytics — Lifecycle dashboards, cohort survival, and second-purchase rate. Check: BFCM cohort flags and daily rollups.
• Tie (Revenue Roll) — Unified revenue roll-ups and channel splits. Check: UTM standards, mapping tables, and holdout views.
• Orita — Data hygiene & enrichment. Check: merge rules, duplicate profile thresholds, and high-risk suppression lists.

Core Platforms (must-have)

• Shopify — Required. Test payment gateways, checkout extensibility, and inventory sync stress.
• Klaviyo — Required. Validate flows, rate limits, and deliverability safeguards (SPF/DKIM/DMARC).

Four-Week Pre-BFCM Timeline

Week −4: Audit & Align

• Confirm required events, consent, and identity resolution. Snapshot deliverability and SMS health.
• Pick your top 3 partner experiments (e.g., Shoplift price test, Rebuy bundle, Malomo order-tracking upsell).
• Create a single “go/no-go” doc with owners and due dates.

Week −3: Build & QA

• Harden core flows (abandoned checkout, post-purchase, browse, win-back). Wire loyalty/subscription triggers.
• Implement on-site modules (Rebuy bundles, UGC blocks) and confirm mobile UX.
• Set up holdouts and UTM templates; verify analytics dashboards.

Week −2: Test & Tune

• Run A/Bs: proof-first vs. offer-first cart recovery; dynamic bundle vs. static; SMS link target (checkout vs. cart).
• Load test email/SMS cadence; confirm reply staffing windows and macros in Gorgias.
• Finalize failovers (ESP queue congestion, SMS fallback, OOS logic).

Week −1: Lock & Launch

• Freeze schema; lock automations; enable frequency caps/quiet hours.
• Publish war-room dashboard (recovery, second-purchase, unsubscribes). Assign daily owners.
• Run a complete end-to-end rehearsal—from PDP view → checkout → tracking page → review request.

Go/No-Go Checklist (Copy/Paste for Your Team)

• ✅ Events firing + profiles resolving (email ↔ phone) with no duplicate spikes.
• ✅ ESP + SMS rate-limits within headroom; sends staggered by channel.
• ✅ Cart/checkout deep links restore items and incentives on mobile.
• ✅ Deliverability (SPF/DKIM/DMARC) + warmed BFCM segment in Klaviyo.
• ✅ Consent & quiet hours confirmed; STOP/HELP flows tested.
• ✅ Rebuy/Shoplift/Malomo modules QA’d on priority SKUs and shipping states.
• ✅ Gorgias reply handling staffed and macro’d; save-on-cancel path working.
• ✅ Holdout groups live for cart/browse/win-back to prove incrementality.

Common Pitfalls (and How We Avoid Them)

• Over-discounting via every channel: Train value, not abandonment. Lead with proof/clarity; keep micro-perks strategic.
• Broken deep links: Homepage dumps kill momentum. Always test mobile checkout links with real incentives.
• Simultaneous blasts: SMS + email at the same minute doubles fatigue. Stagger and let each channel do its job.
• No save plays: If cancel is the only path, churn wins. Make pause/swap the default, and reward non-cancel actions.
• No proof: Remove guesswork—UGC by variant/use-case on PDP, email, and SMS thumbnails.

What to Do Next

BFCM rewards the prepared. Harden the basics, wire the events, and let your ecosystem amplify—don’t complicate. If you want a retention-first partner to orchestrate this sprint, start with our Tech Stack Services, browse all services, or book a retention audit.