Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM) inboxes are noisy. The brands that break through aren't the ones yelling louder; rather they're the ones that make each customer feel like the message was made specifically for them, even at scale. Here's how we've seen top CPG brands in food & beverage, beauty & skincare, healthy & wellness, and home, family, & pet leverage personalization across every major channel.

Email: Your Highest-Impact Channel

Personalized product recommendations based on past purchases or browse history, localized send times, and dynamic content blocks tied to loyalty tier or lifecycle stage all make email work harder without adding manual effort. Name and location personalization in subject lines can sometimes help too depending on your brand, as long as it feels natural rather than intrusive.

SMS: Direct, but Easy to Get Wrong

SMS works best for flash sale alerts, shipping cutoff reminders, and conversational flows that feel one-to-one, sent only to subscribers who are truly engaged. VIP check-ins with unique links or early access codes make the channel feel exclusive rather than generic.

Push Notifications for Apps

Inventory alerts ("only 3 left in your size"), early access pings, and back-in-stock notices personalized by past browsing behavior all take advantage of what push does best: real-time nudges that don't require opening an app.

On Your Brand's Website: The Glue Between Channels

Homepage takeovers by segment, dynamic product banners based on browsing history, and exit-intent popups with personalized offers connect the experience a customer had in email or SMS to what they see when they land on your site.

Onsite Personalization Is Only as Strong as the Site Behind It

Dynamic content, segment-based banners, and personalized product recommendations all depend on a site built to support them. If your platform, theme, or page structure can't handle that level of personalization, the strategy stalls before it starts. That's what Val Geisler, our Director of Strategy, and Christine Carforo, our Director of Design, evaluate during our live site audit on September 23rd ahead of the BFCM code freeze. Submit your site for consideration and the chance to win one of five Nintendo Switch 2s from our sponsors Shopify, Klaviyo, Rebuy, Okendo, and PostPilot and a discounted UX Audit and BFCM Roadmap.

Submissions close September 16th. Submit your site for a teardown.

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