🛒 Why Black Friday Feels Like Shopify's Very Own Holiday 😎 (And What Migrating Will Do for You)
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8 min reading time
It's that time again. The Christmas lights are barely up, and retailers worldwide are gearing up for the biggest shopping spectacle of the year. Black Friday and Cyber Monday—once the domain of American department stores with shoppers camping out in front—have become a digital battlefield where online stores fight for every click.
But if you look closely, you'll see something remarkable happening. Every year around this time, Shopify transforms from an e-commerce platform into a kind of festival director proudly presenting its headline act . They roll out statistics like red carpets, showcase success stories like trophies, and let their infrastructure creak under billions of transactions—without a single hiccup.
The weekend that changed everything
Let's rewind to last Black Friday weekend (the one in 2024). While you were probably still recovering from your Thanksgiving hangover (or just having a normal Friday here in the Netherlands), something extraordinary happened in the Shopify world. In four days—four days!—Shopify stores collectively generated $11.5 billion in revenue. That's a quarter more than the year before.
Imagine: at their absolute peak, Shopify stores were processing $4.6 million per minute. Per minute. That's more than many businesses generate in an entire year, and it happened minute after minute after minute. Over 76 million people worldwide entered their credit card information at a Shopify checkout.
But here's where things get really interesting. That $11.5 billion isn't an isolated figure. Worldwide, $74.4 billion was spent online on Black Friday. That means Shopify stores were responsible for about 15% of all Black Friday spending worldwide. One platform. Fifteen percent of the entire world.
Shopify itself is (rightly) more than proud of this, and they let you know.
Why this is more than marketing
Now you might be thinking, "Yeah, those numbers are nice, but Shopify just has good PR." And there's a grain of truth in that. Shopify is exploiting Black Friday like no other. But there's more to it. For Shopify, this weekend isn't just a commercial highlight—it's their annual stress test, their opportunity to show what happens when the whole world comes shopping at once.
Behind the scenes, Shopify processed 1.19 trillion edge requests that single weekend. A trillion, with a B. They ran over 10.5 trillion database queries, with peaks of hundreds of millions of requests per minute. These are dizzying numbers, but they tell a crucial story: this platform is built for the worst e-commerce has to offer.
The Spanish Revolution
Take what happened in Spain, for example. Shopify stores saw a 52% increase in sales during Black Friday, according to a Spanish business newspaper . More than three-quarters of all orders came in via mobile phones. A third of all sales were made across the border—Spanish stores selling to customers in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.
This isn't a coincidence. It's the result of years of investing in precisely those tools that make all the difference during Black Friday. Shopify has designed the weekend in such a way that their platform actually forces you to make better choices.
The toolbox that makes the difference
While other platforms send you into the Black Friday storm with a "good luck with that," Shopify opens up a whole toolbox . Take inventory management, for example. Nothing is more frustrating than running a successful marketing campaign for a product that sells out halfway through. Shopify's app ecosystem is packed with tools to prevent this—automatic alerts via Slack when your inventory drops below a critical threshold, and back-in-stock notifications that notify customers as soon as their desired product is back in stock.
Or look at how they handle order value. Black Friday is all about volume, but the real money lies in average customer spend. That's why Shopify is pushing an arsenal of bundle and upsell apps. With Simple Bundles, you can create mix-and-match deals in an afternoon. With ReConvert, you can test AI-driven upsells that adapt to your customer's behavior. On older platforms, you'd have to develop this kind of functionality months in advance. With Shopify, you can click it together during your lunch break.
AI as the silent force
And we haven't even mentioned AI yet. Retailers who use generative AI during the holidays see an average 9% higher conversion rate. That might not sound spectacular, but at Black Friday volumes, 9% is the difference between a good year and a great one.
For Shopify merchants, AI means they can test dozens of email campaign variations without a whole team of copywriters. It means upsell offers adapt in real time to what works. It means that Syncer® partner Klaviyo knows exactly when that particular customer opens their email and which product they're likely to want.
The Lightspeed/Magento dilemma
If you're reading this from a Lightspeed or Magento environment, you probably recognize the frustration. That one discount rule that can only be adjusted through development. That integration with your email tool that always fails when you need it most. That nerve-wracking question of whether your server will hold up when everyone starts shopping at the same time.
A merchant I spoke with recently—they didn't want to be named—told me about their Black Friday 2023 campaign. They were running on Magento. Everything was prepared, campaigns were up and running, and inventory was in order. Their Black Friday sale went live at midnight. At midnight, the website went down. It took until 2:00 AM for everything to be up and running again. Those two hours cost them an estimated €200,000 in lost revenue.
This year they ran on Shopify. "It felt like cheating," she said. "We didn't have to worry about the technology. We could fully focus on our campaigns, our clients, our strategy."
Shop Pay: the secret weapon
There's another factor that's often overlooked: Shop Pay. This Shopify-owned payment method grew by 58% during the recent Black Friday weekend. Why? Because it reduces the checkout process to a single click for returning customers. One click between "I want this" and "bought."
In a world where 70% of all Black Friday purchases are made on mobile, that one click is the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart. It's the difference between someone impulsively buying while scrolling on the couch, or someone thinking, "Never mind, too much hassle" when they have to reach for their credit card.
Flow: Automation without the headaches
But perhaps the biggest game-changer is something many people outside of Shopify have never heard of: Shopify Flow. Imagine being able to automatically trigger Klaviyo campaigns when a sale goes live. Getting Slack alerts when inventory is low. High-risk orders being automatically canceled, refunded, and restocked.
On other platforms, you need developers for this. Scripts that need to be written, tested, and maintained. At Shopify? It's no-code. Marketing managers can set it up themselves, without bothering a developer.
The European opportunity
Something else interesting is happening. Sixteen percent of all Shopify orders during Black Friday were cross-border. Dutch shops selling to Germans. Belgian shops delivering to France. Spanish shops serving the entire EU.
Shopify has made it so easy that international sales are no longer a "project for next year" but something you can simply do on the side. Multicurrency, local payment methods, automatic VAT calculations—it's all included.
The moment of truth
Black Friday is more than just a busy weekend. It's a mirror. It mercilessly reveals the limits of your platform. If, after this upcoming Black Friday, you think, "This needs to change," that's not weakness. It's wisdom.
Because every year, the bar is raised. Consumers expect faster sites, smarter offers, and seamless checkouts. AI isn't becoming a nice-to-have, but a must-have. International sales are becoming the norm, not the exception.
The question isn't whether your platform can handle this. The question is: do you want to sweat it out every year and hope for the best? Or do you want to be on a platform that treats Black Friday like its own holiday, complete with all the decorations, entertainment, and a cleanup crew for the morning after?
The future is now
Shopify has turned Black Friday into more than just a sales opportunity. They've turned it into a showcase. Annual proof that their platform, their ecosystem, their vision works. That $11.5 billion isn't an endpoint—it's an interim result.
For merchants still on the fence about migrating, the message is clear: Black Friday 2025 is coming. The only question is: will you go through it like you always do, or will you switch to a platform that has made Black Friday its specialty?
Because let's face it. If a platform can process $4.6 million a minute without blinking, if 76 million shoppers can checkout seamlessly, if AI and automation are standard features of the toolkit—then it's no longer a platform. It's a weapon in the battle for the modern consumer.
And that battle? It will be won by those with the best tools. Black Friday has already chosen its winner. The only question is: when will you choose?
