Merchant’s Guide to Profitable Repeat Purchases After BFCM

This blog will explore how to bring repeat purchases after BFCM.

BFCM brings in a massive wave of shoppers but many of them are deal-hunters. They show up for discounts, purchase once, and then disappear. As a merchant, you already know the real profitability doesn’t come from that first sale it comes from the second, third, and fourth purchase.

BFCM offers you a massive advantage over any other sale season as shoppers are actively waiting for it. But the downside is that they may not return once the sale is over. Hence, the bigger challenge is not bringing customers during the sale but making them stay long enough to bring repeat orders.

A loyalty program designed to re-engage BFCM customers after the sale.

The Post-BFCM Silence

The biggest challenge after BFCM is the engagement gap once the sale fever is over. Majority of eCommerce businesses go all out when advertising their bfcm sales. They will send endless emails, run google/meta ads to bring in more footafall. But once the sale has ended they go on a silent retreat. They do not engage with the customers on their website or on other communication channels

Customers who discovered you during BFCM have no built-in reason to return:

• • They came for discounts, not the brand.

• • Their purchase was transactional, not relational.

• • After checkout, there’s usually no follow-up incentive to come back.

If merchants don’t proactively nurture those customers, they slowly slip away. And the result is something every brand feels by January:

Lots of first-time customers but very few repeat purchases after BFCM.

This is a costly affair because acquiring a new customer is significantly more expensive than nurturing an existing one. And, if you run a BFCM campaign every year then it becomes a recurring loss

Which means:

The real challenge after BFCM is not acquiring customers, it’s keeping them.

The Cost of Not Having a Loyalty Strategy

Let’s make the stakes clear.

For many brands, BFCM feels like the finish line when in reality, it’s just the starting point for sustainable growth. The sale rush fades, traffic slows down, and brands that don’t have a loyalty or retention strategy in place suddenly realize how fragile their growth really is.

Without a loyalty program:

• • Your repeat purchase rate remains low.
    You may have acquired hundreds or thousands of new customers during BFCM, but if there’s no structured way to bring them back, they’ll remain one-time buyers.

• • You continue spending more on paid acquisition.
    Every month begins from zero, with marketing teams pouring more budget into ads just to replace lost customers.

• • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV/CLTV) stays weak.
    Even a small bump in repeat purchase rate can dramatically increase lifetime value. Without that, your return on ad spend keeps declining.

• • Your brand becomes dependent on constant discounts.
    Discounts attract attention, but loyalty builds advocacy. If your sales only move when prices drop, you’re eating into your margins and training your customers to wait for the next sale.

On the other hand, the math of loyalty is powerful:

• • A customer who returns just once more can increase profit from that customer by 20–40%.

• • A customer who returns three times becomes 3–7x more profitable than that first order alone.

• • Returning customers spend more per order than first-time buyers, especially when they feel appreciated and rewarded.

A well-structured loyalty program is not a feature or a cost. It is a profit engine. It shifts your revenue mix from being ad-driven to relationship-driven. Every point earned, every reward redeemed, and every referral made extends the customer’s journey with your brand.

Why post-BFCM is the perfect moment to act

Timing is everything.
Right after BFCM, your customers are in an active engagement window, and that’s exactly when your loyalty program should step in.

• • They have a recent shopping memory and your brand is still top of mind.

• • They have fresh interest in your product category and are open to discovering more.

• • Their inbox attention is still active, meaning your emails and notifications aren’t yet ignored.

This is your chance to turn transactional buyers into habitual customers.

Reward them for their recent purchase. Send a follow-up offering bonus points for their next order, referrals, or reviews. Encourage them to explore new collections using the points they’ve earned.

Strike while you still have their attention, because in eCommerce, attention is currency.
A loyalty program ensures you keep earning interest on it long after BFCM is over.

How a Brand Could Turn BFCM Buyers Into a Loyal Community

Imagine that a Shopify brand faces the same pattern every year, massive BFCM sales, then complete silence.
The discount rush ends, the excitement fades, and customers vanish until the next big sale.

Now, picture this brand taking a different route.
Instead of another January clearance campaign, they shift to a loyalty-first post-BFCM strategy.

Here’s how that could look:

1. Reward BFCM orders
Every customer who shopped during BFCM automatically gets loyalty points.
So when the sale ends, they already have value waiting in their account.

2. Send a follow-up campaign
Instead of “More discounts coming soon!”, the brand says: “You’ve earned rewards come see what you can use them for.”

3. Expand earning beyond purchases
The brand makes loyalty about connection, not just transactions:

• • Review a product

• • Follow on Instagram

• • Like Facebook posts

• • Refer a friend

Now imagine the result after 45 days

Customers start returning not because of new sales, but because they already have points to redeem.
Repeat purchases after BFCM rise naturally.
A small but loyal community begins to form around the brand.

No discounts. No FOMO-driven sales. Just value, recognition, and genuine engagement.

Because when customers feel invested, they don’t wait for the next sale they come back because they already belong.

How Loyalty Creates Repeat Purchases after BFCM

The psychology behind loyalty programs is simple:

People don’t like leaving value unused.

If they have points, credit, perks, or rewards waiting, they come back to redeem them.

This is the simplest trigger for repeat-purchases after BFCM trigger.

Here’s what a loyalty program does:

Loyalty Effect	Why It Increases Repeat Purchases
Creates Stored Value	Customers return to redeem points they already earned.
Builds Habit	Shopping becomes familiar and habits repeat.
Connects Emotionally	Loyalty rewards make customers feel recognized and valued.
Encourages Higher Spend	Customers often add more to cart to unlock additional rewards tiers.

A loyalty program changes the post-purchase mindset:

From: “I’ll buy when there’s a sale again.”
To: “I already have points, I may as well use them.”

That is powerful.

How to Activate a Loyalty Program After BFCM (Step-by-Step)

Here’s a clean, focused execution plan.

Step 1: Award Points for BFCM Purchases Retroactively

Give customers their initial loyalty balance immediately.

Example:

• • ₹10 spent = 1 point

• • A ₹1500 order = 150 points waiting to be redeemed

This creates instant stored value.

Step 2: Send a Post-BFCM Rewards Reminder Campaign

Subject line examples:

• • You’ve Got Points Waiting

• • Your BFCM Rewards Are Live. Come Claim Them.

• • You Earned Something Special. Don’t Miss Out!

The message:
You already earned value. Come back and use it.

Step 3: Make Points Easy to Redeem

No complex rules.
No confusing tiers.
No math problems.

Clear, simple, actionable rewards like:

• • Flat $10 off for orders between $100- $500 (Cart raneg redemption rule)

• • Free shipping reward

• • Small gift product reward

Step 4: Add Engagement Activities

Let customers for activities that do no required spending money:

Action	Points
Write a product review	100 pts
Follow on Instagram	50 pts
Refer a friend	200 pts
Add birthdate	250 pts

This keeps them looped in.

Step 5: Keep Reminding Them

One email is not enough.

Use:

• • Reminder push notifications

• • SMS notifications

Retention is repetition.

Your Next Step

BFCM has given you a large pool of first-time customers who have already trusted you once. Don’t let them disappear.

A loyalty program is the most powerful and profitable way to:

• • Bring them back

• • Increase their order value

• • Turn them into repeat buyers

• • And build long-term brand love

The formula is simple:

Give value → Remind → Let them redeem → Repeat purchases after BFCM

Set up your loyalty program now.
Award points retroactively.
Start your first post-BFCM “You’ve earned rewards” campaign.

The revenue you’re looking for is already in your customer base.

You just have to activate it with Flits loyalty.