Harnessing the "Other" Social Commerce Marketplaces for BFCM

Normally I'd start with some generationally stereotypical sardonic crack about how Black Friday got its name from being the time each year when retailers finally turned a profit for the year. Which kinda sounds inspirational until you realize it means they were bleeding money for eleven months straight. But instead of ironic wit I’d like to share something that actually surprised me during last year's BFCM aftermath analysis. While everyone else in ecommerce was celebrating their Shopify store conversions and patting themselves on the back, a bunch of merchants were talking up how they’d quietly printed money courting consumers on social commerce platforms that too many of their competitors barely even considered legitimate commerce sales channels.

What do I mean? Well. How’s this for a for instance … TikTok Shop's sales topped $1 billion per month between July and December 2024. Pinterest users spent 40% more during the holiday season than on other platforms. Even Twitch, which most merchants think of as “just a place where people watch other people play video games,” converted those viewers to shoppers then buyers at rates that would make your store’s promotional email response rates weep with envy.

The fun thing about the BFCM rush in early November is that you've probably already optimized your store within an inch of its life. Your custom pricing rules are set. Your bundle offers are configured. Your discount tiers are tested. Your email flows are scheduled. So what's left? Well, a whole universe of social commerce platforms where competition is lighter, consumer attention isn’t as fractured, and algorithms haven't been completely gamed by everyone, and their cousin.

Why Social Commerce Works Differently During BFCM

Now. Before we dive into the platforms, let's talk about the psychological shift that happens during BFCM on social platforms. Because understanding this changes everything about how you approach them. During the regular shopping season, social commerce is about discovery and inspiration. People aren't shopping, they're scrolling, and sometimes they buy. But over the holidays, the entire dynamic flips. Suddenly everyone's in shopping mode all the time. They're opening TikTok specifically to find deals. They're creating Pinterest boards called "Black Friday Haul 2025." They're actually clicking on those shopping tags instead of just scrolling past them.

That shift means tactics that might feel too aggressive normally are exactly what consumers suddenly want. The same prospective customer who'd ignore your product placement in July is scouring the Internet for it in mid November. They want to be sold to. They're literally asking for it. The platforms know this. They adjust their algorithms to surface more shopping content. They reduce the organic reach penalties for commercial posts. They roll out special features just for the holiday season. It's like the refs suddenly forget their yellow cards exist and that handling the ball isn't a violation anymore, and every crappy dribbler suddenly has a massive advantage.

TikTok Shop and Manufacturing Urgency

It’s a cliche to say so, but it’s still true so I’ll start by saying so … TikTok Shop isn't an experimental third party marketplace. It's a full-blown e-commerce ecosystem that processed millions in transactions last year, and during BFCM it turns into a 24/7 shopping frenzy that makes QVC circa 1996 look restrained. The thing about TikTok Shop during BFCM is that the platform actively wants you to succeed. They're not just tolerating commerce, they're pushing it hard. Tok’s algorithm prioritizes shoppable content. The app features flash sales prominently. They even subsidize discounts to juice sales numbers they’ll then brag about in press releases.

So. Forget trying to go viral organically only weeks before Black Friday. The affiliate program is where the real action happens. Creators are actively searching for products to promote because they understand that their audiences will be in buying mode. The flash sale feature is also curiously underutilized. Sellers can schedule time-limited offers that’ll appear as countdown timers directly in feeds. I mean. The simple propulsive psychological power of watching seconds tick away while a well-followed tiktoker demonstrates a product probably can’t be understated.

Live shopping on TikTok during BFCM can be a lot like printing money if you do it right. But "right" doesn't mean professional production values. It means authentic enthusiasm, limited quantities, and special prices that actually end when the stream ends. The platform pushes live shopping content to users who've shown purchase intent, so your consumers are pre-qualified.

User-generated content simply hits differently during BFCM. The #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt hashtag drives more engagement in November than any other month. And consumers showing off their resulting hauls turns into social proof that drives more sales. Like one tactic worth trying would be offering "haul video discounts" where customers who post their unboxing get a code for their next purchase.

Pinterest Shopping and the Power of Planning

The platform’s popular heyday is behind it, but Pinterest is still where a lot of BFCM shopping actually starts, usually around August when someone creates a board called "Christmas Gifts" that they'll frantically reference at 11pm on Cyber Monday. The platform has 570 million monthly active users, and more importantly, 85% of them use Pinterest to plan purchases. Not browse. Not discover. Plan. They're building visual shopping lists months in advance, which means by the time BFCM arrives, they're not really deciding what to buy, they're deciding where to buy it.

Rich Pins pull real-time pricing from your store, so when you launch your Black Friday sale, every single pin automatically updates with your promotional pricing. Scores or Hundreds of pins suddenly showing “44% OFF” without you lifting a finger, is kind of beautiful in its simplicity.

Their Try On feature for fashion and beauty products becomes crucial during the gift-giving season. Consumers are buying for others and can't gauge sizes or colors easily. AR try-on gives them confidence to purchase, which matters when return rates can kill your margin during BFCM. Create gift guide boards in early November, but make them stupidly specific. Not “Gifts for Him” but "Gifts for the Bro Who Grills in Winter” or “For the Soror Who Has 17 Rabbits.” The specificity will trigger something in Pinterest's algorithm that’ll give those boards outsized reach.

Promoted Pins during BFCM will run you roughly 40% less than Instagram ads for the same demographic. The platform isn’t as saturated with advertisers, so your dollar will go further. Plus, Pinterest users have the highest average order value of any social platform at $169 compared to Facebook's $55. Collection ads that showcase multiple products in a single unit work particularly well during BFCM when people are shopping for multiple recipients. They can save entire collections to boards, essentially bookmarking your entire product line to purchase it later.

Even at its peak, way too many of us wrote off Snapchat as that silly app where teenagers send disappearing selfies, meanwhile, even in decline, it’s quietly reaching 477 million users daily who open it an average of 40 times per day. Do I even need to say that that translates into 40 chances a day to put your products in front of the eyeballs of consumers who have money to spend. Snapchat's AR shopping features aren't just gimmicks during BFCM. When someone's buying gifts, but can't physically assess products, being able to virtually try on those Goggins Goggles and see how they look becomes the difference between a purchase and abandonment.

The platform's Countdown Stickers for Stories create visceral urgency. A ticking clock on a Black Friday deal is a loss aversion trigger in ways that email subject lines can only dream about. Users can subscribe to your countdown, getting notifications as the deadline approaches. It's practically a socially acceptable way to stalk your target customers. And again. Snapchat’s audience isn't broke teenagers, and hasn’t gone away, because the news media has moved on.

There are also dynamic ads on Snapchat that automatically retarget users who've interacted with your products, but during BFCM they become even more powerful. The platform increases the frequency cap, knowing users are in shopping mode. Your abandoned cart reminders can follow them into an app they're checking 40 times a day. Snapchat's Collection Ads during BFCM let users browse products without leaving the app, but here's the clever part. The collections can be dynamically generated based on their previous interactions. So someone who looks at red items sees a collection of red products on sale. It's personalization that works.

Twitch Commerce and the Livestream Shopping Revolution

Yes Twitch is technically a “niche” social network, but niche in this context equals roughly 35 million users a day who spend an average of 95 minutes per session on the platform. That's not a typo. Ninety-five minutes of sustained attention in an era when we measure engagement in seconds. The platform isn't just for gaming anymore. Cooking streams, craft channels, “Just Chatting” broadcasts that are basically friendship simulators. Each category has passionate communities that trust their favorite streamers' tastes more than they trust their “actual” friends.

During BFCM, Twitch streamers often do marathon broadcasts. 6, 12, and even 24-hour live shopping livestreams where they're constantly engaging with their audience. And just take a second to read that back. Imagine having a salesperson who could enthusiastically demonstrate your products to an engaged audience for 24 hours straight. That is Twitch during Black Friday.

Because the keyword up there was "engaged" the key to Twitch won’t be finding the biggest streamer. It'll be finding the right streamer. A craft streamer with 500 devoted viewers will outsell a variety streamer with 5,000 casual watchers. The parasocial relationships viewers develop with streamers mean recommendations carry incredible weight. You can even sponsor "subscriber only" giveaways during streams. Viewers need to be subscribed to the channel (supporting the streamer) and make a purchase (supporting you) to enter. The streamer's community feels special, the streamer makes money, you make sales. Basically everyone wins.

The Twitch Extensions system lets viewers browse and buy without leaving the stream, but the real power is in the social proof of chat reactions. When chat explodes with excitement about a product, fence-sitters convert. It's peer pressure as a sales tool. Stream overlays showing your deals create persistent visibility without being intrusive. Viewers see your offers for the entire 95-minute average session. Compare that to the three seconds you get from an Instagram story.

Getting Social Commerce Right During BFCM

• Offer TikTok Shop exclusive bundles that aren't available on your main store. Exclusivity drives platform-specific purchases and the algo loves products that only exist on TikTok.
• Schedule Pinterest promoted pins for 5am-7am. Early bird shoppers check their boards while everyone’s sleeping off turkey. Less competition, lower costs = higher conversions.
• Partner with micro-influencers on Snapchat for takeovers during BFCM weekend. They bring their audience to you, you get authentic content and new followers primed to buy.
• Run Twitch giveaways where entries are tied to purchases. “Everyone who buys during this stream gets 100 entries” creates immediate action and higher average order values.
• Create Snapchat-exclusive discount flash codes that expire in 24 hours. The ephemeral nature of the platform makes time-limited offers feel natural rather than manipulative.
• Build Pinterest boards for procrastinators with names that would normally be too clever by half like "Last-Minute Gifts That’ll Make You Look Thoughtful" or "Best Gifts When You Forgot to Shop Early." They’ll get massive traffic in the final days before Christmas.
• Try TikTok's live shopping during odd hours when US competition is low but international audiences are active. 2am EST on Black Friday is prime time in Asia and early morning in Europe.

No. Getting on these platforms at this late hour won’t save a mediocre BFCM strategy. If your Shopify store isn't converting and your offers aren't compelling, and your fulfillment can't handle volume, adding social commerce to the mix will just multiply your problems. But if you've got your fundamentals down, these “other” channels offer incremental revenue opportunities. Not transformational revenue. But solid, profitable, additional sales your competitors are probably ignoring.

The online retailers who’ll win on these platforms during BFCM won't be the ones with the biggest budgets or the best products. They'll be the ones who understand that each platform has its own culture, its own expectations, and its own weird little quirks that can be leveraged.

Like. TikTok Shop rewards authentic enthusiasm and manufactured urgency in equal measure. Pinterest converts planners who've been planning purchases for months. Snapchat reaches an audience that basically everyone underestimates. Twitch builds communities that buy together.

The question isn't whether these platforms can drive BFCM sales. They demonstrably can. The question is whether you can adapt your approach to meet each platform where it is, rather than forcing them to meet you where you are. Sometimes the biggest opportunities in e-commerce aren't new things. They’re doing the obvious things that everyone else is too distracted to notice.