Cyber Monday marketing: What to send in December

It's easy to treat Cyber Monday as the finish line, but for plenty of shoppers it isn't. In our Cyber Five gap report, 28% of holiday shoppers did most of their holiday buying in December, after Cyber Five (the five days from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday) had ended. Every one of them had already bought online during those five days.

So Cyber Monday marketing has a second job. It's the last day of Cyber Five and the first day of your December plan, and what shoppers did over the five days tells you who to message next.

About the data: Centiment surveyed 1,048 US adults who bought online during Cyber Five 2025 and 295 in-house marketers at US retailers, September 28 to October 5, 2026. Holiday shoppers are the 981 who did holiday shopping, and shoppers who got holiday messages are the 908 who got promotional emails or texts that week. Shopper results are unweighted, and answers about 2025 rely on recall. The report gives every base.

Key takeaways

• 28% of holiday shoppers did most of their holiday buying in December, after the five days had ended.
• 20% of holiday shoppers did most of their holiday buying in early December, while interest from the five days was still recent.
• 46% of holiday shoppers had a deal they wanted sell out or end before they could buy it; in December, send back-in-stock and substitute messages only to the shoppers who showed interest in that item.
• Start measuring with December revenue from journeys that began on Cyber Five behavior.

What is Cyber Monday marketing for?

Cyber Monday marketing is how you close out Cyber Five and start December from what shoppers did during those five days. By retailers’ own estimate, those five days bring in about 48% of holiday revenue, and Cyber Monday is the last of them: the day your Black Friday marketing strategy ends and your December plan starts.

They also leave something behind. What a shopper did over those five days can be recorded against that shopper, and it shows what they wanted with a month of holiday buying still to go. Acting on that record in December is where Cyber Monday meets the rest of your holiday email marketing strategy.

What should a Cyber Monday email say?

A Cyber Monday email should answer what each shopper did over the weekend, starting with the item they kept coming back to or left in a cart. Send it to shoppers who are still deciding, and give any "last chance" message a real deadline: the offer's actual end, or your last order date for holiday delivery.

That keeps the Cyber Monday list shorter than the weekend's, which is the point. More than half of shoppers who got holiday messages cut off at least one brand during Cyber Five. For a shopper near their limit, even a well-timed message can be the one that prompts an unsubscribe.

Mention the item they looked at. Leave out how you know.

Which Cyber Monday marketing ideas carry into December?

The Cyber Monday marketing ideas that carry into December are the ones built on a specific signal a shopper left during Cyber Five. Each signal records what that shopper wanted and where they stopped, so it tells you who gets a December message and what it says.

These five come from the Cyber Five gap report's playbook, and each starts from a different signal:

• Looked at an item or left it in a cart: follow up on that item while they're still deciding.
• Bought the item they kept coming back to: send what else they looked at during the five days.
• Bought from you for the first time: start a second-purchase journey, with no second discount.
• Ran into a sellout: send back-in-stock and substitute messages only to the shoppers who showed interest in that item.
• Struggled on the site (repeated searches or an abandoned checkout): send a recovery message about the item they tried to buy.

Sellouts were common. 46% of holiday shoppers had a deal they wanted sell out or end before they could buy it, and some of them went without. They may still be looking in December.

The first-time buyer journey runs the longest: it starts after the first order is delivered and runs into January. It's the same work as any of the post-purchase journeys that turn first-time buyers into loyal customers, with a head start, since the five days already recorded what they browsed.

How do you time Cyber Monday marketing follow-ups in December?

You time Cyber Monday marketing follow-ups in December by how fresh each shopper's signal is. Interest from Cyber Five is most current in the first week of December, so the follow-ups that rely on it go first; after that, your delivery cutoff, the last order date for holiday delivery, sets the pace.

Windows from the Cyber Five gap report's December playbook. The delivery cutoff is your own last order date for holiday delivery. A readiness score is a score per shopper, built from what they viewed, how often, and how recently, that shows who's close to buying.

Early December still has plenty of buyers in it: 20% of holiday shoppers did most of their holiday buying then. From December 8, use readiness scores to decide who hears first, so the shoppers closest to buying get the most time before the cutoff. After the cutoff, a follow-up on a browsed item can't promise holiday delivery, so the purchase record leads, and the post-order and second-purchase journeys run into January.

How do you measure whether Cyber Monday marketing extended the season?

You measure whether Cyber Monday marketing extended the season by tracking the extended Cyber Five: what the five days produced after they ended. Start with December revenue from journeys that began on Cyber Five behavior, and report it next to the five-day result.

A Cyber Five judged on five days of revenue is likely to be planned around five days next year. The December number needs the message click and the order recorded in one system. When they sit in different systems, it's an estimate. Reading it as a measurement takes behavior analytics and reporting built into your marketing workflow.

December revenue is the first of four numbers, and the Cyber Five gap report has the other three. Together, they show how far the five days carried into December, and next October's plan can start from what they record.

Turn Cyber Monday marketing into a December plan with the Cyber Five gap report

Get the Cyber Five gap report for the full December playbook: what each signal tells you, what to send in response, and all four numbers that measure the extended Cyber Five. Book an Acoustic demo to see December journeys start from what each shopper did during the five days, and how marketers use Optimal Send Hour and Optimal Send Channel to set when and where each one arrives.

Cyber Monday marketing FAQs

Should shoppers who ignored Cyber Five messages still get December emails?

Yes, but send them fewer, on the channel and at the hour they've responded to before, because ignoring five days of messages is a sign a shopper is near their limit. In Acoustic, the Fatigue Index shows who's near their limit, so you can hold back the next send from them.

Should shoppers who bought on Black Friday get Cyber Monday and December emails?

Yes, about the rest of their shopping list: leave out the item they bought, and build December's messages on what else they browsed. In Acoustic, product views are captured as they happen and held in one profile per shopper, so your December follow-up starts from what each shopper looked at during the five days.

Do Cyber Monday follow-ups need SMS as well as email?

For some shoppers: text the ones who opted in and engaged by text over the weekend, and email everyone else. In Acoustic, marketers use Optimal Send Channel to pick the channel each follow-up arrives on, and email, SMS, WhatsApp, and mobile push run from one system.