What Changed on Shopify Before Black Friday 2026?

What changed on Shopify since last Black Friday?

Since Black Friday 2025, Shopify Scripts stopped (30 June 2026), non-Plus stores lost Thank you page Additional scripts (by 26 August 2026), and apps can’t create or update script tags from 1 October 2026 (checked 26 September 2026). Plus stores can stack product discounts on the same item, and sessions are counted differently. Check each before your code freeze.

Shopify’s own Black Friday checklist, 25 preparation steps last updated on 28 August 2026, is the general list. This one covers only what changed on the platform between BFCM 2025 (Friday 28 November to Monday 1 December 2025) and Black Friday 2026 on Friday 27 November: the Friday after US Thanksgiving through the following Monday, as Shopify defines BFCM.

Source: each row links Shopify’s changelog or help page, the €3 duty the European Commission and Shopify’s 26 June 2026 changelog; upcoming dates checked 26 September 2026.

Note: From 15 September 2026 Shopify began gradually rolling out a new admin look, which moved search, notifications and the store picker into the side navigation (changelog). Paths here follow Shopify’s help centre (checked 26 September 2026); your screens may differ during the rollout.

What has stopped working, or is about to?

If last year’s sale relied on Scripts, Thank you page scripts or storefront script tags, rebuild and test the replacement before your code freeze.

Shopify Scripts

Shopify ended editing and publishing of Scripts on 15 April 2026 and stopped them all on 30 June 2026 (changelog); any still published were deactivated (Shopify). Scripts changed line item prices and discounts, shipping methods and rates, and payment gateways (Script Editor), so any of those in last year’s sale that came from a script hasn’t run since 30 June.

Shopify recommends its customisations report to see what Shopify Functions or public apps can replace: go to Apps → Script Editor, click Replace Shopify Scripts in the Replace your Shopify Scripts banner, and read the Customizations report.

Additional scripts on the Thank you page

For stores not on Plus, 26 August 2026 was the deadline to upgrade the Thank you and Order status pages (non-Plus guide), and Shopify upgraded any store that missed it (Shopify). The new pages don’t support Additional scripts for tracking or page customisations (Shopify), and Order status page script tags stopped for these stores the same day (shopify.dev). Plus stores lost both on 28 August 2025 (shopify.dev), before last Black Friday.

Tracking moves to app or custom pixels under Settings → Customer events, and what shoppers saw moves to app blocks. Our guide to the Additional scripts shutdown covers checking and testing.

Script tags

From 1 October 2026, apps can’t create or update script tags, on any API version; existing ones keep running (shopify.dev). On 1 March 2027 Shopify stops injecting script tags into storefront pages, and any feature that depends on one stops working (storefront script tags). Both dates checked 26 September 2026.

The replacement is an app embed block in a theme app extension, or a web pixel for a script that only collects analytics or conversion data. From 1 October 2026, installing an app that uses script tags and ships neither an app embed block nor a web pixel shows a dismissible banner warning that part of the app will stop working. Shopify documents no merchant-facing list of your apps’ script tags (checked 26 September 2026), so ask the developer of each app that adds something to your storefront whether it has moved.

A custom app created in your admin can’t use app extensions; Shopify advises moving its script into the theme, in a custom Liquid block where possible. While a script tag and its replacement both run, the script loads twice, which Shopify says can double-count analytics events. App pixels versus custom pixels explains the pixel side.

What did Shopify switch on by default?

Shopify has switched on three things by default, and each is a decision to make before the sale: data sharing for marketing pixels, B2B discounts and agentic storefronts.

Data sharing for marketing pixels

Since Shopify’s 13 January 2026 changelog, marketing pixels default to optimised data sharing: when a pixel shows zero signals over days or weeks, Shopify pauses its data sharing until new signals appear (changelog). Sharing resumes automatically when relevant activity returns, including referred traffic, and analytics-app pixels can’t be optimised (app pixels). If an ad pixel you use mostly for seasonal campaigns should share data without pausing, set it to Always on in Settings → Customer events and click Save.

B2B discounts

On 23 June 2026 Shopify activated B2B discounts by default on new B2B stores, and automatically on existing B2B stores with no active or scheduled discounts. There, a discount eligible for All customers, Specific customers or Customer segments applies to B2B and non-B2B customers alike unless you assign markets (changelog). If you sell wholesale, open each BFCM discount under Discounts, choose Markets in its Eligibility section and select your Region markets; assigning discounts to markets needs the Basic plan or higher and the new version of Markets (changelog).

Agentic storefronts

Agentic storefronts, active by default for eligible stores, lets customers find and buy your products in AI channels such as ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Meta, which joined on 8 September 2026; our guide to Shopify’s agentic storefronts covers what to decide under Sales channels → Agentic.

What behaves differently at checkout and in reports?

Five changes alter a price a shopper pays or a number you’ll set against last year: stacking product discounts (Plus), how sessions are counted, sales reversals, duties at checkout and tax on US return shipping fees.

Product discounts that stack (Plus)

Since 15 July 2026, several product discounts, and a code with automatic product discounts, can apply to the same item, grouped by discount tags (changelog). Shopify’s help centre limits this to Shopify Plus, requires the two discounts’ tag set-up to be reciprocal, and applies percentage discounts before fixed amounts; an order takes at most five product or order codes and one shipping code (checked 26 September 2026, discount combinations).

Add tags in each discount’s Tags section. Then, in the Combinations section, click +, select Product discounts, change One per product to Multiple per product, and under Combine on same product with discounts tagged click Select tags and choose the other discounts’ tags. An overlap that couldn’t happen last year now can.

Sessions and conversion rate

The Human or bot session filter arrived on 27 October 2025 (changelog), so during BFCM 2025 it was an option. From 21 September 2026 (rolled out 21–23 September), identified bot sessions are filtered out of session reports by default, sessions no longer end at midnight UTC, and some sessions without a pageview, such as a cart link straight to checkout, now count (Shopify). Shopify says using the same Human or bot session setting for both periods doesn’t make sessions from before and after the update directly comparable. Orders, sales and customer counts aren’t changed, and Shopify says to treat 21 September 2026 as a new baseline (changelog). Compare BFCM 2026 with BFCM 2025 on orders and sales, not conversion rate. Our bot traffic guide explains the filter.

Sales reversals and profit reports

On 13 March 2026 Shopify renamed certain Returns fields to Sales reversals and Reversed quantity, covering refunds, returns, order edits and cancellations; the meaning didn’t change, and the old metrics were removed after 1 May 2026 (changelog, sales reports). Check saved reports in Analytics → Reports that used them.

Since 23 September 2026, profitability data includes both duties and other shipping costs on the same order, so values may change in reports such as “Average profit margin by market” and “Profit margin by order” (changelog). Treat earlier profit margins as a different basis.

Duties at checkout

On 24 August 2026 Shopify Managed Markets stopped supporting delivered duty unpaid (DDU) wherever it supports delivered duty paid (DDP), so customers in those markets now pay duties and taxes at checkout; turning Managed Markets off was Shopify’s alternative (changelog).

Since 1 July 2026 the EU has charged a temporary €3 customs duty per distinct item on parcels worth up to €150 bought online and shipped to consumers from outside the EU (European Commission). Shopify says this affects sellers shipping to the EU from outside it, including from the UK, and that Managed Markets and its import tax and duty calculation handle it automatically (Shopify changelog). Sellers to consumers must also declare product identifiers in customs declarations from November 2026, says the European Commission. Our guide to the EU’s €3 customs duty covers both.

Tax on US return shipping fees

From 23 October 2026 (checked 26 September 2026), for merchants using Shopify Tax or Tax Platform, return shipping fees on orders shipped to US addresses are taxed like any other shipping charge; where shipping is untaxed in a state, they stay untaxed. Shopify says to review any manual workaround before 23 October to avoid double-counting tax, and that otherwise no action is required (changelog, return rules). If it affects how you file, ask your accountant.

What’s new for scheduling the sale?

Rollouts, under Markets → Rollouts, publishes theme and checkout changes on a schedule. Use an event rollout, which publishes changes for a set period and then rolls them back (rollout types), instead of switching a sale theme on and off by hand.

Since 5 June 2026 Rollouts can swap whole themes and checkout and customer account configurations, and Shopify’s own example is a BFCM theme for one week with automatic revert (changelog). Its set-up was redesigned on 22 September 2026: you choose timing and traffic percentage, and can combine theme, checkout and customer account changes in one rollout (changelog).

Rollouts need the Basic plan or higher, and experiments the Grow plan or higher. They can’t be applied to vintage themes and can’t change Liquid templates (requirements), so plan such changes separately.

What should you check before your code freeze?

Items 1–3 cover what has stopped working; do them first. Three dates still fall before Black Friday on 27 November 2026: from 1 October apps can’t create or update script tags; from 23 October return shipping fees on US orders are taxed like other shipping for stores using Shopify Tax or Tax Platform; and from November 2026 sellers to EU consumers must declare product identifiers in customs declarations (all checked 26 September 2026).

1. In Apps → Script Editor, open the Customizations report and confirm each customisation has a replacement. Test each at checkout.
2. In Settings → Customer events, confirm purchase tracking runs from pixels and place a test order. Choose Optimized or Always on for each seasonal ad pixel.
3. Ask each storefront app’s developer whether it uses an app embed block or web pixel yet. Move scripts from admin-created custom apps into the theme.
4. In Discounts, open each BFCM discount and check Combinations (Plus) and Eligibility (B2B stores). Test a cart with every combination.
5. In Analytics → Reports, open a sessions report and check the Human or bot session filter. Fix saved reports that used Returns fields, and compare BFCM 2026 with 2025 on orders and sales, not conversion rate.
6. In Markets, open each market that used DDU last year and check its Shopify Managed Markets section is on, then place a test checkout to that market and confirm duties and taxes are charged at checkout.
7. If you use Shopify Tax or Tax Platform for US orders and a manual workaround for tax on return shipping fees, review that workaround before 23 October 2026. The fee itself is set in Settings → Policies → Return and cancellation rules.
8. In Markets → Rollouts, schedule the sale theme or checkout change as an event with an end date.
9. In Sales channels → Agentic, decide which AI channels stay on.

What this list doesn’t cover

It lists the changes in Shopify’s changelog, help centre and developer docs from 1 December 2025 to 25 September 2026 that we judged most likely to affect a BFCM setup. It doesn’t cover your apps’, theme developer’s or payment provider’s own changes; ask each of them.

Rollouts and discount stacking are optional: if last year’s set-up still works, neither needs to change before the sale. If you ran Stocky last year, it is no longer available after 31 August 2026 (Stocky).

Not known (checked 26 September 2026): whether headless and Hydrogen stores now get the Human or bot session filter, listed as coming soon on 27 October 2025, and which stores are eligible for agentic storefronts.

Next, do checklist items 1–3, then Shopify’s own checklist for everything else.

Note: How we made this guide: researched and drafted with AI tools, and every fact checked against the linked sources on 26 September 2026. Spotted an error? Email support@b2bgold.app.