Black Friday and Cyber Monday fall on the same dates in Canada and the United States, but retailers expanding south should not assume that the same promotional approach will produce the same economics in both markets.

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As Founder and CEO of CanadaWheels and USAWheels, I have firsthand visibility into online sales of wheels, tires and automotive parts on both sides of the border. Our BFCM 2025 experience showed why international expansion requires adapting how promotional growth is measured and managed.

Understanding the US promotional environment

In our experience, BFCM promotional intensity is materially greater in the United States. The event has also evolved into a full week of changing offers, elevated advertising competition and sustained customer demand.

We evaluated the seven-day period from November 25 through December 1, 2025, against the equivalent Tuesday-through-Cyber-Monday period in 2024. Our internal reporting showed that USAWheels recorded a 410% year-over-year increase in website users and a 225% increase in orders. CanadaWheels, our more established Canadian operation, recorded increases of 72% and 35%, respectively.

The businesses are at different stages, so these growth rates should not be treated as a controlled comparison of national markets. They demonstrate the demand we generated and explain why the campaign initially appeared highly successful.

How strong demand can conceal margin pressure

For BFCM 2025, we combined manufacturer-funded promotions with an additional 10% storewide discount funded directly by CanadaWheels and USAWheels. Some supplier programs included offers as aggressive as buy three, get one free.

Depending on the product, supplier program and existing promotional pricing, combined customer savings reached up to 40%. Manufacturers contributed through wholesale programs, while our companies reduced their own margins to fund the additional discount. The advertised savings therefore did not represent a discount funded entirely by the retailer.

We also invested more heavily in paid advertising and absorbed additional shipping expenses throughout the extended promotional period. Together, customer discounts and these incremental expenses reduced our contribution margin by approximately 15% compared with ordinary operating levels.

We estimate that roughly two-thirds of the impact came from customer-facing discounting, with the remaining one-third attributable to higher advertising and shipping costs. Acquiring and fulfilling the additional orders cost more than we had anticipated.

Our mistake was evaluating the event too heavily through traffic, revenue and order growth. Those measures did not show how much remained after discounts and the cost of generating and fulfilling each sale.

For wheels and tires, shipping deserves particular attention because of product size and weight. An attractive selling price must leave enough room to cover actual delivery costs, which can materially change how much discount a product can support.

Measuring growth alongside contribution margin

We do not regret investing in customer acquisition. Google’s 2026 case study of our broader September through November 2025 expansion documented a 63% increase in website traffic, a 61% increase in conversions and a 55% increase in conversion value, while recognizing improved return on advertising spend.

The Google Search and Performance Max strategy helped USAWheels reach customers across all 48 contiguous states within approximately four months. These broader expansion results cover a different period from the seven-day BFCM comparison.

The lesson from BFCM was more specific. Effective advertising can generate growth while an individual promotion still produces weaker economics than expected. Retailers should track contribution after discounts, product costs adjusted for supplier funding, and variable expenses such as advertising and shipping.

Tracking both contribution dollars and contribution as a percentage of sales helps assess whether additional volume supports the business. Return on advertising spend alone cannot capture differences in product margins or fulfillment costs.

Building more precise promotions for 2026

For BFCM 2026, we will plan offers at the supplier, brand and product-category level, based on available manufacturer funding and each product’s contribution margin. A single storewide discount cannot reflect those differences.

Supplier support also needs to be confirmed market by market. Retailers should establish which products qualify, how funding is calculated and when it is received. A Canadian supplier arrangement should not be assumed to cover promotions run by a U.S. operation.

We will establish minimum contribution-margin requirements before campaigns begin and monitor advertising efficiency and shipping expenses daily. That will allow us to adjust budgets and offers while those decisions can still affect the result.

We will also divide the event into phases leading into Black Friday, through the weekend and into Cyber Monday. Each phase provides an opportunity to direct investment toward offers delivering acceptable economics.

Accepting lower margins to acquire customers can be an intentional expansion decision, provided the investment is understood and measured. CanadaWheels has grown every year since its founding in 2012, and we are applying the same long-term growth philosophy to USAWheels.

Traffic, revenue and order growth reveal the scale of demand. Contribution margin helps determine whether that growth is sustainable and repeatable.

Author bio

Saleh Taebi is a Canadian technology entrepreneur and Founder & CEO of CanadaWheels and USAWheels, e-commerce platforms for wheels, tires and automotive parts across North America. Under his leadership, the companies have collectively surpassed $100 million in lifetime sales and sold more than one million wheels and tires.