It’s easy to put most of your energy into getting customers through BFCM. You plan the offers, send the emails, watch the orders come in, and then December arrives. Now you have a lot of first-time customers and a new question: how do you get them to buy again?

I think this is where loyalty programs become especially useful. During BFCM, the discount gives people a reason to make that first purchase. After BFCM, you need a different reason to come back. Maybe they’re close to earning a reward, have points sitting in their account, or can unlock something extra by placing another order.

There are a few ways to use those moments in December. You can reward customers for completing a purchase streak, remind them about unused points, give them a reason to redeem those points on Boxing Day, or simply change the way you talk to them now that the sale is over.

In this post, I’ll walk through four post-purchase loyalty campaigns you can try after BFCM, including when to run them and how I’d approach the messaging. If you’re still figuring out which holiday shoppers are most likely to come back, our post-BFCM retention guide covers that part first.

TL;DR

• Launch a streak/Order Booster campaign (300 points for 3 orders in 60 days) around Dec 8, aimed squarely at the second purchase
• Shift tone deliberately: discount language in November, appreciation language by December, closing with an automated thank-you email around Dec 31
• Send a points-expiry balance reminder timed to land before your January sale: clear balance, clear value, clear deadline
• Turn Boxing Day, historically a slow day, into a redemption event with a “Burn Your Points” promo
• Redemption itself drives spend: members who redeem points spend roughly 25% more than enrolled-but-inactive members, versus about 10% more for active members who don’t redeem (McKinsey)

Why December needs a different tone than November

Think about how you talked to customers throughout November. There was probably a lot of “shop now,” “ends tonight,” and “don’t miss out.” That makes sense during BFCM, but carrying the same language into December can make every message feel like another sale is around the corner.

December gives you a chance to change the conversation. These customers have already bought from you, so you don’t have to keep talking to them like shoppers you’re trying to win over for the first time. You can thank them for their purchase, remind them what they’ve earned, and show them what they can look forward to as a member.

That’s why the BON December calendar shifts from discount language to appreciation. Instead of immediately offering another percentage off, you might thank customers for shopping with you during BFCM or remind them that their purchase moved them closer to a reward or VIP tier. The offer doesn’t always have to be the most interesting part of the message.

This also fits with the approach in our post-BFCM retention guide. Once a customer is showing signs that they might stick around, the goal is to give them reasons to keep engaging with your brand rather than relying on another discount every time you want them to come back.

The streak campaign that encourages a second purchase

One of the hardest purchases to get from a new BFCM customer is the next one. They had a pretty obvious reason to place their first order — Black Friday pricing. By December, that reason is gone.

I like purchase streaks here because they give customers a new goal to work toward. You could offer 300 bonus points when someone completes three orders within 60 days, for example. Their BFCM purchase counts as the first order, so they’ve already started making progress before you introduce the campaign.

Think about how that changes the message you can send. Instead of asking someone to “come back and shop,” you can tell them they’re one or two purchases away from earning 300 extra points. There’s a specific goal, and more importantly, the customer can see how close they are to reaching it.

I’d make that progress the main part of the campaign. “One more order and you’ll unlock 300 points” gives the customer more context than “Earn 300 bonus points,” because it reminds them that they’ve already done part of the work.

Replace the sales pitch with a genuine thank you

By the end of December, your BFCM customers have probably heard enough sales messages. They’ve seen the Black Friday countdowns, the bonus-points offers, and the reminders to come back. Not every email you send next needs to give them another reason to buy.

I’d use one of those messages simply to say thank you. A short holiday or year-end email can acknowledge their purchase, wish them well, and, if it feels natural, mention something personal to their loyalty account, such as the points they earned or the tier they reached.

The important part is knowing when to stop. I wouldn’t add a discount code at the bottom or turn the email into another “last chance” promotion. If you’re thanking someone for being a customer, let that be the whole message.

Will a thank-you email drive as many immediate sales as a coupon? Probably not. But that isn’t really the point. After weeks of asking customers to buy something, one message that asks for nothing in return can make your communication feel a lot less transactional.

Remind customers before their points expire

Points are only useful if customers remember they have them. After BFCM, some of your new members may be sitting on a balance they earned in November without knowing what those points are worth or when they need to use them.

If your points expire, I’d send a reminder before the deadline and make it as specific as possible. Tell customers how many points they have, what they can redeem them for, and exactly when they expire. “You have 450 points worth $22.50 off, and they expire January 15” is much more useful than a generic “Don’t forget to use your points.”

That clarity matters because expiration dates can easily become another hurdle to redemption. Research published by Harvard Business Review found that loyalty program members can lose up to a third of their potential savings because of barriers such as points expiration. If customers have already earned a reward, the reminder should help them use it rather than make them feel like you’re waiting for their points to disappear.

There’s also a good reason to care about redemption beyond clearing unused balances. McKinsey found that members who redeem points spend roughly 25% more than enrolled but inactive members, compared with about 10% more for active members who don’t redeem. So if you have a January sale coming up, timing an expiry reminder around that period can give customers a practical reason to return while they still have something valuable to use.

If you’re seeing plenty of members earn points but very few actually spend them, our guide to why customers don’t redeem rewards looks at the other barriers that may be getting in the way.

Boxing Day: turning a slow day into a redemption event

A “Burn Your Points” promo on Boxing Day, extra value, for example 5% off, when redeeming points that specific day, turns a historically slow post-holiday shopping day into a scheduled redemption event.

The timing isn’t arbitrary. Boxing Day carries real regional weight in UK and APAC markets, and it lands during the natural post-holiday lull when traffic would otherwise be soft. A redemption incentive does the most work exactly when there’s the least competing momentum in the way.

It also reinforces the expiry reminder that came before it. A member who just got a balance reminder now has an extra reason to redeem specifically on the one day redemption is worth slightly more.

The December calendar at a glance

Date	Campaign	Tone	Goal
Dec 8	Streak / Order Booster campaign launch	Progress-focused, momentum	Get the second purchase moving
Mid-December	Tone shift begins across sends	Discount language phases out	Start building relationship beyond price
Before January sale	Points-expiry balance reminder	Helpful, specific	Drive redemption before points lapse
Dec 26	Boxing Day “Burn Your Points” promo	Redemption-focused	Convert a slow day into orders
Dec 31	Automated Christmas thank-you email	Pure appreciation, no offer	Close the tone shift, signal a real relationship

Treat these dates as BON’s calendar recommendation, not a rigid mandate. Flex them to your own traffic pattern and regional mix, particularly Boxing Day’s relevance if UK or APAC customers make up a meaningful share of your BFCM cohort. Once this sequence runs, the next question is whether it worked, which is what the December performance numbers should tell you.

FAQ

When should I launch the streak/second-purchase campaign?

Per BON’s calendar, early December, around Dec 8, works well. It’s close enough to BFCM that the relationship is still warm, with enough runway before the holidays to complete a short streak like 3 orders in 60 days.

Isn’t a points-expiry reminder just a way to trick people into losing points?

It shouldn’t be. Framed well, with a clear balance, clear value, and clear deadline, it reads as helpful rather than manipulative. It’s also what drives people to actually redeem, which is when the real spend lift shows up.

Why send a thank-you email that doesn’t include a discount?

Because every other touchpoint since BFCM has been selling something. One email that’s purely appreciation is what signals the relationship isn’t only transactional, which matters most for buyers who joined for a deal in the first place.

Is Boxing Day worth building a specific promo around?

If you have meaningful UK or APAC traffic, yes. It’s a regionally significant, historically slow shopping day, exactly the kind of moment where a redemption-specific incentive can convert idle points into an actual order.

How is this different from general post-purchase loyalty advice?

This post is the specific December campaign calendar for the cohort BFCM just acquired. General post-purchase experience advice covers order-lifecycle touchpoints, confirmation, shipping, reviews, that apply year-round to any order, not specifically to the holiday cohort or the December window.

A discount got them here. December decides if they stay.

The BFCM sale converts a shopper into a customer. What happens in December decides whether that customer becomes a repeat one. A streak reward that targets the second purchase, a genuine thank-you that isn’t selling anything, an expiry reminder that helps instead of traps, and a redemption push on the one day that needs it most. Together, that sequence does more than any single “come back” email ever could.

P.S. You could set up all four of these in BON Loyalty, the streak campaign, the expiry reminder, and the double-points day promo, automatically, so the December sequence runs without a manual send list.