Millions of Americans across the U.S. reheated their Thanksgiving leftovers on Friday, before hitting the shops or logging online in search of the plumpest, juiciest savings of the 2025 holiday shopping season. However, while online Black Friday sales broke records this year, some experts say it was the consumer who got gobbled up.
Given that Black Friday has transformed from a single-day event into a days-long affair, Melissa Minkow, global director of retail strategy and insights at information technology firm CI&T, said analysts still haven’t grasped the totality of the day’s economic impact.
“I think it’s too fluid and too confusing at this point to limit Black Friday to just one day given how frequently consumers are being offered deals,” Minkow told Retail Dive.
Nevertheless, some statistics have emerged from the post-shopping fog.
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Online shopping dominates Black Friday
Adobe tracked $11.8 billion in online sales on Friday, Nov. 28, signifying a 9.1% increase over the previous year. Business software company Salesforce, meanwhile, pegged U.S. online sales revenue at $18 billion. A separate analysis by MasterCard SpendingPulse suggests that e-commerce Black Friday sales increased 10.4%, compared to 2024.
“Digital traffic has skyrocketed, indicating shoppers are engaging early to see what’s new and build out their wish lists,” Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights and strategy at Salesforce, said in a statement published Nov. 20.
According to Adobe’s analysis, the most popular e-commerce shopping categories remained relatively unchanged between 2024 and 2025, with electronics and apparel, as well as furniture and home goods, filling up those virtual shopping carts. It’s also no surprise that toys, video games and gaming consoles were hot-ticket items.
How did in-person shopping fare?
Much the same could be said for in-person retail sales, where apparel continued to dominate shopping trends and saw a 5.4% increase over last year’s consumer extravaganza.
Overall, however, preliminary reports suggest that in-store traffic was down 3.6%, compared to 2024. That number is more or less in line with an analysis from Sensormatic Solutions’ ShopperTrak Analytics, which found that Black Friday retail visits between 2024 and 2025 decreased by 2.1%.
“The headline isn’t the drop in traffic, it’s what it confirms,” Joe Shasteen, global manager of advanced analytics at RetailNext, told Retail Dive. “The era of the impulse holiday spree is ending. Consumers are in control, and they’re treating Black Friday as one data point in a much longer hunt for value.”
A dip in traffic does not necessarily mean a dip in sales, though. According to MasterCard SpendingPulse, in-store purchases grew by 1.7% this year.
Much ado about nothing
Whether shopping online or in a store, the elephant in the room this Black Friday was a dearth of bargain-busting discounts.
Average discounts across the web sat at around 28%, while electronics discounts shifted from around 30.1% in 2024 to 29% this year. Toys saw a reverse effect, at 28% last year, but 30% this year. Furniture completely stagnated at 19%, and televisions –– long regarded as one of the best Black Friday buys –– saw an incremental shift from 24.3% to 24.2%.
When taken together with inflation and tariffs, resulting in generally higher prices for products across the board, the impact of Black Friday deals was minimal, at best. Adding insult to injury, many of the discounts weren’t significantly different from sales and discounts offered year-round.
“It’s pretty much the deal levels and discount levels that retailers have been offering on various products throughout the year,” Minkow told Retail Dive.
Despite all of that, Americans are still willing to spend, and that’s good news for the retail sector.
“Traffic has been steadily picking up throughout the second half of 2025, kicking off during the back-to-school season, and this week’s strong showing hints this trend is likely to continue throughout the rest of the holiday season,” said Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions. “Black Friday is still expected to be the busiest shopping day of the year as consumers prioritize leveraging peak discount days to purchase big-ticket items on their lists.”
Gustafson added that ShopperTrack Analytics data from 2024 showed that 77% of retailers who “outperformed” during the 2024 holiday season continued to do so into the first half of 2025.
“The momentum and loyalty gained by providing great shopping experiences this weekend can help retailers into the new year,” he said.
AI takes over Black Friday
As with most things this year, the role that artificial intelligence played in helping shoppers navigate Black Friday cannot be overstated. Site traffic driven by AI exploded by 805% compared to last year.
“Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster,” Suzy Davidkhanian, an analyst at eMarketer, told Reuters. “Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.”
